UCCA Beijing

Paweł Althamer

2014.5.24 - 2014.8.29

2013, plastic and plaster on metal construction, installation of 90 parts, dimensions variable

Installation view: "The Encyclopedic Palace," 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, 2013

Photo by Jens Ziehe, courtesy neugerriemschneider and Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw

About

Location:  Nave and Central Gallery

For his first institutional exhibition in China, Polish contemporary artist Paweł Althamer will chiefly present two of his iconic works which explore the relationship between individual identity, social relations, and the making of art: Draftsmen’s Congress and Venetians. In Draftsmen’s Congress, Althamer invites museum visitors to draw at will on the floor and walls of the exhibition space, intentionally creating an open-ended dialogue among participants in which communication takes place by interacting with and responding to each other’s drawn gestures. Venetians reflects Althamer’s interest in social, site-specific sculpture. For the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, the artist worked with his father’s plastics manufacturing company to cast the faces and hands of 90 of the city’s dwindling local population. He then attached these molds to bodies made of thick, intertwined plastic ribbons, juxtaposing the realism of their hands and faces—humanistic symbols of occupation and identity—with their haunting, skeletal frames.

The UCCA presentation of “Paweł Althamer” is supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing.

PA

For more information, please read the “Paweł Althamer” press release.

News

With his stress on participation and collaboration, Althamer enjoys incorporating social elements into his work, which helps give his art a feeling of intimacy. Not immediately visible to the eye, these social elements help.

—Global Time

In both process and form, Althamer’s practice aims to transcend notions of the isolated creative practitioner while reorienting social relations within art.

—Wall Street International

Videos

Paweł Althamer

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Videos

Paweł Althamer

06:57

Installation Views

Installation Views

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