Przemek Branas
photo Marika Szewczyk
I was born in 1987, in Poland. The essence of my artistic practice is working at the intersections of various media and breaking their structures. I use performance, photography, video, installation and research. In my work I often ferer to the figure of a craftsman as redifined by the Enlightenment.
Even if the outcome is something else, I usually start from objects, their physical presence, and the ways they can be represented. Recognizing the objects and the states they provoke results in a suspension of their status. The activity leading to the creation of a particular work concentrates on the conversion of static media into performative ones.
{I am interested in the political and critical aspect of art, which I understand as a declaration of one's attitude, not just as an artist, but also as a person. Although the practices of the critical artists of the 1990s have exhausted their possibilities, the potential of contestation and destabilization of reality through art remains unexhausted.}
I locate my art practice in different worlds like an island. This kind of cosmopolitan existence is of more interest to me than the idea of the globe. The local/global opposition is too close to sociology and prevents one from focusing on the geography of various phenomena itself.
I consciously draw from different aesthetics as I do not want to get attached to a single one. The untamed, unfamiliar -- borrowed for the sake of particular statements -- is treated as a means of expression. Aesthetization is a political tool, because it enables the mobilization of far more unconscious or repressed contents and has a greater potential of activizing the spectator than an ostentatious construction of a political language as such.
Przemek Branas
AWARDS
2nd prize Deutsche Bank and Zachęta National Gallery Prize, Warsaw, PL
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 Mountain Cosmos Head, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, PL, curator M. Linkowska
2017 Just a Dick/ Kawał Chuja, Grey House Gallery, Cracow, PL, curator P. Policht
2017 Ten Guys in One Car, Sesama Gallery, Yogjakarta, Indonesia
2016 The birth of Black and White, Księgarnia|Wystawa, Kraków, PL, curator P. Policht
2016 Worh–shop, Contemporary Art Center, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, PL, curator W. Szymański
2016 Masters Peasants Peasants Masters, (with K.Radziszewski) , BWA Sokół,Nowy Sącz, PL,curators W. Szymański, M.Ujma
2016 untitled, Meet Factory, Prague, Czech Republic,curators J.Varga, Z. Jakalova
2014 Hiccup, Gallery Re, MOCAK, Cracow, curator E.Tatar
2013 M.O.R.O, Wschodnia Gallery, Łódź, curator P. Chodań
2013 (nie)swój/(non)own,Gdańska Galeria Miejska, Gdańsk City, coordinator M.Sasin
2010 mapa (nie)pamięci, with S, Galon, Instytut Sztuki Wyspa, Gdańsk, curator M. Bochenek
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS, PERFORMANCES, FESTIVALS, ETC.
2017 Spojrzenia Deutsche Bank Award Exhibition, Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw, PL, curator D. Monkiewicz
2016/2017 Take a part in project about artist Moshe Kupferman–artist from Jarosław, BWA Tarnów and Gdańska Galeria Miejska,Gdańsk, PL, curators E. Łączynska–Widz, P. Stasiowski
2016 performance I Keep on Casting Geometric Shadows, Studio Gallery, Warsaw, PL, curators D. Jarecka, B. Piwowarska
2016 group exhibition, Communis – Renegotiating Community, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, PL, curators Ł. Mojsak, Sz.Maliborski
2016 group exhibition Midnight Show, BWA Wrocław, Poland, curators M. Grzegorzek, S. Szabłowski, K. Roj
2016 group exhibition, City.Cutout, BWA Tarnów Poland, curator M. Różyc
2016 untitled, performance, Return to the Island of South: Beyond the Boundary, Aisa / Europe, Kaohsiung and Tainan, Taiwan
2016 untitled, performance The 10th GUYU ACTION Performance Art Festival Shenzen, China
2016 untitled, performance, Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies CCCD Artspace - Green Wave Art, Hong Kong
2016 Fight for a fire, GreyHouse Gallery, Cracow, curator P. Sikora
2015 exhibition Ars moriendi, BWA Tarnów, Poland, curator P. Chodań
2014 Performance day,Domin(a)ction of space II, Contemporary Art Centre, Ujazdowski Castle, Warszawa, curator K.Kupernnikova
2014 performance Domin(a)ction of space I in Turbine Hale, Giswill, Switzerland, curator A.Seemann
2014 exhibition LOVE,PGS Gallery, Sopot, PL, curator B.Deptuła
2014 Mawkish romantic, exhibition, Contemporary Art Centre, Ujazdowski Castle,Warszawa, PL
2013 Performance Art Festival, dedicated to Jan Świdziński, MOCAK, Cracow, PL
2013 XV International Festival of Performance Art, Interakcje, Piotrków Trybunalski, PL
2013 performance Draft, PERFORMANCES POLONAISES -Le Lieu, centre en art actuel, Quebec City, Canada
2011 XIII’International Performance Festival „Interakcje” Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland
2010 Epaf International Perfrmance Festival,Contemporary Art Center, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland, curator P. Kempisty
2010 Museums Night, Gallery Fokus Łódź Biennale, Łódź, PL
2010 performance You are not, IS Wyspa Gallery, Gdańsk, PL
2010 XII’International Performance Festival „Interakcje” Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland
2010 International Intermedia Exhibition with J.Górowska, Debrecen, Hungary,
2009 Untitled, performance with J.Górowska,Berlin Freises Museum,Berlin. Germany
2009 XI International Performance Festival „Interakcje” Piotrków Trybunalski,
2012 performance on conference „Antybodies”,University Slaski, Cieszyn, PL
2012 exhibition”Knowing Nature is not a Nature” installation, Cracow, PL, curator Sz.Maliborski
RESIDENCY
2018 Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland,2 months residency
2017 Sesama Gallery, Yogjakarta, Indonesia, 3 months residency
2016 Meet Factory, Prague, Czech Republic, 3 months residency
2011 Spektartulum, Posneck, Germany
EDUCATION
2013 Interdisciplinary PhD Studies at the University of Art in Poznan, PL, Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies, Faculty of Multimedia Department
2011-2013 M.A, Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, PL, Intermedia Department, Performance Art Studio
2010 Most/Bridge Grant in artist Grzegorz Klaman, Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, PL
2009-2011 B.A- Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, Poland, Intermedia Department, Performance Art Studio