Silesian Museum

ul. Tadeusza Dobrowolskiego 1
at 7 pm. concert by Robert Piernikowski

Openings of other parts of the exhibition: 28 FEBRUARY (Saturday) 2015

KRONIKA Centre for Contemporary Art in Bytom
Rynek 26
7pm.

Guido Mine in Zabrze - 320 m underground
ul. 3 Maja 93
3pm.
booking required: phone: 032-271-40-77

Installation in public space in Tychy
GPS: 50°06'58.84''N 18°59'22.27''E
12 noon

13 MARCH (Friday) 2015

Art Reading Room - Museum in Gliwice
ul. Dolnych Wałów 8a
6pm.

Project Metropolis is the largest yet exhibition of contemporary art to set out to create an up-to-date image of Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin.

The exhibition is the corollary of a three-year project involving an international discourse of visual and sound artists as well as theoreticians who treat visual arts as a tool of cognition rather than one that implements a pre-conceived thesis or idea.
The programme Project Metropolis was based on artistic residencies in the region of Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin and on actions relying on the activities of local residents. Throughout the process of creating the works an emphasis was placed on working with the local community and on promoting contemporary art where it had not penetrated before and where there were no art institutions. The fruit of the project was dozens of new art works by international artists from diverse artistic communities.

The exhibition reveals parallel and distinct cities within cities, regions within regions that exist side by side. For do we really know our region, our city, our regions within regions? Do they have a single image, or are there many? Perhaps, there is a host of overlapping images that blend together: those we wish were true and those that we wish were not, those that stem from tradition and those that clearly defy it. Project Metropolis takes into account manifold perspectives: social, economic, historic, cultural and political. It creates a new iconography for Silesia, which meets today’s transformations and contemporary challenges.
The issues raised by the artists include: individual memory, the relativity of history and borders, archival work, the effects of the Polish transformation and the glories and pitfalls of modernisation, the presence of national minorities, language, economic exclusion, transformations of the labour market and landscape, diverse concepts of the region’s future, social participation and the re-writing of art history.

The exhibition design by Łukasz Błażejewski is a work that lends organic coherence to the exhibition, binding together artists’ individual, autonomous statements.

The eponymous terms ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Project’ refer to the futuristic concept of the region as a single organism. Simultaneously, the territory of the execution of the works has been approached as a glocalist activity matrix, capable of providing universal interpretations of the problems of contemporary world, no matter in what region.

Stanisław Ruksza, curator of the exhibition

***

The programme of Project Metropolis has been co-organised by the Imago Mundi Foundation, the Kronika Centre for Contemporary Art in Bytom and the Silesian Museum in Katowice.

Production team (Imago Mundi Foundation and CCA Kronika in Bytom): Dorota Aniszewska, Piotr Bujak, Agata Cukierska, Radek Ćwieląg, Agata Gomolińska-Senczenko, Kaja Gliwa, Katarzyna Kalina, Katarzyna Maniak, Daria Maślona, Aleksandra Matuszczyk, Maga Sokalska, Łukasz Szymczyk, Agata Tecl-Szubert, Martyna Tecl-Reibel, Łukasz Trzciński, Paweł Wątroba, Katarzyna Wojtasiewicz, Marcin Wysocki.

The programme has been made possible thanks to the support of Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Partners of the exhibition: Griffin Art Space, Epson, Silesia Film, Bytomskie Centrum Kultury.

Patron of the accompanying educational programme: Griffin Art Space.

Technological partners: Efekt Plus, Da Vinci Team, KZK GOP, BezGranica, Stych.

Cooperation:
Careof/DOCVA Milano, Czytelnia Sztuki w Gliwicach, FUTURA Centre for Contemporary Art, Kopalnia Guido w Zabrzu, Muzeum Miejskie w Tychach, Icelandic Art Center, MDK Batory, Fundacja Brama Cukermana, Miasto Chorzów, Kunsthaus Dresden, Miasto Sosnowiec, Kunsthall Grenland, Miasto Piekary Śląskie,  Miasto Tychy, Fundacja Współpracy Polsko-Niemieckiej, Narodowe Centrum Kultury,  Reykjavik Art Museum, Narodowy Instytut Audiowizualny, Muzeum Historii Polski, Pro Helvetia, NoPlace, Fundusz Wyszehradzki

Websites:

www.projektmetropolis.pl
www.imagomundi.pl
www.kronika.org.pl
www.muzeumslaskie.pl

www.kopalniaguido.pl
www.czytelniasztuki.pl