Artur Żmijewski

Artur Żmijewski (born 26 May 1966 in Warsaw) is a Polish visual artist, filmmaker and photographer. During the years of 1990–1995 he studied at Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He is an author of short video movies and photography exhibitions, which were shown all over the world. Since 2006 he is artistic editor of the "Krytyka Polityczna".

His solo show If It Happened Only Once It's As If It Never Happened was at "Kunsthalle Basel" in 2005, the same year in which he represented Poland at the 51st Venice Biennale. He has shown in Documenta 12 (2007), and Manifesta 4 (2002); Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2012, 2005); National Gallery of Art Zacheta, Warsaw (2005); Kunstwerke, Berlin (2004); CAC, Vilnius (2004); "Moderna Museet", Stockholm (1999). Earlier this year he presented Democracies at "Foksal Gallery Foundation", Warsaw; and is making new work for The Museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York as part of their Projects’ Series in September 2009. "Cornerhouse", Manchester, presented the first major UK survey of Zmijewski's work, spanning his practice from 2003 to the present day, from November 2009 – January 2010. He was the curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale in 2012 – of which he opened the curatorial process as a collaboration.

Berek (The Game of Tag), 1999 has repeatedly brought controversy. The piece depicts nude adults playing tag in the gas chamber of the Stutthof concentration camp.

Notable works

Movies Note: Titles in brackets are non-official English titles. Ja i AIDS (Me and AIDS), 1996 Ogród botaniczny ZOO (ZOO, The Botanic Garden), 1997 Oko za Oko (An Eye for an Eye), 1998 Berek (The Game of Tag), 1999 KR WP, 2000 Sztuka kochania (An Art of Love), 2000 Karolina (Caroline), 2001 Na spacer (Out for a Walk), 2001 Lekcja śpiewu 1 (Singing Lesson 1), 2001 Lekcja śpiewu 2 (Singing Lesson 2), 2003 Pielgrzymka (Pilgrimage), 2003 Nasz śpiewnik (Our Songbook), 2003 Itzik, 2003 Lisa, 2003 80064, 2004 Rendez-vous, 2004 Powtórzenie (Repetition), 2005 Wybory.pl, 2005 Them, 2007 Democracies, 2009 Blindly, 2013 (Biennale di Venezia) Realism, 2017 Compassion, 2022

Photographies 40 Szuflad (40 Drawers), 1995 Gestures, 2019 Refugees/Cardboards, 2022

Solo exhibitions Tożsamość Dzidzi, 1995, Galeria Przyjaciół A.R., Warsaw, Poland Śpiew sardynek, 1996, Galeria a.r.t., Płock, Poland Oko za oko, 1998, Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland Ausgewahlte Arbeiten, 1999, Galeria Wyspa, Gdańsk, Poland Berek, 2000, Galeria a.r.t., Płock, Poland Na Spacer, 2001, Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland Lekcja śpiewu 1 / Lekcja śpiewu 2, 2003, Fundacja Galerii Foksal, Warsaw, Poland Singing lesson 2, 2003, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany Singing lesson, 2003, Wilkinson Gallery, London, Great Britain Artur Żmijewski. Selected Works 1998–2003, 2004, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, US Artur Żmijewski, 2004, Centre d'art Contemporain de Bretigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France Powtórzenie, 2005, Polski Pawilon na LI Międzynarodowym Biennale w Wenecji, Venice, Italy Artur Żmijewski, 2005, Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland Artur Żmijewski, 2009, Cornerhouse, Manchester, United Kingdom Artur Żmijewski, 2010, Trade (gallery), Nottingham, United Kingdom Artur Żmijewski - When Fear Eats the Soul, 2022, PAC - Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy

Group exhibitions

Documenta 2007, Kassel, Germany Double Agent 2008, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, BALTIC, Gateshead, Warwick Arts Centre, Warwick 11th International Istanbul Biennial 2009, Istanbul