Festival of Art in Public Spaces

Robert Kuśmirowski

Robert kuśmirowski (born 1973 in Łódź, lives and works In Lublin)

Kuśmirowski creates imitations of reality, moving smoothly in time and space, from which he selects some elements and creates new configurations, that are neither documents nor fakes. He moves on the outskirts of memory, genuine matter and pure creation. He creates installations, performances, objects, photographs, drawings and sound experiments. He's working on a PhD degree about the superiority of copy over the original.

In the years 1998-2003 he studied at the Arts Institute at the University of Maria Curie-Sklodowska in Lublin, where he obtained a degree in Slawomir Andrzej Mieleszki's studio of sculpture. In the academic year 2002-2003 he was on scholarship in the Metal and Modeling Laboratory at the University of Rennes 2, Rennes Beaux-Arts. He is the winner of Passport Policy (2005) and Lublin Town Art Awards (2006). He leads Towot Squat in Lublin.

Kuśmirowski's works imitate objects, documents and photographs from the past. His first works were a copy of various single objects, from stamps to a freight train (debut at the White Gallery in 2002). Original elements mixed with artistic reconstruction. Mirrors and glasses used several times in various installations exposed the optical illusion that the audience was under. The artist creates suggestive images basing on randomly found objects, his own knowledge, intuition and imagination. In the "The Ornaments of Anatomy" (2005-2006) project Kuśmirowski created his alter ego- doctor Vernier, an anatomy researcher and the author of mysterious books; a character to whom Kuśmirowski attributed certain objects and spaces- an enormous library and studious and laboratories filled with innumerable props. His journeys into the past are often connected with real travelling, just like in case of the Paris- Leipzig route he covered by himself on a turn-of-the-century A. Wollberg bicycle or his the Łódź-Paris route he covered on foot during a lonely wintertime hike.

The artist willingly brings the PRL (People's Republic of Poland) times to his projects. The exhibition "Works" (2006) in Gorzów Wielkopolski consists of two presentations - modern and in the 60's style with works from that period. Kuśmirowski put on two openings with a typical for himself conscientiousness, watched by the guests from a mezzanine. During the opening stylized on the 60's there was plenty of vodka, cigarettes and the typical Polish cake "wuzetka". The second opening had a more toned down atmosphere. Another reminiscence of the past era is an installation "Portier" ("Doorkeeper") at "Crossroads" Centre in Lublin. A small room - reception has been carefully arranged in this spirit using specific details. The only trace that remained after doorkeeper is a note on the glasswindow with the words "I'll be right back."

In larger installations such as "Collector's massif" at Cracow's "Bunkier Sztuki" ("Bunker of Art"), Kuśmirowski's collector's passion is exposed. The difficult to seize collection is then created with the accumulated. It has been defined by Joanna Mytkowska as "the baroque of excess and entropy of details". Kuśmirowski plays an constant game with memory, history and nostalgia which comes with visual culture that multiplies following exhibitions.