Pawel Dziemian, born 1983/Poland, lives & works in London/UK. 3 Royal London Buildings, SE15 1RX London
07825568458 paul.vs.paul@gmail.com
Education: 2004 - 2009 Academy of Fine Arts, Poznan, Poland • MFA degree on Multimedia Communication Department, Intermedia Faculty 2002 - 2004 Academy of Fine Arts, Poznan, Poland • BA studies on Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Department – Printmaking 2002 - 2003 Adam Mickiewicz's University, Poznan, Poland • Studies on History Department - History of Arts Faculty Exhibitions & Screenings: 2013 'Map of he World' VHS Festival, Rotterdam, Netherlands 'Map of he World' The Video Community, The 01 Shows, Poland 2012 'Hunger' Futura Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic 'Map of he World' Nova Gallery, Minsk, Belarus Studio Litost vol.2 Futura Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic Studio Litost vol.1 Karlin Studios, Futura, Prague, Czech Republic 2010 'Mistresses & Heroines’, 'Sculpture' 'Protogeneza' Arsenal, Bialystok, Poland 2009 ’Ecce Homo' MFA Exhibition, Starter Gallery, Poznan, Poland ’Atavisms I’ Galleria Grazia Neri, Epson Art Photo Award, Milano, Italy 'F’...lucky day' 'Night Shots' Platform Art Center, Vaasa, Finland 'Stronghold of Hate' 5th Art Master, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland 2008 'Atavisms II' 'Fresh & Polish’ Budapest Photo Festival, Budapest, Hungary 'We do it with pride' 'Great Poland', Mediations Biennale, Arsenal, Poznan, Poland 'XII Labors of Hercules' Biennale of Young Artists, polish representation, BJCEM 2008, Bari, Italy 'Atavisms I' 'Digital Romantic - Neue Landschaften', Epson Kunstbetrieb Dusseldorf, Germany 'Atavisms I' Epson Art Photo Award 2007/08 Show, ArtCologne, Koln, Germany 'Gray Matter’ prof. Miroslaw Balka’s Studio, ON Gallery Poznan, Poland 2007 'Timeless Project’ - Four4!Factorial Group Videomedeja, Novi Sad, Serbia 'It was my performance' 'Negentropia', Entropia Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland 'Labour No.5' 'All saitnt's day.com' Artist’s Colony - Gdansk Shipyard, Gdansk, Poland Manual Creative Commons - Four4!Factorial Group Kronika, Bytom, Poland 'Labours of Hercules' 'Nothing to Wonder at?’ Katerinska Garden/Psychiatric Clinic, Prague, Czech Republic 'XII Labours Of Hercules' 4th Art Master, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland 'According to Diogenes' prof. Miroslaw Balka’s Studio, Inner Spaces, Poznan, Poland 'XII Labours of Hercules’ 'Nostalgia for the Present' Aula Gallery, Poznan, Poland 'This is a liberal performance' 'Bios' performance Festival, Brzezno, Poland 'Timeless 2.0' - Four4!Factorial Group Art Claims Impulse, Berlin, Germany 'Oikoumen' ROG Socialni Center, Ljubljana, Slovenia 'Timeless Lite' - Four4!Factorial Group 'Histerie und Neurosis' Art Claims Impulse, Berlin, Germany 'Human sweat' 'Hygiene' - prof. Miroslaw Balka’s students exhibition, Inner Space, Poznan, Poland 2006 'Video_animals' Menza Pri Koritu, Ljubljana, Slovenia 'Timeless 2.0' - Four4!Factorial Group Dritte Berliner Kunstsalon, Berlin, Germany 'Timeless Project' Diesel New Art Exhibition, Betonsalon, Vienna, Austria 'Recycling' prof. Miroslaw Balka’s students exhibition, Piekarnia Studio, Poznan, Poland 'Timeless Project - Four4!Factorial Group' Dartington Gallery, Devon, UK 'LekiNaRaka' prof. Miroslaw Balka’s students exhibition, Piekarnia Studio, Poznan, Poland 2005 'Forever yang' Aula Gallery, Poznan, Poland Experiences & Achievements 01-04/2012 - Artists in Residence / Visegrad Fund Futura, Prague, Czech Republic 07/2009 - Polish finalist Henkel International Art Award 02-07/2009 - Scholarship Marmara Univeritesi, Istanbul, Turkey 12/2008 - Contest’s final exhibition 5th Samsung Artmaster Young Polish Art Contest 04/2008 - Best Artist Prize Epson Art Photo Award 2007-2008 04/2007 - Honourable Mention in the contest 4th Samsung Artmaster Young Polish Art Contest 2006-2007 -6th Artists in Context Programme, residency in Art Center Sredisce,Slovenia Pepinieres Europeenesse Pour Jeunes Artistes 2004-2007 - Activity in Four4!Factorial Group Poznan/Berlin/London 2004-2007 - involvement in visual culture internet magazine Tempo http://www.tempomgz.com
I was born in Poland in 1983, in 2009 I graduate form Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland. Studies on Multimedia Communication Department. Degree in field of Implementation of Television Picture, Video and Photography. Diploma completed in Faculty of Intermedia. Thesis titled 'Constallations of masculinity. New masculine sensitivity' was focused on problematics of 'crisis of male-hood'(sic), gender in polish context and more universally its aspect in my practice – figure of father, role models, symbolic violence; and introduced my own term of constallation – which, on contrary to traditional meaning of installation, incorporates non-material aspects of work, builds web of contexts in its own very specific tensions. Constallation is multi-element installation where not all elements are material, physically existing. Constallation tends to evokes notion of narration within its components; as I believe that anecdote is more vital that image. During last residency in 2012 in Futura Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague, Czech Republic, I was working within lens medias, sculpture and installation on issues of slavonic soul described by self-pity, mysticism and urges. What significant in my body of work is critical approach, which I call Criticism 2.0 to distinguish it from well established artistic strategy of 'YPA'. That takes my practice to examine critical ideas on my self, my own body, on Me as a social construct. As I wrote in my artist statement: art as participation, art is act. More works at: http://www.behance.net/dziemian https://vimeo.com/dziemian http://cargocollective.com/dziemian/About-Dziemian
