Cezary Bodzianowski

b. 1966, Szczecin

Artist, performer, author of ephemeral art activities. He also creates Dadaist sculpture-objects. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Bodzianowski's actions take the form of delicate, almost imperceptible interventions into reality. The artist is their main character, who disrupts the daily routine with his ephemeral actions. The witnesses of Bodzianowski's absurd and poetic actions, which usually take place on city streets, in parks or at home, are usually ordinary passers-by. We can later watch these ephemeral actions recorded on video tape or photographed by the artist's wife Monika Chojnicka, who is often also their only eyewitness. The artist, lives and works in Lodz, a city that has become a peculiar setting for his actions.

 

Ale Sto

2023, video, 6'15"

A shopping arcade on Zeromski Street, where the artist does his daily shopping. This time, however, a bug has crept into the mundane activity. The looped movement against the slant of the escalator is like a glitch that imprisons a computer game character from the backstage of the board. Even on all fours, the body fails to fully adjust to the infrastructure.

Selected for our collection, Bodzianowski's video-recorded "events" tell the story of the artist's relationship with the city in which he lives. The backgrounds of the scenes are unremarkable places and anonymous, often dilapidated elements of infrastructure. For the artist, however, they become successive fragments of his personal, scattered portrait of Lodz.

Imagine

2022, video, 2'10"

The artist, sitting on the ground near the intersection of Piłsudski and Rydz-Śmigły, seems preoccupied, as if he is struggling to "let go of his imagination" to which the logo with the Imagine slogan seems to urge. He nervously shifts his seat, covering random parts of the sign with his body. The word Imagine becomes a cluster of meaningless letters.

This is not the first time Bodzianowski has changed the meaning of an advertisement with his actions - like 2009, when he stood on a 5-meter ladder in front of a giant billboard with a reproduction of a fragment of the Last Judgment fresco, positioning himself between the finger of God pointing straight at it and the caption "Full HD. Picture perfect."

Selected for our collection, Bodzianowski's video-recorded "events" tell the story of the artist's relationship with the city in which he lives. The backgrounds of the scenes are unremarkable places and anonymous, often dilapidated elements of infrastructure. For the artist, however, they become successive fragments of his personal, scattered portrait of Lodz.

The Lonely White Sail

2023, video, 2'45"

The neglected Pomorska Street, regardless of the weather or season, is always muddy and full of puddles. Bodzianowski decides to "revive" the tin sailboat from the gate at number 48 with a cardboard sun attached to the top of its head. As the artist himself says - the work was created out of a longing for summer and sunshine.

Selected for our collection, Bodzianowski's video-recorded "events" tell the story of the artist's relationship with the city in which he lives. The backgrounds of the scenes are unremarkable places and anonymous, often dilapidated elements of infrastructure. For the artist, however, they become successive fragments of his personal, scattered portrait of Lodz.

 

Veil

2023, video, 0’45”

A damaged strip of repair netting hangs from the facade of a tenement at the intersection of Próchnika and Zachodnia Streets. It flies in the wind, clinging to lamp posts and street signs. For the artist, the tenement is a bride seeking attention. Dilapidated, abandoned, not of the first youth. The symbolic lifting of the veil is a gesture of consolation and companionship.

Selected for our collection, Bodzianowski's video-recorded "events" tell the story of the artist's relationship with the city in which he lives. The backgrounds of the scenes are unremarkable places and anonymous, often dilapidated elements of infrastructure. For the artist, however, they become successive fragments of his personal, scattered portrait of Lodz.

 

Charging

2022, video, 1'42"

Lodz is famous for its protracted urban renovations, which force passersby to constantly dodge or jump over unexpected obstacles. Bodzianowski interacts with these obstacles. For the artist, a wire protruding from the sidewalk on the renovated Próchnika Street is a charging station to which, like an electric vehicle, he "plugs in" with various parts of his body, parodying the utopian vision of urbanization and technological progress.

Selected for our collection, Bodzianowski's video-recorded "events" tell the story of the artist's relationship with the city in which he lives. The backgrounds of the scenes are unremarkable places and anonymous, often dilapidated elements of infrastructure. For the artist, however, they become successive fragments of his personal, scattered portrait of Lodz.

 

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