КАТАЖИНА КОЗЫРА

The Rite of Spring

source: culturepl

Wideoinstalacja “Święto wiosny” (1999-2002), podobnie jak oryginalny balet rosyjski z 1913 roku, nawiązuje do pogańskiej obrzędowości i rytuałów związanych z kultem ziemi. Praca Katarzyny Kozyry składa się z projekcji wyświetlanych na siedmiu ekranach ustawionych w dwa kręgi. Instalacji towarzyszy muzyka Strawińskiego, a właściwie jej trwający niespełna cztery minuty końcowy fragment.

Artystka odtwarza kulminacyjny moment baletu i jednocześnie go modyfikuje. Pokazuje dziewczynę wybraną na ofiarę, która wykonuje gwałtowny, ekstatyczny święty taniec, a w końcu martwa pada na ziemię. O ile jednak u Strawińskiego wybrana dziewczyna umiera, u Kozyry po każdym upadku powstaje i na nowo rozpoczyna swój taniec. Zamknięte koło narodzin i śmierci nie ma dla niej końca. Cykliczność narracji podkreśla kolisty układ ekranów. W wewnętrznym kręgu trwa taniec wybranej, w zewnętrznym tańczą otaczający ją mężczyźni. Choć w rzeczywistości ruchy wykonywane przez wyświetlane na ekranach postaci tańcem nie są. Powstały w wyniku animacji z obrazów upozowanych ludzkich ciał.

Przyglądając się “Świętu wiosny” łatwo dostrzec, że tancerze to ludzie starzy, którzy nie byliby w stanie wykonać komplikowanej choreografii Wacława Niżyńskiego. Zostali sfotografowani przez Kozyrę na leżąco, na białym podłożu. Na każdy ich ruch składa się sekwencja zmontowanych zdjęć wyświetlana z częstotliwością 1500 klatek na minutę.
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source: katarzynakozyrapl

“Anarchistic creationism pushes her towards fireworks of mystification and total negation of boundaries, weaving and unweaving of conventions. Her primary inspiration is the mechanism of simultaneous development and destruction, a fascination with the change ability of forms.”
Hanna Wróblewska
“If I set such goals for myself, then I got a lot further. I’m probably one of those people who has to set their sights on an impossible goal. That’s how I give myself chance, because I really believe in it, and take it seriously; I really give myself a chance to explore things that are completely new for me.”
KK talks too Sabine Folie
“The works of Katarzyna Kozyra point to the most important issues of human existence: identification, identity, transgression. She acts in the realm of cultural taboos referring to the bodily nature of man and to some stereotypes and behavior in the context of social life. She questions and overcomes them while stirring controversy and (usually) subjecting herself to the criticism of the outraged critics. She forces us to re-think and verify the settled order of values by unveiling the facts of reality…”
Hanna Wróblewska
“Kozyra’s notoriety and controversial status in Poland is legendary and her works, never sensational for the sake of publicity, continue to elicit extreme responses and heated public discussions. Her installations, formally beautiful and poetic but driven by intense, confrontational content, often present her subjects without their full knowledge and/or consent. Through strategies of infiltration and exposure Kozyra’s works confront myths, taboos, and stereotypes and touch upon larger universal truths about human nature, private behaviors, and conventional standards of beauty.”
Magda Sawon
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source: arteparalela

A artista plástica polonesa, Katarzyna Kozyra, nasceu em 1963, se graduou em Belas Artes e Filosofia na Polônia e Alemanha e trabalha a temática do gênero feminino de maneira a revelar seu olhar observador no vouyerismo das câmeras secretas. Nesse vídeo, realizado em Budapest, particulamente se posiciona de tal maneira que capta o momento do cotidiano dessas senhoras, mesmo que seja um momento tão corriqueiro, é um momento de intimidade, a qual explora a artista para que seu discurso ultrapasse o simples registro do óbvio.
A discussão do “belo” nessas imagens é inevitável à crítica que faz Katarzyna às formas dos corpos, que, nada mais, reagem ao tempo e descansam. As senhoras, tranquilamente tomam seus banhos e cultivam a leveza de estarem completamente envolvidas com suas liberdades. Nada diferente, porém, “estranho” ao olhar previamente regido pela beleza da estética platônica.
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source: arteparalela

La artista plástica polonesa, Katarzyna Kozyra, nació en el 1963, se graduó en Bellas Artes y Filosofía en la Polónia y Alemaña y trabaja la temática del género feminino de manera que revela en su mirada observadora el vouyerismo de la cámara secreta. En este video hecho en Budapest, se posiciona de forma tan particular que capta los momentos de las señoras grandes en el baño, y, aún que sean momentos tan rutineros, son momentos de intimidad los cuales explora la artista para que su discurso ultrapase el simple registro de lo óbvio.
La discusión del “bello” en estas imagenes es inevitable a la crítica que hace Katarzyna a las formas de los cuerpos, que, simplemente, reaccionan al tiempo y descansan. Las señoras se duchan tranquilamente cultivando la liviandad de estaren completamente envueltas en sus liberdades. Nada distinto, sin embargo, “raro” desde las miradas tan involucradas con la belleza proveniente del esteticismo platónico.
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source: culturepl

Katarzyna Kozyra was born on February 1, 1963, in Warsaw. She studied German at the University of Warsaw from 1985 to 1988, then sculpture at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts. In 1993 she completed her studies in Professor Grzegorz Kowalski’s studio, known as the “Kowalnia”, and befriended Jerzy Stajuda, her drawing professor. After her studies she abandoned sculpture in favour of photography, video installations and performance art. In 1997 she was awarded the Passport of the weekly “Polityka” as the most promising artist in Poland, and she won an honourable mention while representing Poland at the 48th Venice Biennial in 1999. She lives and works in Berlin and Warsaw.

Ever since Kozyra’s Animal Pyramid, 1993) – her thesis project – gained notoriety in the media, she has been known as the most scandalous artist in Poland. Inspired by the “Travelling Musicians” of the Brothers Grimm, she created a sculpture out of four dead stuffed animals standing one upon the other: a horse, a dog, a cat and a cock. Two of them – the horse and the cock – she had chosen and killed herself. The artwork is a combination of this aesthetic stack of animals and a gruesome video depicting the killing of the horse, Kozyra’s attempt to draw out the paradoxical discrepancy between the end product and the process of its realization. The scandal that Piramid provoked provided an example of hypocrisy from a society that accepts the killing of animals, but only if it serves a concrete, pragmatic purpose.

Her interest in corporeality dates back to the time of her studies, during which she created Anorexic Nudes in 1991 and Black-and-White Polaroids in 1992. In 1995 Kozyra presented a series of four large-format photographs entitled Blood Ties (
photographs), depicting nude female figures against a background of religious symbols – the cross and the half moon. The piece was censored at the time, but two of the photographs were later reproduced on a billboard as part of the AMS Gallery project in 1999.

The taboo of the naked female body is also the subject of Olympia (photographs) (1996). The work consists of a photographic triptych, a reference to Manet’s famous painting, along with a video showing the artist, who had suffered from cancer since 1992, as she is given chemotherapy. Unlike Manet’s Olympia (which was also controversial in its day), Kozyra portrays the female body as being old or ill. In so doing, she not only exposed social stereotypes of the female body — which are generally dictated by the “male gaze” — but she also breached the prevailing aesthetic canon.