Peter Zizka

Peter Zizka (born 16 December 1961) is a German designer and conceptual artist.

Life

Zizka is the younger son of politician Walburga Zizka (Christian Democratic Union of Germany) and Cyril Zizka, of Czech descendant. Initially trained as an art restorer, Zizka studied graphics, design and visual communication at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach in 1983. He also attended the Städelschule in Frankfurt and studied under Bruce McLean, among others.

In 1989, together with Achim Heine and Michael Lenz, Zizka founded the design company Heine/Lenz/Zizka. In the early 1990s, Zizka and Olaf Rahlwes explored the interface between art and design with their MEMORY conceptual art exhibitions.

He then created The Virtual Minefield, a floor-based installation spanning art and design. Zizka won the gold award from the European Art Directors Club for The Virtual Minefield. It was shown at the Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Foreign Office in Berlin and the Hygiene Museum Dresden among others.

In 2008, Zizka won the design competition for the Kiel Week corporate design, following the likes of Wim Crouwel (1998), Fons Hickmann (2002), and Klaus Hesse (2006).

In 2010 he started an art project in Burundi about the weapons of the Hutu Tutsi conflict. In 2011, he received the fellowship of the Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo.

Zizka writes about design for the Swiss Bilanz magazine and is a freelance curator for the Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt.

Zizka works and lives in Frankfurt am Main und Berlin.

Curated exhibitions celebrations of 25 years German reunification, typographic Installation of Peter Zizka on the St. Paul's Church, Frankfurt 2016

»Stefan Sagmeister: The Happy Show«, Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt. This exhibition was originally organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and curated by Claudia Gould. »New Everything! A Century of New Typography and New Graphic Design in Frankfurt am Main«, together with Prof. Dr. Klaus Klemp, Prof. em. Friedrich Friedl and Matthias Wagner K, Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt.

Selected solo and group exhibitions 1997 Memory with Olaf Rahlwes, Kunst Halle St. Gallen, St. Gallen.(Further exhibitions of the Memory-Group from 1985-1994 include Fisherman's Studios, London, Kunstraum Konstantin Adamopulos, Frankfurt, Galerie AK, Hans Sworowski, Frankfurt, Galerie Lukas & Hoffmann, Berlin, Galerie Single 74, Amsterdam, Galerie Vorsetzen, Hamburg und Galerie Schneider, Konstanz.)

2004 The virtual Minefield, Auswärtiges Amt, Lichthof, Berlin

2005 Lew Kopelew Forum, Cologne De soldaat die nooit slaapt, Kunsthal, Rotterdam The virtual Minefield, Stadthalle (Freiburg im Breisgau), Freiburg The virtual Minefield, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Frankfurt

2009 War and Medicine, German Hygiene Museum, Dresden

2011 Festa del‘ estate, German Academy Rome Villa Massimo, Rome Symbiosis – 1.5 Tons of Global Entanglement, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe

2012 Abwehr. Überlebensstrategien in Natur, Wirtschaft, Politik und Alltag, Stiftung Charles und Agnes Vögele, Zürich-Pfäffikon Night of the Villa Massimo, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin

2013 For a mine-free world, United Nations, Main Gallery, New York Open View, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden Symbiosis - 1,5 Tonnen globale Verwicklung, Kunsthalle E-werk, Freiburg

2015 Favourites. Favourite pieces from the private collections of Beckers and Landau, Galerie Braubachstrasse9, Frankfurt Secret Compartments, Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt

2016 Under Arms. Fire & Forget 2, curated by Ellen Blumstein, Dr. Daniel Tyradellis und Matthias Wagner K, Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt

Works MEMORY 1-24 Der Frankfurter Bankstuhlgang (performance) Bois de Boulogne (fotoinstallation) The Virtual Minefield (installation) IPRAY (2006) Outliner (2008, installation) Symbiosis/Burundi (2010/11, installation) constructed from weapons which have been rendered unusable