Irina Moreno: A Look at Delegated Performance Through The Lens of Santiago Sierra, Artur Żmijewski, and Yael Bartana PDF

A Look at Delegated Performance Through the Lens of

Santiago Sierra, Artur Żmijewski, and Yael Bartana

by

IRINA MORENO

A dissertation submitted in conformity
with the requirements for the Masters
Degree in Contemporary Art

Sotheby’s Institute of Art – London

©

2015

ABSTRACT

Random or planned, scripted or unscripted, live or mediated, performance art relies
on the relationship with the human body to deliver its message. Deemed ephemeral
and irreproducible, early performance-‐based works used the artist’s own body as
medium. Later on, globalization and the collapse of the communist regime ushered
in changes that fostered social collaboration and engagement, proving the validity of
Joseph Beuys’ dictum “Everyone is an artist”. Divided into monographic chapters,
this dissertation establishes a narrative that passes through the works of three
contemporary artists who use others to assert the reproducibility of people and
events. Their practice redefines performance art and challenges its ephemerality
whilst pushing the limits of human exploitation. Santiago Sierra (b. 1966, Spain),
Artur Żmijewski (b. 1966, Poland), and Yael Bartana (b. 1970, Israel) rely on
delegated performance to reveal inequities and tensions stemming from class
disparity, religious intolerance, and ideological differences. Works selected for
inclusion in this paper showcase the vulnerable and deprived, thus exposing the
invisible yet undeniable barrier that separates people belonging to different
factions. The dissertation considers issues of alienation and abuse, uncovering
certain groups’ refusal to extend love and acceptance across social and religious
rifts. I argue that casting actual members of the depicted minorities infuses the
works with authenticity and prevails as a compelling tool in revealing injustices and
triggering feelings of guilt in middle-‐class audiences. Centering on key ideas
formulated by theorists and art historians, the dissertation aims to provide a critical
understanding of participatory and collaborative practices prevalent in socially
engaged art since the early 1990s. The discussion will be framed by several texts
including Claire Bishop’s articles Delegated Performance: Outsourcing Authenticity
and The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents and Giorgio Agamben’s Homo
Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life.

2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation concludes a year of personal growth and remarkable intellectual
stimulation. First and foremost, I would like to thank my inspiring and supportive
tutor, Anna Moszynska, for generously sharing her knowledge and time and pushing
me to go deeper into researching this fascinating topic. Many thanks to each and
every member of the Contemporary Art Department, particularly Lauren Rotenberg,
for graciously answering my questions and always pointing me in the right
direction. I am also indebted to the amazing library staff. They replied to my email
queries within hours and went above and beyond to provide me with the materials
needed for my research. To my husband and daughters, thank you again for
allowing me to fly away from home and live my dream. I couldn’t have done it
without your unflinching support and boundless understanding. Finally, knowing
that Justin Schulman placed me on his role model pedestal humbles me. Indeed,
anything is possible. Dream on, Justin!

3
DECLARATION

I herewith declare that no portion of the work referred to in this dissertation has
been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of
this or any other university or institute of learning.

NOTES

Copyright in the text of this dissertation rests with the author. Copies (by any
process) both in full, and of extracts, may be made only in accordance with
instructions given by the author and lodged in the Sotheby’s Institute Library.
Details may be obtained from the librarian.

The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this
dissertation is vested in Sotheby’s Institute, subject to prior agreement to the
contrary, and may not be available for use by third parties without the written
permission of the institute, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any
such agreement.

4
TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations 6

Introduction 9
On Delegated Performance

Chapter One 14
Santiago Sierra: Employing the Unemployed

Chapter Two 26
Artur Żmijewski: Blurring the Line between Freedom of Choice
and Coercion

Chapter Three 37
Yael Bartana: Exposing the Other’s Longing to Belong

Conclusion 46

Bibliography 49

Illustrations 53

Appendix 1 64
Artist CV: Santiago Sierra

Appendix 2 75
Artist CV: Artur Żmijewski

Appendix 3 89
Artist CV: Yael Bartana

5
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Number Description

1 Santiago Sierra – Workers who cannot be paid, remunerated to
remain inside cardboard boxes (2000)
Kunst-‐Werke, Berlin, Germany, 30 September – 28 November
2000
<http://www.santiago-‐sierra.com/20009_1024.php>

2 Santiago Sierra – Person remunerated for a period of 360
consecutive hours (2000)
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA, 17 September
– 1 October 2000

