Monika Sosnowska: Regional Modernities. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. 10 August 29 September 2013

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1 Monika Sosnowska: Regional Modernities Australian Centre for Contemporary Art 10 August 29 September 2013

2 Biography Monika Sosnowska was born in Rkyi, Poland in 1972 and lives and works in Warsaw. Sosnowska creates large, psychologically charged architectural installations influenced by the changing landscape of her native Warsaw, and came to prominence with the 1:1 sculpture she created for the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2007). This exhibition launches Sosnowska in Australia and follows on from other major projects including Public Art Fund, Central Park, New York (2012), Kunsthalle Nurnberg (2011), Tamayo Museum, Mexico City (2011), K21 Dusseldorf (2010), Herzliya Museum Tel Aviv, Israel (2010); and Museum of Modern Art, Projects Series (2006). Sosnowska represented Poland at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and has twice been invited to present projects in the Biennale s Arsenale (2011) and (2003). Renowned for addressing architecture and space directly in her practice, Sosnowska will respond to the large volume and spatial specificities of ACCA, making a work that challenges the audience s perception, expectations and knowledge.

3 Ideas and Inspiration Sosnowska is inspired by her daily experience of Warsaw, the architecture and urban environment around her. After my studies in Poland I left for Amsterdam for two years of study and I started to travel more. I discovered many things for myself, but I also figured out that that is not enough for my personal adventure with art. After that experience I came to Warsaw and changed my interests a bit. My research became more introverted. With distance, I started to rediscover my own country for myself. I became more interested in my relations to Polish history. I noticed that there were a lot of facts that I didn t know. At that time I also started to work with the Foksal Gallery Foundation, which was a great source of information about the Polish avant-garde. I feel that there is a link between what I am doing and what was happening in the past. I also think that it is a great basis for further development for many artists. I think that the place where an artist lives is influential. The confrontation with reality creates opinions. I wonder if I lived somewhere else, would I create works similar to what I do now? I chose to live in Warsaw because it seemed inspiring to me. There were many reasons why I made that decision, but one of them was Warsaw itself, a very chaotic city growing up very fast on the ruins of modernism, or rather coexisting in a symbiois with them. There are a lot of new buildings but the past is very present as well. MONIKA SOSNOWSKA 1. The Museum of Modern Art ;Projects 83: Monika Sosnowska -August 30 November 27, 2006 Interview between curator Ann Temkin and Monika Sosnowska My research took place without any specific plans, but was rather based on everyday observations made during walks, things I would see through the window of my apartment, and while running errands not unlike any other city dweller. MONIKA SOSNOWSKA 2. Monika Sosnowska Text Lecture, Monika Sosnowska: Regional Modernities Catalgoue, The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art 2013 Photo credit: Demolition site in Warsaw; Seagram building, New York City, designed by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and Philip Johnson 1958

4 Materials and Techniques Sosnowska references certain aesthetics and elements from the architecture of the People s Republic of Poland, including the paint colours predominantly used in the tower blocks, institutions and market stalls throughout Warsaw. The green used often in her sculptures was matched from flakes from stairwells in buildings, as is the mass produced brown found throughout Polish homes from this era, that was meant to replicate wood. She creates small paper maquettes of building facades, staircases and other architectural details, then disfigures them in some way, sometimes dipping them in water to warp the form, or folding and crushing them. The paper sculptures are then reproduced at 1:1 scale by fabricators and technicians. They are produced in the same material as the referenced object, so they have the same solid constructed, engineered forms. However, Sosnowska has transformed and played with them so that now they look like they have been made by accident. She has removed their original function and made them absurd. They are no longer architecture, but abstract sculptures. Sosnowska prefers to reduce the amount of information present in her sculptures, referencing the less is more ideals of minimalism. She believes this technique leaves them open to the potential of imagination. Most of my installations function similarly to architecture or design. I make a project, provide drawings and models, and the specialized people can execute them better and faster than I could. Of course I supervise them and make precise decisions during the production, but generally I keep away from them. My works have to look as if somebody else did them. The walls have to be done by a builder, wooden objects by a carpenter, etc. I would like to keep a distance from the work itself. I don t want to express myself too much. The works are not about my temperament and me. I would like to be a bit invisible. For me the concept is the most important. 1 Monika Sosnowska 1. The Museum of Modern Art ;Projects 83: Monika Sosnowska -August 30 November 27, 2006 Interview between curator Ann Temkin and Monika Sosnowska Photography: Monika Sosnowska

