RIDING THE CREST OF A HIGH AND BEAUTIFUL WAVE. ART AS A STATE OF MIND
Les Arts Incohérents (Alphonse Allais, Mey-Sonier), Michael Craig-Martin, Tom Gould, Justyna Gryglewicz, Stano Filko & Alex Mlynárčik, Ramon Haze (Andreas Grahl & Holmer Feldman), Krõõt Juurak, Flo Kasearu, Martin Kippenberger, Lo Lifes (Rack-Lo), Kud Ljud, Ana Prvački, George Psalmanazar, Man Ray / Marcel Duchamp, Aneta Rostkowska, John Smith, Hunter Thompson, Karl Valentin, Orson Welles, What Remains Gallery, Jakub Woynarowski and others
24 September — 18 December 2022
Opening: Fri 23 September, 7 p.m.

Opening with performances by Hubert Gromny, Krõõt Juurak, Simone Karl and Olof Olsson.

Using parasite art institutions, nomadic art collections and almost-existent exhibitions, gonzo curating is an independent and rebellious form of challenging established artworld structures in the times of ecological, economic and political crisis. Conceived as a process of appropriation by the ones that are not in power, gonzo creates semi-fictional narratives around the sensual layers of experience. The exhibition is an attempt to classify and order various gonzo curating practices. A diagram, inspired by Alfred H. Barr’s famous infographic depicting the roots of cubism and abstract art, organizes these activities into four interrelated categories: “world as medium”, “world of art as a work of art”, “negative theology of the white cube” and “metagonzo”. The first category includes practices of appropriating “non-artistic” objects, spaces and events. The second concerns the creation of alternative art institutions, the appropriation of exhibitions and individual works. The third one is the appropriation of non-artistic elements of the art world, such as emptiness, negative space between objects or random behaviour. “Metagonzo” is the appropriation of other gonzo projects. The exhibition takes up a creative game with the convention of an archival presentation and at the same time becomes an example of a “metagonzo” strategy.

Artists/curators: Aneta Rostkowska and Jakub Woynarowski.

Aneta Rostkowska is a curator, author and gardener, a graduate of the de Appel Curatorial Programme in Amsterdam. Rostkowska studied philosophy, economics and art history in Kraków, Poznań, Heidelberg and Frankfurt am Main. She worked as a curator at Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art in Kraków (2011-2016) and at the Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne (2016-2018). Since January 2019 she has been the director of Temporary Gallery, Centre for Contemporary Art in Cologne. Apart from curating, she has also been teaching art theory, art history and philosophy at various universities and art schools.

Jakub Woynarowski combines the activity of an artist, designer and independent curator. He is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, where he currently teaches at the Narrative Drawing Studio. He was an author of the artistic concept of the Polish Pavilion at the 14th Biennale of Architecture in Venice (2014). In 2015 he received the prestigious Passport award given by weekly magazine “Polityka” in the visual arts category.

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Aneta Rostkowska and Jakub Woynarowski in front of Hunter S. Thompson’s house in San Francisco, 2015
Photo: Justyna Gryglewicz