Zuzanna Janin (Online Gallery)
CRITIC’S STATEMENTS | GALLERY | BIO | SOLO EXHIBITIONS | GROUP EXHIBITIONS | INTERNET WORK
Whoever she is, Zuzanna uses herself as an eye with which to explore reality. She is her own instrument, and sees herself as such. (…) Only when the emotions have been portrayed can a study of identity begin. That is the next stage in her research program, for Zuzanna, like any true scholar, is systematic and conscious of her actions. She will begin by cataloguing identities, sensing in this some kind of order. Such is her present preoccupation. The present always seems to mark the end of all inquiry: in fact, all inquiry inherently unfolds in the here and now. By portraying all the people she has ever met, Zuzanna will reveal her potential to the full.
In boxing, the corners out of which the boxers get up and fight are always different colours: the colours of two rivals, skirmishers of opposing armies. Zuzanna’s ring is completely white. The fighter’s territories are undefined. There is no war-paint adorning the corners, for Zuzanna’s ring is not a theatre of military operations. War means tactics and games. But no tactical objectives are accomplished in Zuzanna’s ring, nor can there be any game here since the precondition of all games – the victory of one of the participants – is out of the question. In Zuzanna’s work, a woman and a man, the artist and professional boxer, are pitted against each other in identical white costumes and red training gloves. Their identical uniforms seem to suggest that both are on the same team. Zuzanna, a featherweight it would appear, is cast against a professional heavyweight boxer. The actual disproportion of strength does not matter: we are operating in arbitrary media space. A boxing champion is a TV celebrity, a semi-fictional character for most of us. Zuzanna likewise assumes the stance of a media heroine. Xena the Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lara Croft – pistol-packing daredevil, Trinity – Matrix martial-arts mistress, cybercop Motoko and other Girls have gotten us used to the idea that women in pop culture know how to stand up for themselves. Size and weight are irrelevant – everyone’s a fighter here. Zuzanna shows that struggle is a condition, a timeless state, a duel with no gongs, no rounds, and no outcome. There will be no victor nor vanquished here. The man and woman in Zuzanna’s film do not fight one another, they fight together. It’s about the process and the relationship itself.
Zuzanna Janin (Warsaw, Poland)
zuzannajanin@wa.home.pl
2002
“ILoveYouToo/JaCiebieTe?, BWA, Jelenia Góra, Instytut Polski, Pary?
2001
” Moja Pami´c / My memory”, Ba?tycka Galeria Sztuki Wspó?czesnej, S?upsk
“ILoveYouToo/JaCiebieTe?, Galeria Zach´ta, Warszawa; Galeria Kronika, Bytom, Galeria Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków
2000
“Homefuckingiskillingprostitution”, A.v. Scholz Galerie, Berlin
1999
“Zjedz mnie / Eat Me”, Galeria Starmach, Kraków
“Co za piek?o, co za raj, cd. / What Hell, What Heaven, cont’t”, Centrum Sztuki Wspó?czesnej / Center for Contemporary Art, Warszawa, (cat.)
“Synagoga, Center for Contemporary Art, Trnava, (cat.)
“Love Me / Miluj Me”, Galeria Priestor / Space for Contemporary Art, Bratislava
1998
“Matkobójczyni (zagryê mnie) / Matricide (Savage Me)”, Galeria Manhattan, ¸ódê (cat.)
“Co za piek?o, co za raj / What Hell, What Heaven”, Galeria Foksal, Warszawa, (cat.)
1997
“Touch Me”, A.v. Scholz Galerie, Berlin
1995
Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, (cat.) Galeria Foksal, Warszawa (cat.)
1990
“Prace / Works”, Galeria Dziekanka, Warszawa, (cat.)
Group Exhibitions
2002
“Transkulturowe Wizje”, Zamek Ksià?àt Pomorskich, Szczecin
“Public Space”, Kunstahalle Wien, Wien
2001
“In between. Art from Poland 1945-2000”, Chicago Cultural Center
“Negocjatorzy sztuki. Wobec rzeczywistoÊci”, Galeria Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow
“Kobieta o kobiecie”, BWA, Bielsko-Biała, Galeria Kronika, Bytom
“Na wolnooÊci / W koƒcu”, Galeria Królikarnia, Warszawa; Muzeum Narodowe, Szczecin
“I Am My Car”, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden (kat.)
“Triennele of Small Sculpture”, StadtFellbach Kulturamt, Fellbach (kat.)
“Maskarady”, Inner Space, Poznaƒ
“Kolekcja CSW”, Centrum Sztuki Wspó?czesnej, Warszawa
2000
“Negocjatorzy sztuki. Wobec rzeczywistoÊci”, Centrum Sztuki Wspó?czesnej, Gdaƒsk, (cat.)
“L’autre moitie de l’Europe”, Jeu de Paume, Paris
“Art a Centreeuropa 1949-1999”, Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona
“Postindustrial Sorrow”, Nassaulsher Kunstverein, Wiesbaden
“After the Wall”, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
“Infreihert / Endlich”, Baden Baden Kunsthalle, Baden Baden
“If you want to quit, as me how”, Whitechapel Gallery, London
“Scena 2000”, Centrum Sztuki Wspó?czesnej, Warszawa
1999
“Sztuka polska koƒca-poczàtku wieku / Polish Art of End-Beginning of Centuary / Polskoje iskustwo konca-nacza?a wieka”, Mane?, Sankt Petersburg, (cat.)
“Trace, The Liverpool Biennial”, Liverpool, (cat.)
“After the Wall”, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, (cat.)
“Aspekte Positionen”, Museum moderner Kunst, Wien, (cat.)
1998
“Genius Loci”, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, (cat.)
1997
“Presently”, Galerie Menotti, Baden bei Wien
“Schwere-Los Skulpturen”, Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art,Budapest, (cat.)
1996
“The Palace of Good Luck”, Burnett Miller Gallery, Los Angeles
“Schwere-Los Skulpturen”, OO Landesgalerie, Linz, (cat.)
1995
“Rysa w przestrzeni”, Galeria Zach´ta, Warszawa, (cat.)
“Beyond Belief”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, (cat.)
1994
“Wanas ’94”, Wanas, (cat.)
“Der Riss im Raum”, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, (cat.)
1993
“Sonsbeek ’93”, Arnhem, (cat.)
1992
“The 3rd International Istanbul Biennal”, Istanbul, (cat.)
“The Boundary Rider, The 9th Biennale of Sidney”, Sydney, (cat.)
1991
“Germinations 6”, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Budapest Galeria, Budapest, (cat.)
1990
“Expressions, Point East”, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow
Internet Work
2000
“Art-Game Memory”, http.//free.art.pl/memory
“ILYT”, http://www.csw.art.pl/links
