New venue for Polish and international contemporary art
Opened on June 14, 2008
Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu (CoCA) in Torun is Poland’s first completely newly built venue dedicated to contemporary art since 1939. Located away from the largest urban agglomerations in a city famed for its unique gothic architecture, CoCA intends to influence the understanding of the artistic periphery and dynamically join the European contemporary art circuit. With its inter-media and interdisciplinary formula, a multi-format program and international cooperation, CoCA will present the most interesting facets of contemporary art and related discourse. The modern building and over 4 000 m² of exhibition facilities provide expansive opportunities for experimentation and technologically advanced projects. CoCA’s cutting-edge web offer, with its virtual gallery, community service and art database, opens doors to creative artistic and informational activities and fulfills one of its fundamental aims – to link local and global phenomena.
Through exhibitions, artist talks, seminars, artist-in-residence, publications, education programs as well as establishing a permanent collection, CoCA has committed itself to supporting contemporary art in Poland.
CoCA Torun was opened on June 14, with three art events:
FLOWERS OF OUR LIVES
14.06.-31.10.2008
Artists: Jesper Alvaer/ Kutlug Ataman / Walerian Borowczyk / Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkáčová / Oskar Dawicki / Wojtek Doroszuk / Lilla Khoór & Will Potter / Robert Kuśmirowski / Goshka Macuga / Łukasz Skąpski / Janina Turek / Andrzej Urbanowicz
The Flowers of our Lives exhibition examines the phenomenon of collecting and the collector from the sociological and psychological perspectives. Participating artists investigate motives that drive people to collect. The artists examine the moments when fascination turns into a raison d’être, an obsession to gather and an inner compulsion. The works deal with the dichotomy between gathering and collecting, explore the frontiers of these phenomena and the definition of what a collection actually is. The exhibition is a new voice in the current discourse on contemporary collections – not just art collections – and collecting strategies.
CoCA’s Subjective Guide to Collections, a book that depicts and describes private collections of various objects discovered in the local region, offers an enhanced perspective on this project.
Curator: Joanna Zielińska
The Way Things Are… Works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
14.06.-31.10.2008
Artists: Los Carpinteros / Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkáčová / Julian Rosefeldt / Allan Sekula / Andreas Siekmann
The Way Things Are… explores the question of artistic representation of today’s precarious work spheres within advanced economies. These multi-voiced “work histories” reflect the radical shifts in production and work processes and larger social re-stratification deriving from the changing orders of social representation. They are the symptoms of transitional states, where larger, planetary readjustments create localized distortions and conditions of morbidity in which entire sectors of skilled labor are at risk of displacement or disappearance.
The exhibition is complemented by a daily film series, True [Hi]stories of Work, with films and videos both from the holdings of T-B A21 and many other selected cinematic works framing the topic within various geographical and contextual parameters. Founded in Vienna in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary is committed to supporting the production of contemporary art.
Curators: Daniela Zyman and Barbara Horvath
ICEBERG
Installation by Angelika Markul
13.06.-14.06.2008
Angelika Markul’s installation, presented during CoCA Torun’s inaugural exhibition, focuses on isolated icebergs adrift near arctic circles. The artist draws equally important inspiration from the fantasies and dreams of her childhood ideal world. The poetic installation graces the black marble basin in CoCA’s lobby. The ‘time encapsulated’ white form contrasts with the new building’s architecture and the surrounding ‘hard’ black stones – it is monumental but will disappear within several hours. Its natural destruction is an inherent part of the work’s process and performative nature.
Visit us!
Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Torun
Waly gen. Sikorskiego 13
87-100 Torun, Poland
For more information:
Kaska Bittner
kaska.bittner@csw.torun.pl
SUPPORTERS:
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
Meinl Airports International
Trias Event Engineering
Panasonic
