POP Maskulinity by Polish Contemporary Art Organisation

Guide

intrODUCTiOn

hrough extensive research it has emerged that there is an issue with men and masculinity in contemporary world. PCAO trying to be as impartial as possible has accepted artists of various nationalities and backgrounds who work in numerous media to present a more comprehensive outlook on the issue. There were a number of questions the artists took into consideration when approaching this subject and among them were: What does being a man mean these days? How is masculinity represented in pop culture? Do you agree or disagree with this representation? As a man, how do you see your and other men’s masculinity? As a woman, how do you perceive men in the present day? Do you believe the status of men have changed over the years and if so, then how? What shapes a man’s place in the society nowadays and what are the consequences of it?

The curators have chosen to title the exhibition POP Maskulinity to make a connection with pop art of the 1960s as well as present-day popular

culture in general. The word ‘maskulinity’ has been deliberately written with a ‘k’ to create an immediate visual dissonance. The ‘spelling mistake’s’ purpose was to draw attention to the first part of the word — mask — an object designed to protect but also to conceal the real face of its wearer. The Polish Contemporary Art Organisation is a newly established platform dedicated to promoting and exhibiting works by Polish contemporary artists at various stages in their careers. The PCAO is a non-profit initiative that aims to present thoughtprovoking mixed-media art to the Scottish as well as international public. It is also devoted to creating a common ground for artists to develop international networking and business opportunities with other like-minded people and institutions. The Polish Contemporary Art Organisation believes that art should be accessible to everyone, therefore we would like to promote understanding of modern art in an environment that is always welcoming, inspiring and informative.

‘The MOST iMPOrTanT kinD Of freeDOM iS TO be WHAT yOU reallY ARE. yOU TraDe in yOUr reaLiTy fOr a rOLE. yOU TraDe in yOUr SenSe fOr an aCT. YOU GiVe Up yOUr abiLiTy TO feeL, anD in eXCHanGe, pUT On a MaSK. There Can’T be any larGe-SCaLe reVOLUTiOn UnTiL There’S a perSOnaL revOLUTiOn, On an inDiViDUaL LeVeL. iT’S GOT TO haPPen inSiDe firST’ Jim Morrison

a l b e r t O C O n d O t ta

lberto was born in 1987 in Castelfranco Veneto, Italy but currently lives and creates in Birmingham. He has obtained a BA in Fine Art at Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, Venice and is in the process of obtaining an AHRC funded PhD at Birmingham School of Art, Birmingham City University, Birmingham. He participated in many residencies worldwide and exhibited in several cities around Italy, the US, the UK, Finland and Austria. Alberto’s works — a series of paintings titled Ultimate Fighting was conceived under the influence of a memorable visit to a Mexican restaurant in the USA. As a foreigner who wasn’t aware of such shows, he found it shocking that they were considered normal entertainment. He then realized that he faced something meaningful and poignant in that restaurant. The show wasn’t just a concentration of real violence. A destructive attraction among these men was almost turning them into brothers or even lovers.

The fighters are brothers because they share the same life style, discipline in training, goals and pain. They walk together towards it. This also applies to boxers for example, but with a difference that they always keep a distance and rarely touch each other skin to skin during a fight. In Ultimate Fighting however the fighters maintain that type of contact most of the time. There is almost no distance between them and they even share their blood while bleeding in each other’s arms. Alberto claims that it is easy to consider this as a consequence of a repressed homosexual drive turned into extreme violence and as such it can be seen as a metaphor of a sexual identity crisis: ‘I need to become a warrior to wipe away my shameful side’. But it can also be interpreted in a broader sense: ‘The antagonism is destroying us, but this painful hug saves us from the often cold emptiness of meaningless male interaction’. In fact, some men feel that probably only through violence they can satisfy their need for closeness with another man. From this point of view, the fighters are almost like two Camus’ Sisyph. Their struggle is pointless but they give each other a reason to live and keep each other company.

alberto.condotta@gmail.com albertocondotta.carbonmade.com

anna CZerwińska

nna was born in 1984 in Dzierżoniów, Poland. She graduated Art Education in Photography and a year later Curating in the Department of Painting and Sculpture from The Eugeniusz Gepperd Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. Anna also studied photography at Edinburgh College of Art and The Culture and Social Animation College in Wrocław with specialisation in Theatre. She exhibited her works both in Scotland and Poland. She currently lives and works in Edinburgh. Anna has been involved in many interdisciplinary projects related to the subject of human condition for the past two years. In her work she uses different techniques (printmaking, painting, drawing) but her main medium is photography. Recently, she has been closely involved with an Eastern European folk singing group Davno.