3 Santiago Sierra – 160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People (2000)
El Gallo Arte Contemporáneo, Salamanca, Spain, December
2000

4 Chris Burden – Shoot (1971)
F Space, Santa Ana, California, USA, 19 November 1971
<http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/werke/shoot/>

5 Chris Burden – Trans-‐fixed (1974)
Speedway Avenue, Venice, California, USA, 23 April 1974
<http://mambahia.com/a-‐ultima-‐performance-‐de-‐chris-‐
burden/>

6 Santiago Sierra – 7 Forms of 60 x 60 x 600 cm each, constructed
to be supported perpendicular to a wall (2010)
Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane,
Australia, 20 November – 28 November 2010

7 Robert Morris – Green Gallery Installation view (1964)
Green Gallery, New York, USA, December 1964 – January 1965
<http://www.oberlin.edu/images/Art200-‐08/51074.JPG>

8 Santiago Sierra – Person saying a phrase (2002)
New Street, Birmingham, England, February 2002

6
9 Tino Sehgal – These Associations (2012)
Tate Modern, London, England, 24 July – 28 October 2012
<http://imageobjecttext.com/2012/08/08/ordinary-‐people/>

10 Oscar Bony – La Familia Obrera (1968)
Instituto Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 23 May 1968
<http://post.at.moma.org/sources/8/publications/134>

11 Santiago Sierra – Veterans of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and
Vietnam facing the corner (2013)
Team Gallery, New York, USA, 11 April – 25 April 2013
<http://www.santiago-‐sierra.com/201302_1024.php?key=9>

12 Artur Żmijewski – Them (2007)
Created in Warsaw, Poland
Premiered at Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany, 16 June –
23 September 2007
<http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/artur-‐zmijewski-‐
them-‐documenta-‐12/719>

13 Artur Żmijewski – Repetition (2005)
Premiered at 51st Venice Biennale, Italy, 12 June –
6 November 2005
<http://www.peterkilchmann.com/artists/overview/++/nam
e/artur-‐zmijewski/id/27/media/zmije12192.jpg/ >

14 Marina Abramović – Rhythm 0 (1975)
Galleria Studio Morra, Naples, Italy, 11 February 1975
<http://www.artribune.com/2013/04/serie-‐2-‐ritratto-‐
dellartista-‐come-‐mendicante/>

15 Marina Abramović – Role Exchange (1975)
De Appel Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2 July 1975
<http://massartonline.org/dbarneschi/2010/08/marina-‐
abramovic/>

16 Artur Żmijewski – 80064 (2004)
Premiered at Centre d’art contemporain de Brétigny, Brétigny-‐
sur-‐Orge, France, 12 November 2004 –
29 January 2005
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/arts/design/30zmije
wski.html?_r=0>

7
17 Artur Żmijewski – Our Songbook (2003)
Created in Tel Aviv, Israel
Premiered at MIT List Visual Art Center, Boston, USA,
26 May – 11 July 2004
<http://www.pssquared.org/polishculturalweek12.php>

18 Artur Żmijewski – Dorota (2006)
Premiered at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), Berlin,
Germany, 18 May – 24 June 2007
<http://visualarts.walkerart.org/oracles/details.wac?id=3934
&title=Lexicon&style=images>

19 Yael Bartana – True Finn (2014)
Created in Finland
Premiered at IHME Contemporary Art Festival, Helsinki,
Finland, 31 March 2014
<http://www.ihmefestival.fi/en/2014/03/ihme-‐festival-‐
begins/>

20 Yael Bartana – Mary Koszmary (Nightmares) (2007)
Premiered at 54th Venice Biennale as part of the trilogy And
Europe Will Be Stunned, Italy, 4 June – 27 November 2011
<http://www.pamm.org/calendar/2013/05/film-‐screening-‐
and-‐europe-‐will-‐be-‐stunned-‐yael-‐bartana>

21 First International Congress of the Jewish Renaissance
Movement in Poland (JRMiP), 2012, Hebbel am Ufer, 7th Berlin
Biennale, Germany, 11 May – 13 May 2012
<http://www.berlinbiennale.de/blog/en/artists/yael-‐bartana-‐
33323>

22 Yael Bartana – Profile (2000)
Created in Israel
Premiered at Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany,
1 June – 23 September 2001
<http://www.rijksakademie-‐artists-‐endowment.nl/page/
830/en>

