Polish artist Artur Zmijewski is undoubtedly one of the most provocative working today. Famed for creating situations that test participants’ and audiences’ beliefs and opinions and in which we are made brutally aware of how fragile our moral codes are, the Warsaw resident’s work includes pieces such as ‘Democracies’ (2009), which records mass gatherings and protests through Europe and the Middle East and the seminal ‘Repetition’ (2005), in which Zmijewski re-enacted the notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment.
Spanning his practice from 2003 to the present day, his latest exhibition – running from 30 July until 9 October – finds Zmijewski at Sunderland’s Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art where he will be debuting an additional piece from his recent commission for AFoundation, Liverpool.
The work, which brought Zmijewski international recognition was ‘Them’, 2007, first seen at Documenta XII. Them, brings together four groups in Warsaw with conflicting views – members of the nationalist All Polish Youth, a group of young Jewish liberals, an assortment of leftists and a Catholic women’s group – in a workshop situation. Invited to each create a banner that represents their idea of Poland, the groups begin to discuss their differences. When they are invited to alter each others’ banners patience runs thin and what was discussion becomes aggression.
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