Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

curator: Magda Kardasz
cooperation: Katarzyna Kołodziej

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art will present the first individual exhibition in Poland of the work of Peter Land – one of the best-known contemporary artists from Denmark. The show will comprise a selection of projects from different periods of the artist's activity. Major part of the show will consist of films and video installations created from the mid-90s, in which the author appears in different costumes and slapstic situations (documentation of personal failures and their constant overcoming). These apparently funny and self-ironic films touch serious existential issues – they speak about the condition of contemporary man and the artist in a world of unstable structures and ever-changing values. In the Warsaw exposition, these films will be juxtaposed with sculptural installations. Again, these too oscillate between tragedy and comedy, but some new elements will also to be found in this group of works: education perceived as an oppressive social mechanism, referring to symbols taken from fairy tales (Alice in Wonderland) and literature. The newest work that will be presented in Zachęta is an on-going series of watercolours entitled An Attempt at Reconstructing my Elementary School Class, Based on my Memory.