Anna’s project is a series of seven drawings of male pop culture film icons, ranging from the Beast from the Disney classic to Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun. These works balance between being a caricature and an honest representation of what was intended to be the characteristic of the main protagonist. Each drawing includes the movie’s memorable tagline, which sets the mood of the movie and describes the type of masculinity each character is supposed to represent. Anna is attempting to prove that there is more than just one model of masculinity in today’s world.

czerwinska.a@gmail.com

Murray J ferGusOn

urray was born in Edinburgh in 1987 where he also currently lives and creates. He graduated Sculpture at the Edinburgh College of Art and has been part of many exhibitions across the UK. He has taken part in residencies most notably one in Brussels, Belgium, which resulted in a permanent mural. Murray has also collaborated with many artists on various creative projects as well as co-authored several publications. Murray’s sculptures contain real and imagined hybridised forms, causing the viewer to question their perception of everyday objects and the environment. These finely constructed from inexpensive materials objects, can be highly ambiguous, playing with oppositions between man-made and organic, schematic and aesthetic forms. The careful structure of the sculptures encourages contemplation and can be unexpectedly beautiful in their range of tone and form. These collections of items, which are strangely familiar and often unnoticed, provide the viewer with a series of imaginative triggers, seeing the everyday anew.

‘The stereotypical role of a man is the provider. My grandfather used to ask why I worked in a supermarket and why didn’t I get a job as a carpenter or welder for instance, i.e. “a man’s job”’. On a daily basis I would replenish the shop shelves with bread and often contemplated my grandfather’s views. I worked hard every day yet rarely felt a sense of achievement at the end of the day like a trades worker might. I concluded that the reason I continued working there was to provide for myself. Bread Basket is a symbol for those people, who can be looked down on, but who work hard to provide, to ‘put bread on the table’.

murray.j.ferguson@gmail.com murrayjferguson.co.uk

andrZeJ kuZiOła

ndrzej was born in Lublin, Poland. He finished Dentistry at Medical University in Lublin but decided to pursue his life-long passion and became an artist. He is now known as a freelance illustrator and 3D artist. Andrzej creates dark art, children’s illustrations, 3D models and digital sculptures. His skills range from digital illustration, organic and hard surface modeling to low and high polygon modeling, texturing, rendering, concept art and retouching. His illustrations have been published in numerous magazines, books and websites. He is also a winner of several contests and awards. Andrzej’s project comprises two independent graphic design sculptures, which take on two different commentaries of the POP Maskulinity theme. Muse and Her Artist implies that a true patriarchal model of a society is an illusion and the ancient primordial cult of the mother goddess is still present in contemporary culture.

Supposedly conquered by patriarchal religions and civilizations she is just hidden behind a facade of strong masculinity, which is also just an illusion. Physically strong males are more exposed, whereas women are pushed into schematic roles. What we see are men who rule the world, but it is very often the women who stand behind their decisions — unseen, they pull the invisible strings. Masculine leadership is manipulated in clever ways by femininity and men are made to believe that they are responsible for the fate of humanity. Hipsterism argues that a true, strong, rough in an old fashioned manner male is just a pose in a contemporary world. Weak personalities are hidden behind long beards, cool tattoos and expensive gadgets. This false image is further promoted by mass media. Masculinity is currently symbolised by a vain, trendy bloke coated with symbolic attributes of a vintage strong man.

kuziola@gmail.com kuziola.com

ewelina labuda

welina was born in Poland in 1979, but has been living in Perth for the last seven years. She has studied Contemporary Art Practice at Perth College and now she is a fourth year student of Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. Ewelina collaborates with a Leeds based Polish artistic group called Barking Man and has been exhibiting with them both in the UK and Poland. Ewelina works in a variety of media, which includes painting, drawing, installation, sound and video, and photography. She is particularly interested in chemigrams — an experimental art where she paints on light sensitive paper, which results in watercolour like image. The artist also enjoys working with pinhole lens and doubled exposure medium format photography, turning unwanted photographs into imaginative collages.

