Katarzyna Kozyra: "In Art Dreams Come True"

Katarzyna Kozyra is one of the world’s most famous contemporary Polish multi-media artists. The travelling exhibition now coming to the Ludwig Museum started out in 2003, and documents a project in two venues, Warsaw and Berlin, using the visual tools of theatre, film, pop music and opera. The Polish artist addresses one of the most disputed questions of our time, the role of women in society, and female stereotypes. The project: Kozyra choses two masters for herself. The first is a Berlin transvestite known by the name of Gloria Viagra, who, strange as it may seem, has the effect of awakening and developing the artist’s femininity, and helping her accept it. She takes Kozyra into the world of the Berlin clubs, teaching her the required forms of behaviour and the right make-up and hairstyle. The other teacher, bearing the pseudonym Maestro, guides her through the world of opera, where she learns – through a chosen aria – the excessive, forced and unnatural mode of performance by which opera expresses sublimated emotions. Each of the artist’s transformations constitutes an artistic act, a happening. She also presents these in performance, with the participation of the audience. Will visitors interpret the exhibition as a feminist provocation, or will they be made to think about their own roles in everyday life, roles which they may not want or be able to fully identify with?

Curators: Hanna Wróblewska, Róna Kopeczky Venue: 1st floor

Related events: Thursday, 27 September 2007, 6.30–8.00 p.m. DJ set by Gloria Viagra

Saturday, 29 September 2007, lumú 10–10 Woman in the Centre 5.00–7.00 p.m. Is-Is Rendezvous As part of the lumú 10–10 on 29 September, we plan a rendezvous between Katarzyna Kozyra and Hanna Wróblewska, Deputy Director of the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Curator of the exhibition and Pál Tamás, Director of the Institute of Sociology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Nóra Szily, Journalist

Guided Tours in English:

Saturday, 29 September 2007, Saturday, 4.00 p.m.Guided tour with Katarzyna Kozyra Saturday, 6 October 2007, 5.00 p.m. Saturday, 20 October 2007, 5.00 p.m. Thursday, 25 October 2007, 7.00 p.m.