HAPPENING TODAY: ARTIST TALK BY KRZYSZTOF WODICZKO
Since 1980, The Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko has created more than 90 large-scale slide and video projections of politically charged images on architectural façades and monuments worldwide but it is clear that his powerful body of work bears a message that we have yet to take to heart.
Today, in the Philippines as a guest of non-profit art foundation Bellas Artes Projects exploring the post-war history of Bataan, he will be at the Ateneo de Manila University Arts Wing, Arete, to speak about his interdisciplinary approach. He uses design in collaboration with art pedagogy, art education, art therapy, urban pedagogy, toy and game design, software design and other fields that strive to change the way society thinks about war and shift towards a culture without war.
His artistic practice involves creating personal communication instruments and survival vehicles, eventually serving as tools of empowerment for those experiencing hardship. From these, he projects images of community members’ hands, faces or entire bodies onto architectural façades combined with their voiced testimonies. It’s a medium of choice that changes our traditional understanding of the functions of public space and architecture by animating it with the humanity of the events that the structure commemorates, and in some works, the community inhabiting the area, exploring social and political marginalization for the alienated and excluded. The work speaks for itself as it transcends the narrative of history by proposing possibilities for society to divert from a worldwide culture of war. By sharing these voices and experiences that hardly make it to the public space, Wodiczko challenges the political and social structures in present-day society.
Wodiczko is the recipient of the Hiroshima Art Prize in 1998 for his “contribution as an international artist to world peace.” The year after, as a result of accepting the prize under the personal condition that he must live up to it, he created the iconic, unforgettable public projection, “The Hiroshima Projection.”
His work has been exhibited in Documenta (twice); Paris Biennale; Sydney Biennale; Lyon Biennale; The Venice Art Biennale (Canadian and Polish Pavilions) in Magiciens de la Terre exhibition, Paris; Venice Biennale of Architecture; The Whitney Biennial; Yokohama Triennale; International Center for Photography Triennale, New York; The Montreal Biennale (2014); The Liverpool Biennale (2016) and other international art festivals and international exhibitions.
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Artist Talk by Krzysztof Wodiczko is today at the Arts Wing in Areté, at Ateneo de Manila University from 2-3 p.m. The discussion will take place from 3 to 3:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.