LÍTOST Studies. Piano classes with Milan Kundera / 2012 / video / 120' https://vimeo.com/42991898 As a devotee of Milan Kundera's literature I had an opportunity to research on, experience of and get inspired by his very special optics, in Prague, in Czech culture, in place where context of many of his books is based on. I found it very tempting to sharpen the razor of post-modern deconstruction on this particular Slavic translocation of senses; in historical perspective - classic, modern though, to renegotiate the meanings by translation to the nearest but stranger. On AIR in Futura I devoted to one main project that claimed to be realized in Czech Republic, because of particular need of working with and on Czech-Polish transition, need of three unities taking from local context. Project under working title 'Litost studies. Piano classes with Milan Kundera' inspired by Kundera's literature literature I tried to combine and confront few aspects of czech-polish (slavic background) language and its post-modern style deconstruction, translated to visual (video) language. To keep things clear and easy – my aim was to create a video work/short movie based on Kundera's litost explanation. The episode that works as a script for video and it's performance is story of a boy, whose parents love him to attend piano lessons, what leads untalented child to death, after the piano teacher thrown him through the window. In highlights: I took piano lessons, footage was recorded, tension was building up. And we got to the point where we can analyse Slavic soul, its complexity, and structure, christian blame and wild emotionalism. A bit of performance, a bit of reality show or rather reality sitcom. Getting back to details; basis for this performative research is The Book Of Laughter & Forgetting and term of litost – 'it is an untranslatable Czech word. Its first syllable, which is long and stressed, sounds like the wail of an abandoned dog.
As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.' Czech term of litost - specific and unique for Czech language, in my understanding it's similar on pronouncement level to polish term 'litość' [li'toshich'], but the difference is crucial - Czech litost means to have a mercy for yourself, while exaggerating the pain or own misery, to feel pity to yourself in my simplest interpretation, in polish it means just 'marcy'. in body of this work i attended a piano classes with Czech teacher; regardless lack of the musical skills and ear for music; recorded and documented the process in video medium and built a dramatic structure out of gathered footage. “ What then is litost? Litost is a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery. One of the customary remedies for misery is love. Because someone loved absolutely cannot be miserable. All his faults are redeemed by love’s magical gaze, under which even inept swimming, with the head held high above the surface, can become charming. Love’s absolute is actually a desire for absolute identity: the woman we love ought to swim as slowly as we do, she ought to have no past of her own to look back on happily. But when the illusion of absolute identity vanishes (the girl looks back happily on her past or swims faster), love becomes a permanent source of the great torment we call litost. Anyone with wide experience of the common imperfection of mankind is relatively sheltered from the shocks of litost. For him, the sight of his own misery is ordinary and uninteresting. Litost, therefore, is characteristic of the age of inexperience. It is one of the ornaments of youth. Litost works like a two-stroke engine. Torment is followed by the desire for revenge. The goal of revenge is to make one’s partner look as miserable as oneself. The man cannot swim, but the slapped woman cries. It makes them feel equal and keeps their love going. Since revenge can never equal its true motive, it must put forward false reasons. Litost is, therefore, always accompanied by a pathetic hypocrisy. “