5 Curatorial Rationale Monika Sosnowska s sculptural interventions activate spaces, making a new atmosphere in them that is strange and disorientating. In her installations we become aware of the experiential qualities of the space itself, as well as architecture s role defining and regulating both our movement and habitation of other spaces. Sosnowska has spent many years observing the transformation of her hometown of Warsaw, its changing political and social conditions and expression of these in its built environment, from the harshly prescriptive framework of Soviet block modernism to the hysteria of a contemporary capitalist makeover. She pulls architectural details from this landscape of stagnation, destruction and rebuilding, and reconstructs them as sculpture. (1) These replicas of ubiquitous, mundane and the least heroic of architectural forms are subjected to a particular aesthetic treatment, and once relieved of their functionality, gain a new status somewhere between relic and monument. In her exhibition at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Sosnowska brings together four elements in this expanding language of sculpture: corridor, wall, screen and façade. Charlotte Day, Associate Curator, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art 1 Over the course of her practice Sosnowska s focus has extended beyond the specific geography of Eastern European, looked to built environment in Mexico and Detroit amongst other cities Photography: Andrew Curtis

6 Map of galleries Gallery 4 Gallery 2 Gallery 2 Gallery 1

7 Gallery 1 Façade 2013 painted steel courtesy the Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow In 2012, Sosnowska remade the glass curtain wall of the wellknown Bauhaus design-school building, reproducing the intricate detail of its frame, including the specially designed hardware that allowed for the windows to be opened up and folded back to the wall, to facilitate an uninterrupted view outside. As she describes it, this was a difficult structure to play with, or to attempt to alter the integrity of the design in some way. (3) performative aspect inherent in its remaking that gives Façade its particular character. It is possible to imagine the ageing curtain wall that could only ever just cling to a side of the building. Easily peeled away, its inherent lightness and weakness become obvious. Here, the hanging façade literally hangs in the space, contorted, folded over and in on itself, its geometry totally compromised. And yet this mangle of velvety black painted steel, seemingly retrieved from its likely destiny as scrap metal, has a powerful presence in the gallery space. Sosnowka s sculptures have a habit of doing this, catching us of guard and affecting us in surprising ways. Charlotte Day Façade (2013), on the other hand, is based on the impoverished version, the mass-produced curtain wall as it proliferated internationally and particularly in Poland in the 1960s, during a period of economic downturn and as a cheap building solution. Meticulously reconstructed by the artist, this monumental Façade has less of the intricate design of the Bauhaus original, and could be more easily bent, folded and hung like a carcass in the gallery. As typical of Sosnowka s sculptures, it is the Photography: Andrew Curtis

8 Gallery 2 Screen 2012 painted steel courtesy the Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow Screen has become a thin surface treatment, caught up in the transformation of cities and economies. Charlotte Day Most often working at 1:1 scale Sosnowska overlays one architecture onto another, in the process creating a sense of instability and movement between the two. Her Screen (2012) is a fabricated replica of a steel frame of the type of shopfront installed at the street level of tower blocks. In contrast to the architecture of the floors above it, the design of such facilities mimics vernacular shopfronts and taps into a nostalgia for another era and type of streetscape. Like Wall, Sosnowska s Screen appears to have been folded up and partly unfolded, yet its zig zagging metal form works differently to that of Wall, suggesting a structure in a state of flux. Positioned along a short wall of the gallery, where it fits neatly, the set-like quality of Screen and its lack of groundedness come into play. Screen is a street prop in the context of both tower block housing and the gallery. Once something that defined town and city streetscapes, and the front of small businesses and local economies, the shopfront of Photography: Andrew Curtis