8
INTRODUCTION

On Delegated Performance

“Delegated performance”, a term coined by Claire Bishop, refers to the practice of
hiring others to replace the artist and perform on his or her behalf. Instead of using
their own body as medium, artists rely on outsourcing to deliver their acts. They
typically select non-‐professionals and direct them to play themselves, the resulting
performance a combination of social sculpture1, spectacle and political activism.
Occasionally, artists employ professionals, specialists in fields other than art, to
perform in their areas of expertise, thus expanding the scope of the show from a
social, racial, or purely political manifesto into a display of talent. In her article,
Delegated Performance: Outsourcing Authenticity, Claire Bishop insists that
performance art is not dependent on the artist’s body to deliver its message.
Moreover, she suggests that there is no compelling evidence in favor of live work
over video or photography. Indeed, Bishop claims that:

Contemporary performance art does not necessarily privilege the live
moment or the artist’s own body, but instead engages in numerous
strategies of mediation that include delegation and repetition; at the
same time, it continues to have an investment in immediacy via the
presentation of authentic nonprofessional performers who represent
specific social groups. 2

This dissertation aims to prove that hiring marginalized individuals to play
themselves or using documentary-‐style filming to depict a day in the life of an
economically disadvantaged or racialized Other 3 yields a truer, more personal
portrayal of one’s suffering as opposed to an artist-‐led enactment. This results in a

1 “Social sculpture”, a concept introduced by Joseph Beuys, refers to art’s potential
2 Claire Bishop, ‘Delegated Performance: Outsourcing Authenticity’, October, 140
(2012), p. 102.

3 In the western world, “Other” is a term generally associated with one that is not
white, middle class, heterosexual, able-‐bodied cisgender male.
9
stronger impact on the viewer who recognizes that the performance is not a replica
of the participant’s life, but rather is his or her life.
A plethora of performances, whether live or presented to viewers via
photography or video, are works that shed light on the living conditions of the less
fortunate. Claire Bishop has emerged recently as a dominant voice in the discourse
pertaining to socially engaged, collaborative art, her article The Social Turn:
Collaboration and its Discontents being considered a valuable resource in examining
such practices. While distinguishing between the different, albeit highly interwoven,
aspects of socially engaged art, Bishop argues that the aesthetic aspect appears to be
overridden by the socio-‐political implications that the works attempt to exemplify
and the questions they pose. She asks, rhetorically, ‘Is there ground on which the
two sides can meet?’4
Delving on the notion of collaboration, the article further presents Bishop’s
view on the relationship between artist and participants. By placing them at
opposing ends of the autonomy spectrum, with the artist benefiting from a
privileged position over his collaborators, Bishop emphasizes the distance that is at
the core of collaborative works. Such distance stems from the performance being
delegated rather than performed by the artist. The degree of autonomy varies
depending on the type of work and the level of freedom allowed by the script.
In Include me out!, Dave Beech persuades readers to differentiate between
participation and collaboration. He argues that while participants follow the artist’s
instructions, collaborators need to be considered co-‐authors since they take part in
the works’ decision-‐making process. As Beech suggests, ‘Collaborators, however, are
distinct from participants insofar as they share authorial rights over the artwork
that permit them, among other things, to make fundamental decisions about the key
structural features of the work. That is, collaborators have rights that are withheld
from participants.’5

4 Bishop, Claire, ‘The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents’, Artforum
International, (2006), p. 180.

5 Dave Beech, ‘Include me out!’, Art Monthly, 315 (2008), p. 3.
10
This paper will focus on the work of three artists, Santiago Sierra (b. 1966),
Artur Żmijewski (b. 1966) and Yael Bartana (b. 1970), all creators of socially
engaged and collaborative art, each with his or her own way of representing conflict,
social disparity, and stigma stemming from exclusion. The dissertation will be
divided in three main chapters with a chapter dedicated to the work of each artist.
Similarities and differences between approaches to revealing existing inequities and
unearthing old traumas will be discussed throughout the paper along with issues of
subjectivity and representation. Works will be analyzed for content and significance
disregarding the distance, or lack thereof, between public and action. From a
theoretical standpoint, the examination will hinge on several key concepts, among
them Giorgio Agamben’s notion of bare life, Paulo Freire objectification of the
oppressed, and Theodor Adorno’s view of returning to the subject as an attempt to
eliminate the causes of harmful events. The dissertation is also framed by Claire
Bishop’s ideas whose articles on delegated performance and the effects of
collaboration on socially engaged practice triggered my interest and inspired me to
research this timely topic.
Considered by some a sensationalist, by others a merciless exploiter,
Spanish-‐born, Mexican-‐artist Santiago Sierra brings to light inequities that tend to
either be ignored or accepted as facts of life. He hires visible minorities, drug
addicts, illegal immigrants, unemployed, or poorly paid workers and pays them
minimum wage to perform humiliating and physically demanding tasks that depict
social inequities and class-‐based stratification. Answering provocation, the artist
claims that his work is made possible by the existing socio-‐political conditions.
Specifically referring to the recipients of his tattoos, Sierra remarks, ‘The tattoo is
not the problem. The problem is the existence of social conditions that allow me to
make this work. You could make this tattooed line a kilometer long, using thousands
and thousands of willing people.’6 He responds to criticism of human rights abuse by
reminding viewers that, although highly scripted and seemingly degrading,
repetitive, and pointless, his performances involve only consenting participants.

