Festival of Art in Public Spaces

Jarosław Kozłowski

Jarosław Kozłowski (born 1945 in Śrem, lives and works in Poznań)

Kozłowski is considered to be the leading figure of the conceptual trend. In his installations he uses various media such as light, sound, photography and objects. He is the author of several art books, drawings, photographs, paintings and he does performances.

In years 1963-69 he studied the Faculty of Painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts (now the Academy of Fine Arts) in Poznan. Since 1967 he has been teaching drawing and painting there. In years 1981-87 he was the rector of this university. He also received a scholarship from The British Council (1979 London) and DAAD in Berlin (1984-85). He was a professor of art at the Adam Mickiewicz University (WPA) in Kalisz.

Kozłowski's art is characterized with building relations between the structure of artistic language and the sphere of meanings. In 1970's he researched the problem within the dematerialisation of art in conceptual thought. The interest in linguistics, semantics, language games, resulted in such works as "Metaphysics, Physics, yka" (1972-74). In the 1980's he lead discussions with the myths that build up the status of art, he reconstructed the myth of an artist, of freedom of art, of originality, of values and disinterestedness, etc. In a series of works titled "The realities of art" he defeated with the preserved schemes of the perception of art. Art by Kozlowski is not causing the effect but the domain of freedom, not fettered by conventions and the striving to certain purposes. Kozlowski undermines the conditions of representation and relativising the given criteria, accepting the variability of meanings depending on context.

At the beginning of the 90's he created a series of works which he displayed in an alternative territory of art called by him "the third circle". It consisted of ready-made objects drawn out of an non-artistic reality deprived of their original meaning creating new configurations in art spaces. They include projects such as "Sharp objects"(1993) "Soft security"(1994/1995) "Temporary objects" (1997)

"Rhetorical figures" is a series which the artist presented in several scenes. The first one was devoted to theoretic of an image-object composed of sequences of works hanging on the wall and one standing on the floor. The second was held in public space. Was realized in the framework of a Belgrade exhibition Art, Life & Confusion. The artist placed in various parts of the city arrays of light emitting a concise message "No news from" with the names of twenty three cities from around the world. In the third version the light installation was accompanied by a sculpture construction. In large scale and visually spectacular installations of the last two decades Kozłowski repeatedly returned to questions about tradition, context and authorities: in the fourth, latest version of "Rhetorical figures"(2009) he raises the question about diplomacy and autonomy of art. Rhetorical figures which the artist uses refer to the language: its comparative, uncertain nature, functions and limitations.