9 Gallery 3 Corridor 2013 courtesy the Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow Sosnowska has made a number of corridor works that may be entered but do not necessarily lead anywhere. She has transformed large gallery spaces into labyrinths of uniform enclosed corridors that skirt around the space, eventuating in a disorientating experience, or corridors that shrink in size and become increasingly difficult to move through. As transitional spaces between one location and another, corridors are a predetermined form, ostensibly non-places without particular significance or interest. But in Sosnowska s corridors the logic behind the design of such circulatory systems is exposed. In them we feel the imposition of bureaucratic and regulatory systems, the compartmentalisation of space and of people too, that results in endless stretches of corridor. sliver, it is impossible to walk through and only just big enough to see down its institutional green walls, punctuated by thick cream painted doors with opaque patterned glass panes, and bright fluorescent strip lights. Slightly ajar, the doors allude to he possibility of lives lived behind them. Yet Corridor is impersonal, standardised and institutional, like any corridor in a large housing block, school or administrative building. It is a space for moving and distributing people but not a space to be enjoyed by people. By being made inaccessible and removing its core function, Sosnowska s reduced and restricted corridor becomes an imaginary or metaphoric space, a Kafkaesque corridor of anxious dreams in which we fear being trapped in and never being able to move forward. Corridor (2013) at ACCA is the first of her corridors to be able to be viewed from both its ends. Contracted to a 25-centimetre wide Photography: Andrew Curtis

10 Gallery 4 Wall 2013 concrete, paint courtesy the Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow Sosnowska is not the first artist to consider the corruption of Le Corbusier s modernist housing project ideals through their regional translations across the world. But tower blocks have been an important recurring reference in her work, reflecting on the context in which she lives and works and their adoption as a widespread social housing solution throughout Eastern Europe, as well as their more recent ideological and physical demise. Relegated to the furtherest corner of ACCA s four galleries, Wall (2013) is a formed concrete room that sits like a ruin, an uninhabitable remnant of another building, that can be walked around and peered into. Wall appears to have been subject to some kind of a compression that has caused its walls to fold in on themselves. This folding process is at odds with the apparent solidity of its concrete construction. The dimensions of the room recall thousands of similar rooms, located one on top of another and next to each other in ordinary tower blocks built to file people within. While the rough unfinished concrete exterior of the room connects it to other architectures, such as the bunker and monolithic minimalist sculpture, the interior continues the half-painted green walls featured in Sosnowska s Corridor and widely applied to institutional and residential buildings across Poland. (2) Again, the reference is to a standardised, prefabricated, mass-produced unit of space. Unlike the corridor, you can enter this cell-like room. Even without a ceiling, it is a confining and oppressive space. The footprint is small, the concrete is heavy and with its concertina walls, space in the room is at a premium. In Australia where we are generally used to a luxurious amount of space the proportions of the room are unfamiliar. Our eyes scour the room for the possibility of more space to expand into, and as a distraction from the feeling that the walls may be closing in on us Charlotte Day Photography: Andrew Curtis

11 Curriculum Links & Activities PRE-VISIT DISCUSSIONS What is the difference between architecture and sculpture? Does it matter if a technician, craftsperson or fabricator creates the work for the artist? Can a work of art that does not last really be considered art? Should the audience be immediately aware of the artists intention? AT ACCA ACCA s FREE education programs mean that students will engage in theory, language and practice while visiting the exhibition. For the Monika Sosnowska exhibition, students may participate in the following programs: THINK Use contemporary art as the stimulus for philosophical dialogue and search for meaning in our THINK workshop. Collaborative inquiry is used to investigate the concepts, symbolism and themes students have wondered about in the exhibition. Experience contemporary art as a mode of thinking, and ACCA as an ideas laboratory. MAKE Try experimenting with materials and techniques in a similar way to Monika Sosnowska. Create a small paper structure and then distort it with water, folding and adhesives, then place it inside the ACCA model and photograph your installation. TALK Discover Monika Sosnowska s sculptures and installations with a guided exhibition tour from AC- CA s qualified Education staff. Key themes are explained and tours are tailored to suit all year groups and subjects. Photography: Monika Sosnowska

