Street Arts

WARSAW - Zdjecie z krzyza - Brzeska 25 Warszawa

RENESANSOWY STREET ART

5 września podczas święta ulicy Ząbkowskiej 10 prac Joli Kudeli wzorowanych na 10 arcydziełach światowego malarstwa zawiśnie w starannie wybranych lokalizacjach Starej Pragi, gdzie będą funkcjonowały jako rodzaj typowych dla street-artu, rozklejonych na murach grafik.

Projekt jest częścią powstającego pod egidą Ministerstwa Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego przedsięwzięcia Jacka Schmidta „Otwarta pracownia wizytująca – znaki miasta”. W projekcie tym bierze udział ośmioro artystów spoza Warszawy i Polski - w tym na stałe mieszkająca w Paryżu Jola Kudela – którzy na różne artystyczne sposoby wypowiadają się na temat stolicy.

- Postanowiłam wykorzystać bliski mi ‘street-art’ – mówi Jola Kudela - z jednej strony umieścić swoje prace w przestrzeni miejskiej, dzięki czemu wychodzą one poza ograniczony krąg odbiorców wystaw, a z drugiej strony rejestrować reakcje „ludzi z miasta”. To ciekawe doświadczenie, szczególnie w kontekście otwartości i tolerancji. A poza tym projekt realizowany jest na Pradze, dzielnicy dość specyficznej, której proponuję przychodzącą wprost pod okna jej mieszkańców żywą galerię.

Każda z prac Joli Kudeli jest kolażem, w którym oryginalne fragmenty popularnego obrazu wkomponowane zostały w fotografie współczesnych ( w tym i Prażan).. To zderzenie renesansowego neoplatonizmu, który chciał poprowadzić ludzi ku szczęściu przez miłość i piękno, z warszawską Pragą, dzielnicą zakodowaną w zbiorowej, miejskiej świadomości jako miejsce złe i niebezpieczne.

Zmiana kontekstu dzieł ma z jednej strony charakter prowokacji, a z drugiej osadza projekt w bardzo konkretnej przestrzeni praskiej. W „Wiośnie”, będącej przetworzeniem obrazu Boticellego, w rolę trzech Gracji wcieliły się trzy pensjonariuszki praskiego Domu Dziennego Pobytu. Chrystus z XV wiecznego dzieła anonimowego twórcy „Ukrzyżowanie” u Joli Kudeli ubrany jest w garnitur i wpisany jest w znak dolara, a Bóg, który tworzy Adama, jest rastamanem. Pozostałe prace są nie mniej odważne.

Jola Kudela będzie dokumentować reakcje widzów na rozklejone w przestrzeni prace. Robiła to już w Paryżu, a rezultaty stały się kolejnym ciekawym „projektem w projekcie”.

Wszystkie etapy street-artowego projektu Joli Kudeli staną się dodatkowo tematem filmu dokumentalnego Małgorzaty Zarzyckiej - Ci starsi ludzie z przejęciem starający się w trakcie sesji zdjęciowej jak najwierniej odtworzyć pozy z oryginalnych obrazów dali nam tyle energii

i w takim stopniu zaciekawili, że chcielibyśmy wysłuchać ich historii i poznać rozliczne talenty. Bo wśród mieszkańców i gości ulicy Brzeskiej odkryłyśmy wiele osób szczególnie uzdolnionych. I tak „prosta sesja zdjęciowa” odkrywa nagle głębsze ludzkie historie, które tak bardzo chce się pokazać. Mirek Pietruszyński zrobił osobny cykl zdjęć z okolicy Brzeskiej i reportaż z naszej sesji zdjęciowej, a Małgorzata nakręci film – mówi Jola Kudela.

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It was the Renaissance that has started my appreciation of painting and I don’t think it was accidental. I think a lot of young artists fall in love with the Renaissance, this is where they discover perspective, learn light composition. Then for me came Art Nouveau, Schiele, and of course, the turn of the 21 century.

In paining, putting well known and recognisable icons and symbols in a contemporary context is nothing new. Artists have been doing it for centuries. It’s like finger exercises, a dialogue with the masters, but everyone wants to interpret those themes in their own way. It’s a bit like making movies about love, the subject is always the same, but the execution is different each time.