6 Marc Spiegler, ‘When Human Beings are the Canvas’, ARTnews, 102 (2003), p. 95.
11
Polish artist Artur Żmijewski uses video to reveal social conflict, oppression,
and injustice stemming from discrimination. His highly controversial works explore
racism, national identity and ideological clashes. Żmijewski pushes the limits of
ethics and morality and confronts viewers with issues that create shock and
discomfort. His practice relies on the participation of others whom the artist
typically entrusts with a high degree of freedom. Viewed by some as studies in
human behavior, his works attempt to strike a balance between conflict and
resolution, dissonance and conformism, revolt and peace. Unlike Santiago Sierra
whose works ask spectators to ponder on the reasons some people agree to stand
hidden in boxes for hours, get tattooed or have their hair bleached, in exchange for
minimum pay, Artur Żmijewski’s films bring to light people’s ability to unleash their
hatred given the right conditions. While some praise his attempts to create a forum
for reflection and debate, most feel that Żmijewski exaggerates in his means of
expression and that his performances far exceed the limits of what is deemed
acceptable. When interviewed by Anne Koskiluoma and Anna Krystyna Trzaska in
2013, Żmijewski dismissed criticism, claiming that, ‘Media or art critics write
comments from a certain position. They usually understand art as a spectacle, as an
activity conducted by individuals who produce fetishes, which corrupt peoples’
fantasies and emotions. The art object is constructed as a paradox or as a question
without answer.’7 For art to become a valuable tool in understanding the factors
that trigger animosities, Żmijewski believes that works need to expose societal
conflicts helping to clear the path toward a better understanding of our reality. His
collaborative-‐based practice sets the stage for the heated dialogue stemming from
the politically sensitive questions his films are raising.
Israeli-‐born artist Yael Bartana creates works that analyze national identity
through the use of history and collective memory. Part political manifestos, part
social sculptures, Bartana’s thought-‐provoking performances are laden with
meaning and collective guilt. Her performances explore the complicated
relationships between Jews and members of other European countries as well as the

7 Anne Koskiluoma and Anna Krystyna Trzaska, ‘Curatorial and Artistic Practice as
Political Process: an interview with Artur Żmijewski’, OnCurating, 19 (2013), p. 24.
12
legacy of Zionism in Israel’s ongoing struggle for survival. By inviting viewers on a
journey through one of history’s darkest chapters, the Holocaust, she not only brings
to light historical events but also pleads for a future devoid of hatred and violence.
She relies on the performance of others casting professionals, political activists or
Holocaust survivors to interpret the assigned roles thus blurring the line between
past and present, fiction and reality, propaganda and truth.
Through enactment or re-‐enactment, these artists produce socially engaged
works that present conflict, confrontation, resentment, and frustration. Drawing
upon the socio-‐political conditions that allow the creation of such performances,
Santiago Sierra, Artur Żmijewski, and Yael Bartana explore otherness8 and invite
viewers to ponder on the contrast between the poor and the privileged, oppressed
and oppressor, subordination and power. They are showcasing real individuals
whose lives are affected by real circumstances hence the choice to use actual
prostitutes, asylum seekers, low-‐paid workers, or Holocaust survivors helps deliver
a truer, more authentic message.
A series of books and articles have been written lately on the subject of
delegated performance and its impact on socially engaged art. This paper will
extract relevant information from the existing material and will use it to discuss and
interpret the role of such practice in contemporary performance art. The
commentary will be further extended through the presentation of selected works
from the portfolios of the above three artists whose practices revolve around
themes of social and national identity as well as human rights abuse.