Artist statement art as participation. art is act. my aim is to examine condition of human structures; but referring to critical theories, i would like to make a step forward, by applying political criticism into real life and art process. the only moral and truly critical, human way of doing that is not to replicate the power abuse acts, not to use people as a subjects, not to oppress as systems do. therefor i choose to examine myself as a human, as a participant of structures like society, family, culture or market. let's use example: there are art activities or art pieces, that in order to achieve its own critical aims, they victimize groups or individuals which are already oppressed; (obviously it may still be an interesting discourse of power, power distribution, it may be art as a functional tool in social science, or it may question who the artist is, and what's his duty - it brings reminiscence of marxism theories of labor, and historically based question: why there was an affair of art and power in the historical background and why art should rather affirm the good, and why all those relations seem be suspected), i would like to avoid this shadow, that's why my aim is to find a new way of criticism, and so one of my strategies is to test critical theories on myself, because that way it devoids them of aforementioned ethical relativism or ambiguity, there is no question of harm, victimizing, further more, and maybe it's even more important; trough those processes i find myself as a participant, a member of greater wholeness, human entirety; that's my goal; and in a way it brings into the surface fact that, not observation is important, rather participation - art as active attempt to shape reality. with no special tools, with no abusive strategies, just by simple acts. in my approach i'm far from total-art concept, but i strongly believe in those bottom-up and horizontal movements. what's is also crucial for me, is not to be tied to form, and its fineness. not to loose the possibility of creation because of lack of 'materials', not to be addicted to objects, material objects. regardless all art's transformation processes after modernism, it makes me doubt, when i see those 'fragile' things. maybe it's naive utopia, but i rather would like to pursuit fragile ideas. where it takes me? I don't know, but i hope to experience, more as a human, less as a producer of cultural, or virtual goods.
Dogman's Dream / 2012 / video / 9'50� https://vimeo.com/47688107 Dogman video series consists of works taking from aspects of zoo-morphisms in modern society. The series focuses on notion of urban clashing with natural, emotional with instinctive. Dogman aims to be epic video series about the other, alien, rejected, useless, abandoned and feared. Dogman's Dream stands for individualism and protection of entity, is defensive, stands against fn de siecle. Represented by keywords: post-colonialism, babylon, london, post-colonial theory, politics,criticism,giraffe, baby giraffe syndrome, safari, Peckham, urinate, urine, piss, peeing, leaking, walk of shame, wasted, morning glory, monster. Chunk of master shot, 9:50 min. long walk, with peeing itself giraffe, on Peckham Rye Lane, London. Work in progress.
Map of the World / 2012 / video / 35'30� https://vimeo.com/42506382 Main idea of video is to turn Polish quasi-idiom 'to spit image of the map of the world' live. It starts with question of human body, its vital liquids, it's physiological functions and symbolic aspects. Saliva contains in itself particular dichotomy connected evidently with body. Saliva is purifying, life-giving in certain way, it's crucial part of kiss, early disinfectant, food welcoming committee. As long as saliva is within the organism, within mouth. As soon saliva leaves mouth, departs from tongue and lips, becomes dirty, disgusting, filthy. Contrary to the tear – always pure, always clean, always chaste. Saliva out of mouth gets whole new gist. New meaning is so powerful that allows to communicate complex of negativity with one simple gesture of spit. I envisioned to showcase dichotomy as well in the concept of world as a physical environment and world as a human concept; anthropocentric idea of harmony within supremacy. Video work also emphasis the critical approach towards political correctness, status quo of power distribution, and dusted synonyms of world order like peace dove. Formally, video is master-shot, it's real-time drawing performance. 35 minutes 30 second of spitting.
Coating and Enclosure / 2012 / sculpture / site specific / size variable http://www.behance.net/gallery/Coating-Enclosure/4107733
Studio 'Litost' VOL.1 / 2012 / exhibition view http://www.behance.net/gallery/STUDIO-LITOST-VOL1/3398547 […] From beginning of January until end of March 2012, FUTURA Center for Contemporary Art in Prague is hosting Pawel Dziemian (PL, 1983) in the frame of A.I.R. FUTURA : artists in residency program with the support of the International Visegrad Fund. Pawel Dziemian stands for a critical approach in art, however he is not placing himself above the others as some distant manipulating judge, but rather uses his own skin for the examination of the cultures he approaches. Whether his position is obvious, as when he place himself in front of a camera or when this self-examination is more subtle as when he presents observations or comments, what remains is, even more then this step out of subject-object division, a certain humility and non-judgment towards others.