To Ewelina masculinity is an archetype, an element of reality that surrounds us, but its meaning, if it ever was clear, is not anymore. There are still echoes of a perception of what attributes, qualities and expectations ‘real’ man should possess and evoke: a sculpted body, strength, low voice, intellect, hard physical labor, home, wife, family, tree etc.; but that's no longer the case. Now these ideas are just memories of a time gone by which are being revived once in a while. Whether this state of affairs is the men’s or the women’s fault is a topic for a lengthy discussion and the artist leaves that to the audience. Through her artworks she aims to rouse the viewers curiosity and provoke thoughts and questions about the issue. She is keener on gently guiding the viewer towards their own conclusions than directly giving answers.

decembra@interia.pl

fa b r i Z i O P O t e s ta d

abrizio Potestad was born in 1976, in Pamplona, Spain. He currently lives and creates in Glasgow. He obtained a BA in Audiovisual Studies and Photography, and a double MA in Art Production, Art and Technology and Professional Photography from the Polytechnical University of Valencia. Fabrizio is an interdisciplinary artist, an independent film director. He is also a co-founder of Sinberifora Cultural Charity, which is a multidisciplinary and heterogeneous artist group concerned with performance art, its practice and theory and its cultural management. In our contemporary society we are witnessing a multiplicity of models of masculinity. The old, hegemonic, hetero-centric patriarchy is being challenged by self-assertion of non-heterosexual men and their demands for visibility and the right of existence in the public space and by women who still struggle for equality. It is also contested from the inside by other heterosexual men, who have diversified in societal roles, attitudes and practices and therefore refuse to stay under its command.

At the Pop Maskulinty exhibition Fabrizio Potestad will deliver a 30 minute action art performance Semiotics of the Kitchen, which is a tribute to Martha Rosler’s work by the same title. Unlike Rosler who expresses rage and frustration in her work to underline her strong opposition to the commodified versions of traditional women’s roles in modern society, Fabrizio as a man will embrace this new role and enjoy himself in the kitchen. On one hand the artist embraces a new male role in the contemporary matriarchal — as he claims, era; on the other, he perceives cooking as a form of creation and the kitchen as a place that fuels his imagination. Fabrizio rejects his patriarchal culture and opens himself to new experiences and better understanding of his female side. By introducing irony and humor in his performance, the artist attempts to question socially enforced gender roles and machismo stereotypes that still exist in Western culture.

fabriziopotestad@gmail.com fabriziopotestad.wix.com/artwork

r a d O s ł aw S ł O M n i C k i

adosław was born in Częstochowa, Poland in 1978. He studied Foundation Photography at Stevenson College in Edinburgh and Portrait Photography at Edinburgh Telford College. He has participated in several exhibitions and taken photographs for a number of publications. He lives and works in Edinburgh.

Radosław’s project is a basic appearance study on how the gender-attributed characteristics modify one’s perception of a person. What does the change do to Her? Not much, she is still sexy.

Radosław’s style introduces different aspects of reality and balances them on the borderline of absurd.

Would you still perceive him at the same level of masculinity? Let him wear a stylish suit and reassess. Radosław’s point of view is that men remain men regardless of how they really look like. It is all about who they want to remain.

‘My distance to the world and an absurdum that I feel defines my sense of humour and at times antihumour. I observe ordinary life through this subtle filter to enrich my personal perception and to cause either a smile or provoke a question. I’m trying to avoid any obviousness and association, but give rise to contemplation instead. At the end of the day, I would describe my photographs as random side effects from my life-long experience of the world so far, which is a never-ending project for me. I am a world observer in the first instance. Experiencing life as it is and isn’t’.

How does it change Him? Unless he is an extravagant character, he will look funny.

r.slomnicki@gmail.com radek.art.pl

Wa p WArren MillaRD aLejanDrO nOé GUerrerO OrTeGa PiOTr DUbrOWSki

AP is the first time collaboration of architect and artist Alejandro Noé Guerrero Ortega, music producer and sound designer Piotr Dubrowski and thinker and writer Warren Millard. Alejandro was born in Gran Canaria, Spain where he graduated Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Architecture and Urban Design. He also obtained Master of Advanced Technologies (MAT) at CICE, Professional School of New Technologies in Madrit. Piotr was born in Poland, Białystok in 1986. The artist received BSc (Hons) in Audio Technology with Multimedia at Glasgow Caledonian University. Warren Millard comes from Manchester, England. All artists live and create in Scotland.

