Polish
The Polish artist, Goshka Macuga's practice represents a provocative fusion between traditional sculpture and curatorial practices. She navigates the boundaries between the two and has inverted the language of art-institutional categorisation. The result is a lively investigation of contemporary art, which is by nature a risky and transgressive proposition.
Macuga's medium is her process of selection, her samplings. She is concerned with the circumstances surrounding the presentation of her works. By creating temporary site-specific works she oscillates between treating the exhibition space as both an object of scrutiny and an art object. Within this context, she presents pertinent information without intending us to take the time to read the full textual form she presents. Rather, we are to take meaning through her citation of these assisted ready-mades.
At her first major solo show in 2004 at Gasworks, a non-profit space in London South of the River, Macuga reinterpreted the famous 18th century Picture Gallery, which the architect John Soane had devised in his home and is now a public gallery in London's Lincolns Inn Fields. The layout of the picture room was exploited, producing an enlarged area of display, through the use of hinged doors that open like a modern poster display, thus creating an 'exhibition viewing platform'. Within a plywood recreation of Soane's four-walled room, Macuga installed work by artists she knows and respects. This juxtaposition of other people's work within the space of an exhibition is vastly different from that of the White Cube Gallery space, where individuality and independence is the norm among works. Focusing on the site of display represented a new approach to being an artist, a curator, and incorporated aspects of being an archivist and a collector. The experience also differed from most gallery viewing in that the invigilator had to open and close the 'walls' of the gallery to expose much of the work that was installed on its interior.
Being in an entirely controlled and transformed viewing situation was fascinating: experiencing Macuga's work, yet seeing a Michael Raedecker seamlessly incorporated into her installation was an inspiring viewing experience. She followed up the Gasworks exhibition with one at Bloomberg Space where she produced a Japanese Curiosity Box. Unlike the plywood of the Picture Room, the production values were higher here, resulting in a sleek wooden incised structure. Within this box Macuga managed to borrow works that included two odd abstract Andy Warhols, which she installed next to the suit worn by the first dog sent into space by the Soviets and other works by friends and those she admires. These juxtapositions of seemingly incompatible objects are part of Macuga's sampling act. Her work counters expectations about the traditional forms and functions of art. The fact that at this moment an artist has begun to complicate these institutional categories seems emblematic of a major shift - a de-stabilization and an expansion.
Solo Exhibitons
2005 Reconstruction of A Retrospective on Böcklin, , Darmstadt, Germany
Liverpool Biennial
Homage to Marcel Broodthaers, 27th Sao Paulo Biennial
2003 Goshka Macuga, Kate MacGarry, London
2002 Kabinett der Abstrakten, Bloomberg Space, London
Picture Room, Gasworks Gallery, London
2000 Friendship of the Peoples (with Declan Clarke), The Project, Dublin, Ireland
Untitled, Fundacja Galerii Foksal, Warsaw, Poland
Homeless Furniture, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
1999 Cave, Kunstakuten, Stockholm, Sweden
Cave, Sali Gia, London
Group Exhibitons
2006 16th Biella Prize for Engraving (curated by Jeremy Lewison), Museo del Territorio Biellese, Biella, Italy
2005 The British Art Show, Baltic & touring
Go Between, Amt der Landeshauptstadt Kultur, Bregenz, Austria
Can Buildings Curate? Architectural Association
Spring/Summer, curated by Simon Moretti, Program, London
2004 Automn Catalog Leather Fringes, Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland
Perfectly Placed, South London Gallery, London
Expo 21: Strategies of Display, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
Expo 21: Strategies of Display, Mead Gallery, Coventry
Relay, PR04, Puerto Rico
Trackers, PM Gallery, London
Tonight, Studio Voltaire, London
2003 Platform, London
Ponce, The Ship, London
Creek, Cell Project, London
The Straight or Crooked Way, Royal College of Art, London
Chockerfukingblocked, Jeffrey Charles Gallery, London
2002 T.O.F.U, Barts Wells Institute, London
The New Religious Art, Liverpool Biennale
London Underground, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei , Taiwan
Pause, Conception, Gwangju Biennale 2002, Project 1
The House of Horror, Outline Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
The New Religious Art, Henry Peacock Gallery, London
Woof Woof , Becoming animal, Project , Dublin, Ireland
2001 Zawody Malarskie, Galeria BWA Bielsko-Biala, Poland
Open Plan P 3 The Marathon, Alphadelta Gallery and Artio Gallery, Athens, Greece
Woof Woof, Becoming animal, Austrian Cultural Forum, London
Skuggspel, Tullkammaren, Umea, Sweden
Teeth & Trousers, Cell Project Space, London
Forever Yours, Wooden Heart, London
Free Wahlen/Uptight out of control 3, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden Baden
Avalanche, Hales Gallery, London
Curatorial Mutiny Part 4, Nylon, London
A very nice film club, Vilma Gold, London
2000 Sexy, Houldsworth Fine Art, London
1999 A mountain and a valley, Cubitt , London