12 Post-Visit VCE Art & Studio Arts Questions How has Sosnowska used formal art elements such as line, colour, shape, form and space in her work? How do these qualities contribute to the interpretation and experience of her work? Describe the techniques and processes Sosnowska uses in the creation of her artworks. How does Sosnowska s use of technicians and fabricators in the production of her work challenge or reflect artistic or social traditions? Compare and Contrast Sosnowska s works at ACCA with Robert Morris untitled felt (1967-8) and Labyrinth (1969) sculptures. Describe the stylistic qualities of Sosnowska s work. What other artists or art movements might the work relate to? Describe how the physical placement and experience of Sosnowska s sculptural installations contributes to interpretation or messages or found in the work. What might be Sosnowska s intention in deliberately leaving a lot of space around her work? What relationship does Sosnowska s work have to her life and experiences? How have historical and contemporary events shaped Sosnowska s intentions? Robert Morris, Tate and Guggenheim collection

13 Glossary Of Art Terms Internationalism Modernism Bauhaus is a German expression, meaning house for building. In 1919, the economy in Germany was collapsing after a crushing war. Architect Walter Gropius was appointed to head a new institution that would help rebuild the country and form a new social order. Called the Bauhaus, the Institution called for a new rational social housing for the workers. Bauhaus architects rejected bourgeois details such as cornices, eaves, and decorative details. They wanted to use principles of Classical architecture in their most pure form: without ornamentation of any kind. The term International Style was applied to the American form of Bauhaus architecture. Constructivism A movement in modern art originating in Moscow in 1920 following World War I and characterized by the use of industrial materials to create abstract, nonrepresentational paintings or sculpture. The belief of art for art s sake was dispensed with and in its place an emphasis on the importance of art for social purposes, it aspired to bring art into everyday life. Constructivist art was closely allied with the De Stijl (Holland) and Bauhaus School (Germany) movements both influenced by the development of art, architecture and industrial design. Minimalism Is a term used to describe paintings and sculpture that thrive on simplicity in both content and form, and seek to remove any sign of personal expressivity. The aim of Minimalism is to allow the viewer to experience the work more intensely without the distractions of composition or theme. From the 1920s artists such as Malevich and Duchamp, produced works in the Minimalist vein but the movement is known chiefly by its 1960s and 1970s American exponents such as Robert Morris, Dan Flavin, Ellsworth Kelly and Donald Judd. Minimal Art relates to Conceptual Art in the way the finished work exists merely to convey a theory. Conceptualism Leading conceptual artists 1960s and 1970s included Sol Le Witt and Joseph Kosuth, both exemplified the conceptualist notion that genuine art is not a unique or valu- able physical object created by the physical skill of the artist - like a drawing, painting or sculpture - but instead is a concept or an idea. Le Witt attached great importance to the primacy of the idea stating, all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. His attitude can be illustrated by the fact that many of his works can be constructed by anyone who follows his written instructions. FURTHER READING Monika Sosnowska, Domus Magazine Projects 83: Monika Sosnowska, The Museum of Modern Art. August 30 November 27, Interview between curator Ann Temkin and Monika Sosnowska eo_event_asset_publisher/ean5/content/monika-sosnowska Parkett, Volume 91, 2012 Parasites by Brian Dillon Page 22 The Cabinet of Dr Sosnowska by Francesco Bonami Page 34 The Liquid Modernity of Monika Sosnowska s Sculptures by Joanna Mytkowska Page 47 html

14 Bookings and Enquiries ACCA s free education programs are available for Primary, Secondary and Tertiary groups between 10am - 4pm from Monday to Friday. Maximum 25 students per group for THINK and MAKE programs. Bookings are required for both guided and self-guided School and Tertiary groups. School or Tertiary groups arriving without a pre-booking may be required to wait to see exhibitions. Please be considerate of other classes and the public in gallery spaces. Contact education@accaonline. org.au or call (03) if you would like to bring a Primary, Secondary, Tertiary or community group.

15 111 Sturt Street Southbank Victoria 3006 Australia Tel Fax accaonline.org.au