‘STrOnGer by WeakneSS, WiSer Men beCOME’ Waller Edmund (17th century poet)

‘every WOMan SHOULD HaVe THeir OWn HaMMer DriLL’

Whilst those dads were probably good fathers and good husbands, we would not be doing our children any favours by giving them such a narrow definition of masculinity and we wouldn’t be equipping them for life if we taught them that masculinity only resided in men. You’d never see any of those dads pushing a pram, cooking a meal or involved in any of the activities traditionally allocated as feminine but you would see the mums taking on some of the more masculine roles. Masculinity in the 21ST century is not about the emasculation of men but the closing of the divide which has kept us out of balance. The installation invites you to choose your mirror and ask yourself about your own masculinity and your views on what masculinity is. Is it just an abstract noun; a human construct like courage or charm? Does it relate to sexuality? Can it reside in physical objects like buildings, cars or clothes? How many of your ideas about masculinity are handed to you by manipulative marketing and how many are based on the real world around you? Who is the most masculine person in your world? Is masculinity a constructive or destructive idea? Look into your mirror and ask yourself some of these questions and you may be surprised by the answers.

Warren’s Mum

Growing up in the 1980’s all the dads on our street wore their hair in ‘curly perms’, to emulate the masculine idols of the day; the footballers. Masculinity meant manliness and strength; being a winner and virility but it didn’t escape the notice of us kids how much the hairstyle made them look feminine.

alejandro.noe@gmail.com warren.millard@gmail.com piotrdubrowski@live.com

S u s a n n e Wa W r a

usanne Wawra was born in 1980, in Friedrichroda, Germany. She is a visual artist and poet currently living in Dublin, Ireland. Susanne holds a Masters in English and Communication and Media from the University of Leipzig, Germany. After exploration of work life in a multinational big player, she decided to swap her secure career for the life of an artist. The human condition is a recurring theme in her work. Particularly, she investigates mental health and Weltschmerz through painting, collage and video. Melancholy and Weltschmerz are combined with Pop Art to look at the individual in contemporary society. Exploring depression and angst in art history, Albrecht Dürer’s Melencolia from 1514 provided the guiding theme for this body of work: juxtaposing the emotional with the rational world. Particular attention went into the backgrounds, which interact with the painted matter. The Financial Times — a pillar of business, economy and consumerism presented on light salmon pink paper — injects content and colour into the work. A limited palette is used for the painted figure (as in Wilhelm Sasnal and Djamel Tatah), contrasting them with a pop background. The newspaper’s words and numbers represent the rational, the world of order,

the system we inhabit. The series is called Antilife Manics, an anagram formed from the letters of ‘Financial Times’. Recurring elements in the work are ‘pop dots’, dripping or running paint and transparency. They are applied to both the mixed media collages and paintings. In the paintings, Susanne focused on the gestus melancholicus, the head in hand gesture. The collages developed a life of their own. Drawing from Dada and Barbara Kruger, the use of text to convey meaning became vital. They tell stories of anxiety, mental turmoil and suffering and can be understood as a comment on today’s pressures in society. As a whole this body of work represents Weltschmerz, the realisation that one’s own weaknesses are caused by the inappropriateness of the world. The issue of masculinity is very much present in a number of works in the Antilife Manics series. They address the vulnerabilities of being a man in the contemporary world and deal with failure, emotion and behaviour. Being a man in this society driven by success is tough and the works try to show what might be going on behind the facade.

wawra.susanne@gmail.com susannewawra.com

aCknOwledGMents

here are a few contributors we would like to thank for an amazing work these past few months, without whose help this exhibition wouldn’t have taken place. First and foremost we would like to thank the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Edinburgh for invaluable advice and financial support. We would like to thank John Ennis and Leigh Chorlton who saw the potential in our project and provided us with the opportunity to exhibit at Gayfield Creative Spaces. We also want to thank all participating artists who are taking part in this exciting and inspiring project. We hope that the idea behind it will stir people’s minds and hearts and bring awareness to the issue of men and masculinity in the 21ST century.

For creating all promotional and marketing materials we would like to acknowledge our dear friend Dawid Nabiałek. He has taken PCAO’s ideas and made them far better than we have ever imagined. Special thanks go to our sponsor and friend Bruce Williams, the co-owner of the Williams Brothers Brewery for supplying the beverages for the Opening Night. We also wish to acknowledge all organisations, which kindly supported PCAO with promoting the exhibition. Special thanks to Iwona Krauzowicz and Marta Dąbrówka. And last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude to our volunteers for their commitment and hard work. Thank you all for coming to the POP Maskulinity exhibition.

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