Artur Żmijewski

In Between (2018)
Photographs

Artur Żmijewski’s black-and-white portraits of non-European migrants were made just as a new wave of racism and xenophobia was sweeping the cities of Europe. They reenact one of the most violent episodes in the history of photography, when portraits with measuring devices such as rulers and calipers were used as tools of discrimination. Anthropometry not only served to identify racial traits but also typically criminal physiognomies. Features such as skull circumference or nose length were thus used to legitimate the natural superiority of one race over another, or to find examples that were “degenerate” or “impure,” to use the language of that time. Such pseudoscientific findings were deployed to provide a biological excuse for genocide and colonial violence. Żmijewski’s gritty photographs remind us of such outcomes, pointing toward today’s renewed exclusions and reminding us how 19th-century anthropometry lives on in today’s biometric passports and retina scanners.


Plan B (2019)
Installation

Artur Żmijewski’s installation for steirischer herbst ’19 gives expression to the desire to run for shelter from today’s atmosphere of impending political catastrophe. Reacting to the increasingly nationalist developments in Eastern and Central Europe, Żmijewski imagines a hiding place in a disused shop location in Graz. Inspired by prepper projects and walking-dead scenarios as much as by bunkers and the attics used for concealing persecuted groups in World War II, Żmijewski’s installation might be the perfect place for artists to survive their immanent persecution, as right-wing populists set their sights on artistic institutions and their agents. Or seen in a more optimistic light, it could be a hideout for a disgraced right-wing politician trying to get away from it all. Either way, Żmijewski explores his fascination for personal escape capsules and insular, camouflaged worlds to which one might retreat in troubled times.

20.9.–13.10.19

Artur Żmijewski
In Between (2018)

Palais Attems
Sackstraße 17
8010 Graz

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Free admission with Festival Pass

Loan courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

20.9.–13.10.19

Artur Żmijewski 
Plan B (2019)

Girardigasse 8

8010 Graz

Google Maps

Free admission with Festival Pass

Commissioned and produced by steirischer herbst ’19

Artur Żmijewski (1966, Warsaw) is an artist working in film, photography, and installation, who often conducts risky social experiments. He frequently addresses trauma, repressed histories, and topics considered taboo in liberal democracies. Żmijewski lives in Warsaw.