Krzysztof Wodiczko

Krzysztof Wodiczko with Jean-Marc Ayrault

Krzysztof Wodiczko (born April 16, 1943 in Warsaw ) is a Polish - Canadian - American multimedia artist .

life and work

Krzysztof Wodiczko, son of the Polish conductor Bohdan Wodiczko, was born in the Warsaw Ghetto during the uprising and grew up in Warsaw. In 1967, while studying at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts , he began to work with Józef Patkowski and the Polish Radio Experimental Studio . In 1968 Wodiczko graduated with a master's degree in product design . During the next few years he worked for the Warsaw company Unitra, for which he designed designs for electronic devices. From 1970 he developed the design for optical, electronic and mechanical devices for the Polish optics works.

In 1976 Wodiczko took part in an artist-in-residence program at NSCAD University in Halifax , Canada . Krzysztof Wodiczko emigrated from Poland to Canada and taught at the University of Guelph in Ontario in 1977 . The collaboration with the New York art dealer Hal Bromm began. In 1979 he became a professor at OCAD University in Toronto and then got a teaching position (until 1981) at NSCAD University . From 1981 to 1982 Wodiczko was artist in residence at the University of South Australia in Adelaide . In 1983 Wodiczko moved to New York City and taught at the New York Institute of Technology . In 1991 he accepted a professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge , but kept his residence in New York City. Wodiczko is visiting professor at the Psychological Faculty of the Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej in Warsaw.

Wodiczko was the head of the Interrogative Design Group , and from 1994 to 2009 director of Act, the MIT Center for Art, Culture, and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

War, conflict, trauma, memory, and public communication are some of the main themes of his four decades of work.

In 1977, at documenta 6, an unsteerable, three-meter-long vehicle was shown, which moves in a straight line due to the weight shift of the artist, who is walking up and down. The energy generated according to the principle of a swing beam is transmitted to the wheels by wires, transmission gears and drive chains. This vehicle could compete with motorized vehicles in downtown Warsaw.

In 2009 the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston showed the multimedia installation "... Out of Here: The Veterans Project".

He has realized more than 80 large-scale video projections on architecture and monuments in Australia, Austria, Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the USA.

One of his well-known works is Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection from 2012: Krzysztof Wodiczko dealt with dozens of American war veterans and their families in order to track down the traumatic consequences of the war. Wodiczko recorded 14 interviews about war experiences, the difficult return to civilian life, loss and guilt. A film was cut from these interviews which was then projected onto the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Union Square Park .

Exhibitions

Wodiczko's works are represented at many international exhibitions, the São Paulo Biennale (1965, 1967, 1985); documenta ( d6 1977 , d8 1987 ); Biennale di Venezia , where he represented Canada in 1986 and Poland in 2009, and the Whitney Biennial (2000). Wodiczko was also a participant in the Paris Biennale, the Yokohama Triennale, the Biennale of Sydney , Kyoto Biennale and the Triennial of the International Center of Photography in New York.

Awards

• 2004 College Art Association Award
• 1998 Hiroshima Prize “for his contribution to world peace”
• György Kepes Prize from MIT
• Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture
• Katarzyna Kobro Prize
• Gloria Artis Medal for Cultural Merit

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Foundació Antoni Tapies Krzysztof Wodiczko. Instruments, Projections, Vehicles accessed December 18, 2014
2. ^ Act, MIT Center for Art, Culture, and Technologie director Krzysztof Wodiczko , accessed December 17, 2014.
3. ↑ Catalog for documenta 6: Volume 3: hand drawings, utopian design, books; Kassel, page 292, 1977 ISBN 3-920453-00-X
4. ↑ ICA Iraq was veterans focus of New York by Krzysztof Wodiczko at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on December 18, 2014 (English) 
5. ↑ More Art Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection accessed December 18, 2014
6. ↑ GSD Harvard Krzysztof Wodiczko accessed on December 18, 2014 (English)
7. ↑ Art 21 Krzysztof Wodiczko accessed on December 18, 2014 (English)