8 “Otherness” stems from an established social order based on which certain groups
are deemed superior to other groups. Individual agency (or lack thereof) is
determined by the group’s hierarchical position in society.
13
CHAPTER ONE

Santiago Sierra: Employing the Unemployed

Santiago Sierra hires workers from underprivileged and marginalized groups and
pays them minimum wage to perform humiliating tasks. Taking part in Sierra’s
performances does not stem from an interest in art. Participants are in desperate
need of money and would do anything to get paid. Sierra’s works stand testament to
how far the selected participants are willing to go for just a little. Social disparity is
amplified as the works are presented in museum spaces where illegal immigrants,
heroin-‐addicted prostitutes, and destitutes would habitually not be present. Instead
of making viewers feel good, the artist provokes reflection by creating a heightened
state of awareness and stimulating what Jacques Rancière calls emancipation.9
Born in Madrid, Spain, in 1966 and based in Mexico City since 1995, Santiago
Sierra studied at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Hochschule für Bildende
Künste in Hamburg, and at the Escuela de San Carlos, Universidad Autónoma de
México in Mexico City. Early in his career, Sierra created large, three-‐dimensional
container-‐like forms, which, placed in galleries individually or in configurations,
dwarfed visitors and alluded to the power of commerce. Gradually he began
incorporating workers into his artworks. As Sierra explains when interviewed by
Rosalie Higson, ‘…(I) tried to look for the essence of manufactured objects. Well, if
you do that you cannot forget the worker. It was made by somebody in certain
circumstances, and I started to move in that direction and in the end it becomes
what it becomes.’10 The artist’s move to Mexico proved to be salutary. Sierra credits
his adoptive country with his shift toward confronting the workings of the global

9 In Jacques Rancière’s view, an “emancipated spectator” is one that engages with
the artwork extending his own interpretation rather than assimilating the artist’s
message without discernment. See Jacques Rancière, The Emancipated Spectator,
(London: Verso, 2009).
10 Rosalie Higson, ‘Conceptual artist’s war on complacency’, The Australian, (16
November 2010) < http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/conceptual-‐artists-‐war-‐

on-‐complacency/story-‐e6frg8n6-‐1225954004072> [accessed 2 July 2015].
14
capitalist economy through the use of representatives from the lower end of the
social ladder. As Rosalie Higson points out:

He also became more aware of race. “I realized I was white,” he says.
“I never thought about that, but in Mexico you become part of the
higher levels of society because you are European, the low level is
Amerindian or mixed race. These kind of issues were very important
to understand how tough the working conditions are in some parts of
the world.”11

Indeed, Sierra’s source of inspiration lies in the unjust socio-‐political
conditions that are triggered by the capitalist system as well as the economic
imbalance stemming from globalization. According to David Held:

Globalization is associated with an evolving dynamic global structure
of enablement and constraint. But it is also a highly stratified
structure since globalization is profoundly uneven: it both reflects
existing patterns of inequality and hierarchy while also generating
new patterns of inclusion and exclusion, new winners and losers.12

Consequently, an increasing number of people become available as a cheap
pool of labor. Sierra’s mise-‐en-‐scènes, abusive and demeaning, are replicas of
existing situations fueled by capitalist exploitation. As Claire Bishop remarks,
Sierra’s practice presents a:

…(N)ihilistic reflection on Marx’s theory of the exchange value of
labor. […] The tasks that Sierra requires of his collaborators – which
are invariably useless, physically demanding, and on occasion leave
permanent scars – are seen as amplifications of the status quo in
order to expose its ready abuse of those who will do even the most
humiliating or pointless job in return for money.13

For Workers who cannot be paid, remunerated to remain inside cardboard
boxes (2000) (Fig. 1), Sierra hired six workers to sit hidden inside cardboard boxes
in Berlin’s Kunst-‐Werke Institute for Contemporary Art for four hours daily for six

11 ibid.
12 David Held and others, Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture,
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), p. 27.

