Polish Pavilion Commissioner: Hanna Wróblewska Exhibition Curators: Daniel Muzyczuk and Agnieszka Pindera Assistant Commissioner: Joanna Waśko

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2 Polish Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia Venice, 1 June 24 November 2013 Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More Konrad Smoleński Polish Pavilion Commissioner: Hanna Wróblewska Exhibition Curators: Daniel Muzyczuk and Agnieszka Pindera Assistant Commissioner: Joanna Waśko Organizer of the exhibition: Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw Polish participation in the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice was made possible through the financial support of Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. The exhibition is organized in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Shipping Sponsor: FF Fracht

3 Production of the exhibition Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, 2013, photo by Bartosz Górka, CC BY-SA

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7 Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More Konrad Smoleński This project is a continuation of the previous explorations of this artist, who, being active for over a decade in the domain of visual arts, focusses his interest on sound. His works combine punk rock aesthetics with the precision and elegance typical for minimalism. Smoleński, through the use of sound objects found in the culture as well as of his own construction, examines the flow and effect of energy. By exploring the possibilities of electricity, sound waves and PA systems, the artist manipulates the meanings that we usually attribute to objects connected with the culture of rock music. The monumental installation authored by Smoleński, in the image of a symphony, will regularly repeat a piece composed for traditional bronze bells, full range speakers and other sonorous objects placed in the space of the Polish Pavilion. All the elements will play an equal part in this composition meant as both a visual and audio construction, where the delaying and modifying of the initial sound of the bell is of critical importance. The curators engage in a discussion of the treatment, to which the artist subjects the sound of a traditional instrument through the perspective of contemporary literary texts and scientific theories, which concur in their conviction of the inaccuracy or atrophy of the concept of time. Among them we find the hypotheses that challenge the classical understanding of these problems in physics, science-fiction stories, as well as in scientific elaborations on experiments and sound illusion. By this means, the dialogue of the artist with the curators of the exhibition will result in a vision of the dissolution of language and the end of time and history as we know it, without placing a value judgement on this phenomenon. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication featuring texts by Craig Dworkin, Alexandra Hui, Andrey Smirnov, as well as Daniel Muzyczuk and Agnieszka Pindera, who, in their previous projects undertaken together or individually, have already commented on the problems pertaining to the field of the history of science and sound. Supplementing this interdisciplinary book are interviews with a physicist Julian Barbour, a philosopher Simon Critchley, a legend of electro acoustic music Eugeniusz Rudnik, and the curator Thibaut de Ruyter. The full version of the exhibition s title taken from the book of Alexei Yurchak: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More. The Last Soviet Generation (Princeton University Press, 2005).

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9 Konrad Smoleński Graduated from the Poznań Academy of Fine Arts (2002). He has had one-man shows at the following venues, among others: Platán Gallery, Budapest, 2006; Stereo Gallery, Poznań, 2009; LETO Gallery, Warsaw, 2009 and 2012; Pinchuk Art Center, Kyiv, 2012; Frederic Chopin Museum, Warsaw, He has shown his work in numerous group exhibitions, e.g. Stomach, Słodownia Gallery, Old Brewery, Poznań, 2008; They don t know why, but they keep doing it, Waterside Contemporary, London, 2011; Freedom of Sound, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, 2012; HOOLS, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, 2012; Scontrum Evolutions, Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture, Królikarnia, Warsaw, 2012; Happines Is a Worm Gun, Rizzordi Gallery, St. Petersburg, 2012; Coming Soon, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, 2012; Twisted Entities, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, As BNNT he has participated in shows such as Was ist ist...!!, Manifesta 9, Genk, Belgium, 2012; Intense Proximity, La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012; Second Chance, Offen auf AEG, Nuremberg, Member of the Poznań-based artist collective Penerstwo. Member of the music bands Mama, Kristen, KOT, Sixa, BNNT. Artist-in-residence at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Prague, (2009); 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, Los Angeles (2011). Holder of a Ministry of Culture and National Heritage fellowship (2000). Winner of the Deutsche Bank Foundation Award Views He lives and works in Warsaw (PL) and Bern (CH). Production of the exhibition Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, 2013, photo by Bartosz Górka, CC BY-SA

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11 Konrad Smoleński, Drum Kit, 2009, object (burned drum kit), cm, private collection, photo by Konrad Smoleński Konrad Smoleński, The End of Radio, 2012, audio installation (microphones on stands, cables, amplifiers, DVD players, dimensions variable), courtesy of the artist and LETO Gallery, photo by Konrad Smoleński

12 Konrad Smoleński, The Death (Smierc), 2008, object (wood, rags, petrol, explosives), cm, action, 60 min., courtesy of the artist and LETO Gallery, photo by Konrad Smoleński Konrad Smoleński, There s No God, 2009, audio object (amplified loudspeakers, dimensions variable), collection of Muzeum Sztuki Łódź, photo by Konrad Smoleński

13 Konrad Smoleński, It s Bigger Than Me, 2012, audio object (wood, sound equipment), cm, courtesy of the artist and LETO Gallery, photo by Bartosz Górka

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15 Daniel Muzyczuk is a curator at the Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź and former curator ( ) at the Centre for Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Toruń. Curator of the following projects, among others: Long Gone Susan Philipsz, CoCA, Toruń, 2009; Gone to Croatan (with Robert Rumas), Galeria Spiż, Gdańsk; CoCA, Toruń; HMKV, Dortmund, ; Mariusz Waras and Krzysztof Topolski. Factory, CoCA, Toruń, 2009; Views 2011 Deutsche Bank Foundation Award, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, 2011; and Sounding the Body Electric (with David Crowley), Muzeum Sztuki Łódź, Fellow of the Young Poland programme. AICA member. Agnieszka Pindera is a freelance curator. Curator at the Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture at the Królikarnia Palace in Warsaw (2012), and at the Centre for Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Toruń ( ). In 2012, curator of the artist-in-residence programme at IZOLYATSIA Foundation (with Victoria Ivanova), Donetsk, Ukraine. Curator of the following exhibition projects, among others: The Past is a Foreign Country (with Aleksandra Kononiuk), CoCA, Toruń, 2010; Tag! Base! Hide & Seek (with Joanna van der Zanden), CoCA, Toruń, 2010; BWA, Tarnów, 2011; Berlegustopol (with Michał Woliński), Piktogram, Warsaw, 2011; Everyone is Marco Polo, ZOO, Gdańsk-Oliwa, Fellow of the Young Poland programme. Editor of the Practical Guide for Artists, AICA member. Daniel Muzyczuk and Agnieszka Pindera have curated the following projects together: MORE IS MORE (with Joanna Zielińska), CoCA, Toruń, 2010; The Melancholy of Resistance. Works from the Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, CoCA, Toruń, 2010; Sugar in the Air, The Exchange Gallery, Penzance, Their project, Memories of the Blind, won the Igor Zabel Award (2011) at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana.

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17 Organizer of the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion: Zachęta National Gallery of Art pl. Małachowskiego Warsaw phone fax Press contact: Olga Gawerska: press@zacheta.art.pl Joanna Waśko: j.wasko@zacheta.art.pl Press images: ftp.zacheta.art.pl user prasa password wystawa folder Wenecja th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia The Encyclopedic Palace Curator: Massimiliano Gioni Press Office la Biennale: Ca Giustinian San Marco, 1364/A Venezia Italy phone fax infoartivisive@labiennale.org Press accreditation for preview days May 2013 Registration by Online form: Graphic Design: Dagny and Daniel Szwed (moonmadness.eu)

18 Production of the exhibition Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, 2013, photo by Bartosz Górka, CC BY-SA