Emilio Lopez-Menchero, In light of the 20th Century Avant-Garde, Atlas Sztuki Gallery, Lodz

Emilio Lopez Menchero participe à l’exposition « In light of the 20th Century Avant-Garde » produite par le centre d’art Atlas Sztuki Gallery, à Lodz (Pologne). Commissaire : Andrzej Paruzel. Du 4 mars au 3 avril.

Emilio Lopez Menchero

Emilio López-Menchero,
Trying to be Frida, 2005,
Colors photography on aluminium, 105 x 128 cm
Concept & performance: Emilio López-Menchero, photo: Sophie Bibet & Emilio López-Menchero, costume: Cathy Wilkinson

Emilio Lopez Menchero

Emilio Lopez-Menchero
Trying to be Pablo Escobar en Pancho Villa, 2014
Color photography on aluminium, 117 x 128 cm
Concept & performance : Emilio López-Menchero. With the collaboration of Gregoire Motte

Press Release

Wobec awangardy XX wieku (In the face of the avantgarde of the XX century) is a project created for the exhibition space of Atlas Sztuki by Andrzej Paruzel – the creator of video installations, films and experimental photography, a graduate of the Lodz Film School, as well as of geography at the Warsaw University (from here, in the eighties, he signed his artistic text as a master of Earth science); a member of The Film Form Studio (Workshop of the Film Form) and a co-founder of Zespol T (Team T) (together with Janusz Kolodruboec, Tomasz Konart, Malgorzata Paruzel, Janusz Szczerek and Piotr Weychert) – artistic groups associated with the Lodz Film School (PWSFTviT) in the seventies. In 1980-82, within Realizacja Koluszki together with Malgorzata Paruzel and Piotr Weychert the artist carried out socio-artistic and research works related to artistic activities of Wladyslaw Strzeminski and Katarzyna Kobro in Koluszki (in 1926-31). In the eighties, he was also the founder of Office of Art and Culture Guides, within which he realized many projects in the public space, as well as of Hotel Sztuki (Hotel of Art) acting as a gallery, publishing house and an association. Whereas in 2004 – 2013, he created a project of a fictitious Biuro Podrozy Soczewka (Lens Travel Agency).

What’s interesting, not everybody knows that Andrzej Paruzel combines his artistic activities and interest in contemporary art with his passion for fishing. He is the author of a film Wedkarstwo – moja pasja (Fishing – my passion), a handy manual Wedkarstwo polskie (Polish fishing), editor of the portal wedkomania.pl.

In Atlas Sztuki, Andrzej Paruzel performs a dual role: the curator of the exhibition and artist presenting his works in the exhibition.
In the project Wobec awangardy XX wieku (In the face of the avantgarde of the XX century) he presents the achievements of avantgarde artists, some of whom had been active outside of the official circulation of the art world for many years, a lot of whom combined their own artistic activities with initiatives to shape the artistic life through organizing artistic projects. In the exhibition, works of fourteen artists are presented: Oskar Dawicki, Július Koller, Jaroslaw Kozlowski, Jacek Kryszkowski, Natalia LL, Zbigniew Libera, Emilio López-Menchero, Andrzej Partum, Andrzeja Paruzel, Jozef Robakowski, Jerzy Trelinski, Ryszard Wasko, Peter Weibel and Piotr Weychert.

In connection with the exhibition, two texts were created, which we publish in this catalogue.
In the first of them Daniel Muzyczuk makes us more familiar with « attitudes » of the artists whose works are displayed in the exhibition: « Wobec awangardy XX wieku (In the face of the avantgarde of the XX century) is an exhibition within which several examples of ››attitudes‹‹ of artists as organizers « have been compiled. – he writes and adds: « It is worth noting here at least a couple of these entities and their authors: Gallery 80×140 of Jerzy Trelinski, the Archives of Contemporary Thought and the Artists’ Museum of Ryszard Wasko, Exchange Gallery of Jozef Robakowski and Malgorzata Potocka, Permafo of Natalia LL, Andrzej Lachowicz and Zbigniew Dlubak, Osobisty punkt obserwacji i ksztaltowania flory tworczej (Personal point of observation and shaping creative flora) of Jacek Kryszkowski, the Poetry Office of Andrzej Partum, Galeria Akumulatory (Accumulators Gallery) of Jaroslaw Kozlowski, Warsztat Formy Filmowej (Workshop of film form), Zespol T (Team T), Hotel Sztuki (Hotel of Art) and Biuro Przewodnikow po/Sztuce i Kulturze (Agency of guides to/art and culture) of Andrzej Paruzel. Jozef Robakowski derives a genealogy of this phenomenon from the activities of the group a.r., and especially of Wladyslaw Strzeminski and Katarzyna Kobro. Apart from creating individual works, these artists were involved in institutional organization of the field of art. (…) All these elements: galleries run by artists, independent, one-man institutions, or simply events in which artists are a driving force, are not only animation activities, but also activities, which are a genealogy to a modern figure of ››an artist as a curator‹‹. (…) Andrzej Paruzel builds a genealogy of attitudes in at least two generations, for which efforts to establish the right social context for art are common. Activities from the seventies are becoming the basis for the most radical neo-avantgarde strategies of the next decade. Robakowski, Partum, Wasko, Natalia LL, Kozlowski and Swidzinski are not only, citing a work of Zbigniew Libera, ››masters‹‹, but also precursors of curatorial activities of artists ».

The second text is a record of an extensive conversation of Tomasz Zaluski with Andrzej Paruzel about his artistic activities, in which the artist talks about the exhibition prepared by him in Atlas Sztuki: « For art, extremely important are dialogues between creators. I want to show such dialogues, arising between works of the invited artists ».

In Light of the 20th Century Avant-garde selected by Andrzej Paruzel
4.03.2016 – 3.04.2016

Oskara Dawicki
Július Koller
Jarosław Kozłowski
Jacek Kryszkowski
Natalia LL
Zbigniew Libera
Emilio López-Menchero
Andrzej Partum
Andrzej Paruzel
Józef Robakowski
Jerzy Treliński
Ryszard Waśko
Peter Weibel
Piotr Weychert

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