Martha Rosler Guide for the Perplexed: How to Succeed in - Art.PL

Martha Rosler
Guide for the Perplexed:
How to Succeed in the New Poland
14.02 - 18.05.2014
Curators: Adam Mazur, Kaja PaweЕ‚ek
Collaboration: MikoЕ‚aj IwaЕ„ski, Dorota Grobelna,
Maciej ЕЃepkowski, Judyta Nekanda-Trepka,
Ewa Majewska, Daniel Malone,
Jan Sowa Kuba Szreder and others
Exhibition design: Simone de Iacobis,
MaЕ‚gorzata Kuciewicz / Centrala
Graphic Design: Monika Zawadzki
В For her first solo exhibition in Poland, American artist and writer Martha Rosler will present
her new project Guide for the Perplexed: How to Succeed in the New Poland at Warsaw’s CCA
Ujazdowski Castle. In conjunction with this site-specific work, a number of Rosler’s seminal works
will also be on view, including a selection of her photomontages, video works, and photographs.
Rosler’s work often centers on socio-political issues, generally seen through the prism of
everyday life, especially from the point of view of women. Her engagement with such
contemporary grass-roots movements as the anti-war movement and Occupy Wall Street is well
known.
Guide for the Perplexed: How to Succeed in the New Poland is centered on life in
contemporary Poland. Meetings, discussions, and performances will be held for the duration of the
exhibition in one of the CCA’s main galleries. Visitors are invited to participate in Town Hall-style
public meetings facilitated by activists, educators, and experts. These discussions will be held in
and around kiosks, designed by Rosler and Centrala, devoted to the following issues : Gender, or
How to be a woman in the new Poland; Housing; Labour; Debt; How to be an artist in the
new Poland; Environment and Industry; Migration; What should be placed inside the new
Jewish museum?; and Should there Be a Polish colony on Mars? (Polish National Identity).
The program of events will continue for the show’s duration, and visitors are encouraged to
continue to post comments, reactions, and suggestions on the “Democracy Wall” running the length
of the gallery. The task at hand is to confront existing processes—including economic, cultural, and
ideological — that shape social and political reality. The open space of the exhibition has the
capacity to become a site of formulation for different answers, collective and individual, in the form
of debates, lectures, informal counseling, and referrals.
The exhibition and project reflect Rosler’s long-standing interest in connecting and exploring
feminist, anti-war, and social themes. Her practice has always included three conjoined strategies:
exhibition, critical discourse, and education—encompassing several generations of artists and
activists. For almost forty years, Rosler has lectured widely and has taught at several institutions in
the United States, Canada, and Europe, notably at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and at Rutgers
University in the New York area.
This exhibition finds its place among a continuing series of presentations by distinguished
American artists who link feminism with conceptual art. This series has so far presented works by
Mary Kelly, Silvia Kolbowski, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Kara Walker, Yoko Ono, and others.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication of selected essays by Rosler, newly translated into
Polish.
Free admission to all events
Partners: Sofitel Warsaw Victoria, Epson
CCA’s media patrons: TOK FM, Elle Decoration, Harper's Bazaar, KMAG, Aktivist,
Warsaw Insider, Hiro, Stolica, Label Magazine, artinfo.pl, PURPOSE
Photos are available at the following address:
ftp://cswd.home.net.pl
user: media
password: press
catalogue: media
folder: Martha Rosler
Information:
Justyna Bartosiewicz, CCA Press Office
kom. +48 510 160 637
tel. / faks +48 22 625 05 22
e-mail: biuroprasowe@csw.art.pl
Aniela Pilarska, Business&Culture Agency
kom. +48 791 919 409
e-mail: csw@businessandculture.pl