Going back to painting – let’s take Venus of Urbino for instance – Titian painted her in 1538 and it was quite revolutionary then. He painted her in a completely different context to the ones accepted in those days. Because Venus was a Greek goddess, she should be frolicking in a white gown in the clouds of the Mount Olympus and not pose naked in some Florentine mansion. A few centuries later (1863) a guy named Eduard Manet casts in the role of Venus a well known and not so well respected prostitute. Shock horror.
A few more centuries on, Jola Kudela adds her interpretation to the mix. But it’s not only about messing around with the form.

Each of those images has its meaning, the original one, i.e. “what was the poet’s intention all those centuries ago”, as well as my own, my commentary or interpretation. Saint Sebastian for instance – a Roman soldier tortured to death because of his sexual orientation. It’s an image and a symbol that has been interpreted millions of times in paintings, photography and film. Instead of being a Roman soldier, my Saint Sebastian is a modern person in black underwear, half-girl, half-boy, the so-called troisieme sex, persecuted for being different, for not fitting in. My Sebastian is being attacked with darts that symbolise “play”, being ridiculed, laughed at. But those darts can also hurt, they cut deep and leave scars, they exclude.
I have chosen the paintings in such a way that every person with an average knowledge of art history would be able to recognise the original it refers to and to understand the dialogue with the original. Renaissance artists (they weren’t an exception of course) invited their contemporaries to do the modelling for them. Very often these decisions were highly controversial: a painter would paint a dignitary and put him in a crowd of “saints” consisting of local down-and-outs or other dubious characters. Hence my desire to include locals from the Warsaw’s district of Praga in my images, as in the image of Christ, and the idea to involve people from a local day centre. I found the centre through Malgosia Zarzycka and Edyta Piasecka who collaborated with me on the project.
The project took seed in Paris and then lay dormant in a drawer, or rather on a hard-drive, for a while. Then, thanks to Malgosia Zarzycka and Jacek Schmidt, it suddenly blossomed in a truly renaissance way.

The spots to hang the images had been chosen with the street party of Zabkowska Street in mind, so the visitors could see those places during their stroll around and perceive the happening as an open gallery. I always make sure the surroundings of my visuals complement the image and interact with it. The majority of my images found their place near Zabkowska Street with one, or say three, exceptions. One of those was Pieta. The image found its place further away, near Sprzeczna Street, because of the exceptional beauty of the location. An old wall with remains of crumbling flats, crumbling life-stories, becomes an integral part of Pieta’s background, while the courtyard transforms into a chapel.
I remember a poignant moment during the hanging of the image – a pedestrian approached us, took the image in, lowered his head, crossed himself and said after a short silence: ‘it’s very beautiful, is it going to stay here? Thank you, thank you very much, it’s beautiful’, and he walked away...
It was very moving to see his reaction.

Contact with the local models gave me loads of positive energy and a conviction that in such joint effort one can find happiness and joy. These are the true roots of the project, the Renaissance form of Neo-Platonism, practiced by Botticelli, who believed in reaching eternal happiness through beauty and love. I didn’t think of eternal happiness while working on this project, but I wanted to enrich Praga with a bit of beauty and joy. At the end it was the other way round – it was Praga and its inhabitants who brought a lot of fun, joy, laughter and satisfaction into my life.
Inviting the folks from the day centre was supposed to be a slightly subversive act: as if entering a haven for Fallen Angels, all aged 60 or over, who end up in a day centre because they can’t cope with life in society. The society they contributed to throughout their lives and which now pays them back a pittance, not enough for a decent living. To be honest I was expecting human misery and what I found instead was a bunch of happy people. I think it’s mainly thanks to the lady who runs the centre, who gives those lost souls a lot of warmth and affection, creating a place where they can shelter from loneliness.
Why not accidental people from the street? Partly for logistical reasons, it’s difficult and time-consuming to accost strangers in the street, but mostly because in my project I wanted to highlight the notion of rejection and tolerance as well as differences and acceptance of other human beings.

- Rzeczpospolita
http://www.rp.pl/artykul/921198-Klasyka-na-obdrapanej-scianie.htmlKlasyka na obdrapanej ścianieeb 01-08-2012, ostatnia aktualizacja 01-08-2012 17:28 Komentuj 0Share on facebookShare on wykopShare on twitterShare on blipShare on naszaklasaShare...

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Street Arts