13 Claire Bishop, ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics’, October, 110 (2004), p. 71.
15
weeks. The workers were asylum seekers from Chechnya living in Germany. Under
German law, refugees received the equivalent of $40 per month. Although this
amount fell below the country’s minimum subsistence level, working and being
remunerated was strictly prohibited. Those who failed to abide by this rule risked
being deported. Sierra replicated the asylum seekers’ de facto ban from working in
Germany, albeit in a symbolic way. Helping conceal the participants’ identity, the
crudely made boxes alluded to the typical shelter housing assigned to those seeking
asylum, while the small space inside the boxes made movement impossible, a
reference to the work prohibition associated with their status. Despite being visible
on the street, illegal immigrants are invisible to society due to their lack of a legal
status. Hidden inside the cardboard boxes, the Chechens were present in the gallery,
yet invisible.
Sierra created Workers who cannot be paid, remunerated to remain inside
cardboard boxes (2000) immediately following his transition from urban
interventions to delegated performance. As Claire Bishop points out referring
Sierra’s practice during 1999, ‘…(O)ver the course of that year his work shifted from
installations produced by low-‐paid workers to displays of the workers themselves,
foregrounding the economic transactions on which the installations depend.’14 By
relinquishing his role as performer and employing real asylum seekers to act in his
place, Sierra infused Workers who cannot be paid, remunerated to remain inside
cardboard boxes (2000) with a high dose of verisimilitude blurring the line between
life and art. The artist has been known for highlighting social inequities by pressing
his finger on sore wounds and inflicting more pain. The epitome of controversy and
capitalist exploitation, his performances are consented to by willing participants
who are later remunerated. As Jonathan Harris remarks:

Importantly, “participation” in Sierra’s art is a form of paid labor. The
consensual “participants” are pretty much paid the same amount they
would be if doing their regular, low-‐paid jobs. Drawn persistently
from the abysmal bottom of the capitalist food chain, the

14 Claire Bishop, ‘Delegated Performance: Outsourcing Authenticity’, October, 140
(2012), p. 94.
16
“participants” prove art’s inability to escape the more general
conditions of exploitation characterizing the global economy.15

The work can thus be interpreted as a manifesto against exploitation in
general, as museum guards working in the same building were paid comparable
hourly rates for standing for eight hours despite being legally entitled to work in
Germany. As Sierra remarks when interviewed by Teresa Margolles, ‘Well, I have
been called an exploiter. At the Kunstwerke in Berlin they criticized me because I
had people sitting for four hours a day, but they didn’t realize that a little further up
the hallway the guard spends eight hours a day on his feet.’16
The theme of invisibility is revisited in Person remunerated for a period of 360
consecutive hours (2000) (Fig. 2). For an exhibition at P.S.1 in New York, Sierra hired
a man to live behind a brick wall for 15 days (September 17 – October 1, 2000). The
man was paid $10 per hour for his voluntary confinement and was given no specific
instructions with respect to spending his time. He received food and was able to
engage in conversation with visitors through a narrow opening at the base of the
wall. Although generally invisible to the public, the man felt that his removal from
sight helped him gather more attention and actually increased his visibility. As
Sierra explains:
When you hide something instead of teaching or revealing it, you

provoke a response in the imagination of the spectator. For instance,
the museum watchman I paid to live for 365 hours behind a wall at
P.S.1 in New York told me that no one had ever been so interested in
him and that he had never met so many people. I realized that hiding
something is a very effective working technique. The forgotten people
want to communicate—something that you also express in your
work.17

160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People (2000) (Fig. 3) is yet another example of
oppression and constraint as dictated by one’s place in society. For this piece, Sierra

15 Jonathan Harris, Globalization and Contemporary Art, (Oxford: Wiley-‐Blackwell,
2011), p. 203.

16 Teresa Margolles, ‘Santiago Sierra’, Bomb Magazine, 86 (2004), p. 65.
17 ibid. p. 64.
17
solicited the participation of four Eastern European women living and working as
prostitutes in Spain, a far from arbitrary choice as globalization and the fall of
communism eased sex trafficking by converting hope into fear. Eastern European
women who thought they would start a new life in a new country working in the
domestic help industry were forced to sell their bodies once they reached their
western destinations. Indeed, as Ron Synovitz explains referring to Eastern Europe
and the former Soviet republics, ‘Trafficking from the region for sexual exploitation
has become so common since the early 1990s that it is considered by experts as a
distinct wave in the global sex trade.’18 Addicted to heroin, the four women hired by
Sierra agreed to sit topless, all in a row and facing a wall, and have a horizontal line
permanently tattooed on their back in exchange for a heroin dose valued at $67, the
equivalent of two days worth of prostitution. Concurring with Marc Spiegler who
claims that, ‘human dignity is an economic privilege,’19 Sierra remarks, ‘Having a
tattoo is normally a personal choice. But when you do it under “remunerated”
conditions, this gesture becomes something that seems awful, degrading – it
perfectly illustrates the tragedy of our social hierarchies.’20 The tattoo thus serves as
a sign of otherness, a permanent mark showing the divide between low class
workers and the elite audience the work attempts to target. As Paulo Freire points
out, ‘The oppressed, as objects, as “things”, have no purposes except those their
oppressors prescribe for them.’ 21 The tattooed line is simple, yet laden with
meaning. Sierra uses it to create a piece that allows the public to see the disparity
between the privileged and the less fortunate. A precursor of performance art,
largely viewed as an artist who did not shy away from using violent acts to the body,
albeit her own, Marina Abramović will be discussed on page 30.
From an etymological standpoint, the verb “to perform” comes from the
French parfournir, itself composed of two words, par meaning “through” and fournir

18 Ron Synovitz, ‘Sex Traffickers Prey on Eastern Europeans’, Radio Free Europe
Radio Liberty, (23 August 2005) <http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1060878.

html> [accessed 11 July 2015].
19 Marc Spiegler, ‘When Human Beings are the Canvas’, ARTnews, 102 (2003), p. 95.
20 ibid. p. 94.
21 Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, (New York: Continuum, 2000), p. 60.
18
meaning “to provide”. An exchange is therefore established between a provider (the
performer) and the receiver of the performance (the audience). Moreover, the origin
of the word “presence” stems from the Latin praesentia meaning “being at hand” and
denoting interaction. Performance can thus be interpreted as a state of presence in
which the performer engages with the audience, the performance being “provided
through” whether by means of a monologue, as was the case of Joseph Beuys
explaining pictures to a dead hare, through agency transfer as exemplified by
Marina Abramović’s act of giving spectators the chance to act on her passive body,
or through delegated performance as practiced by Santiago Sierra. Despite changing
over time, from action to interaction, performance art maintained its object-‐free
status allowing the creative act itself to remain the end product. The artist’s body
however, once used as medium in the 1970s, was removed from the scene and
replaced – within the realm of delegated performance – by the bodies of others,
representatives of the marginalized groups being depicted in the works.
The making of 160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People (2000) involved Sierra,
acting as director and photographer, a professional tattooist, and the selected
participants. As seen on page 9, the lack of conclusive evidence in favor of direct
experience led Claire Bishop to believe its mediated counterpart was just as
effective in impacting the audience. Moreover, photography is able to give the
viewer a temporal distance. As Amelia Jones remarks:

While the viewer of a live performance may seem to have certain
advantages in understanding such a context, on a certain level she
may find it more difficult to comprehend the
histories/narratives/processes she is experiencing until later, when
she too can look back and evaluate them with hindsight.22

160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People (2000) was mediated and experienced
through film and photographs. Sierra used others as medium. Instead of paying for
the tattoo, participants were remunerated for accepting the permanent mark. By
comparison, Chris Burden relied on his own body during the 1970s to create

22 Amelia Jones, ‘Presence in Absentia: Experiencing Performance Art
Documentation’, Art Journal, 56 (1997), p. 12.
19
controversy and redefine the parameters of performance art. Bordering on
sadomasochism, Burden’s Shoot (1971) (Fig. 4) and Trans-‐fixed (1974) (Fig. 5) had a
dramatic effect on viewers. Extremely theatrical, Shoot (1971) and Trans-‐fixed
(1974) resembled a metaphor rather than capturing an existing reality. While
Burden was protesting against the Vietnam War by shocking the public through self-‐
inflicting wounds, Sierra is uncovering truths that society conveniently tends to
neglect. Although the wound, the blood, and the pain were real, Burden’s suffering
was temporary. Sierra’s participants, on the other hand, return to their misery once
the performance is over. Consequently, I would argue, using other people as
medium in performances that present viewers with a slice of participants’ life,
reduces theatricality, raising the impact performances have on the public.
Defying conventions, Sierra’s works aim to demonstrate that workers,
whether legal or illegal, are mere pawns of capitalism being coerced to sell their
bodies in order to make a living. Participants agree to perform tasks or have tasks
performed on them in exchange for a small pittance. Although just intended to raise
questions, not to solve them, Sierra’s performances reflect a sad reality. They help
prove how easily the human body can be exploited for labor. As Sierra comments, ‘I
don’t use [people] any differently than I would use any other material. They can be
ordered, altered and drawn.’23
For 7 Forms of 60 x 60 x 600 cm each, constructed to be supported
perpendicular to a wall (2010) (Fig. 6), Sierra relied on a recruiting agency to hire
individuals willing to be paid minimum wage to hold six-‐meter long, beam-‐like
forms for hours. The seven horizontal structures and fourteen workers holding
them, one on each side, created a repetitive, cadenced look. Resembling pallbearers,
the men and women stood in silence facing away from the audience toward a blank
wall. The apparent heaviness of the beams and the contrast between the white walls
and the black, coffin-‐like structures infused the scene with gravity and somberness.
7 Forms of 60 x 60 x 600 cm each, constructed to be supported perpendicular to a wall
(2010) helped Sierra bring awareness to a socio-‐political reality, young, able bodied

23 Pamela Echeverria, ‘Santiago Sierra: Minimum Wages’, Flash Art International, 35
(2002), p. 103.
20
men and women lacking jobs, holding massive blocks of wood on their shoulders, in
a resigned stance, heads bowed down, as if burying their dignity along with their
future. The work was reminiscent of Robert Morris’ 1964 installation at Green
Gallery in New York (Fig. 7). Morris’ placement of the seven large plywood
structures, originally intended as props for dancers, changed one’s perception of
space, scale, and form. The grey geometrical shapes forced viewers to move around
inviting them into the sculpture. Sierra’s inclusion of people as architectural
telamons added a new dimension to 7 Forms of 60 x 60 x 600 cm each, constructed to
be supported perpendicular to a wall (2010). The work, a combination of sculpture
and performance art, divided the room in two distinct sections, separating workers
from visitors and reminding watchers of their privileged status in society.
In addition to revealing social and economical discrepancies, Santiago Sierra
is also pointing to the value of labor and its exchange in the capitalist market. In
2002, the artist hired a homeless man to say “My participation in this piece could
generate a profit of 72, 000 dollars. I am being paid five pounds.” The action, entitled
Person saying a phrase (2002) (Fig. 8), took place on New Street in Birmingham,
England, a deliberate choice of location as New Street is known to be the city’s
busiest shopping street. By paying the beggar, Sierra was reinforcing the fact that
the performance, although seemingly exploitative, was free of abuse when examined
through a labor value exchange lens. Moreover, what at first sight might appear
abusive was actually consensual, as the man was not coerced into saying the phrase.
He was doing it of his own free will and was compensated for his gesture the
equivalent of a generous donation. The temptation to draw a parallel between
Sierra’s work involving rehearsed speech and Tino Sehgal’s These Associations
(2012) (Fig. 9), presented at Tate Modern as part of the museum’s annual Unilever
Series, is difficult to resist. The seven hundred participants recruited by Sehgal
worked four-‐hour shifts and were offered between £8 and £9 per hour to stop
visitors and ask open-‐ended questions such as "When did you feel a sense of
belonging?" and "When did you experience a sense of arrival?" The piece, as Lauren
Collins remarks, ‘…(I)s best thought of as interrogative art, a series of stylized
dialogues that cut through the niceties of social interaction, prompting a
21
concentrated exchange of thoughts.’24 Although different in terms of message, as
Sierra’s Person saying a phrase (2002) asks passersby to reflect upon class disparity
while Sehgal’s These Associations (2012) stimulates live encounters between
strangers, the two works aim to raise interest in the lives of others.
Widely regarded as the precursor of Santiago Sierra’s performances in which
the artist paid workers to appear in a gallery, Oscar Bony’s La Familia Obrera (1968)
(Fig. 10) introduced a novel concept, members of the working class becoming the
object of analysis of a middle class audience as part of a live performance. Bony
(Argentine, 1941-‐2002) hired Luis Ricardo Rodríguez, a pattern cutter, to sit on
display for eight hours during the opening hours of a show together with his wife,
Elena Quiroga, and their son, Máximo Rodríguez Quiroga. A text on the wall
indicating that Mr. Rodríguez would be compensated for the time spent as live
exhibit accompanied the work along with a recording containing the sounds of the
family’s everyday household life. Oscar Bony revealed class differentiation in the
most conspicuous way, forcing the bourgeois audience to come in close proximity
with the proletariat and setting the stage for viewers to become uncomfortably self-‐
conscious. By removing the typical work of art from the plinth and replacing it with
people belonging to a particular group, the artist opened a new chapter in art.
Indeed, as Luis Camnitzer points out:

…(B)ony tried to shock the public into an awareness of the great
disconnection that existed between high elite art and social reality. To
do this, he brought a representative of the neglected, oppressed, and
repressed […] into an arena where this individual would be seen,
noticed and registered by those in power.25

La Familia Obrera (1968) was radical in its use of people as medium and the
artist’s choice of pointing to a particular social demographic. Moreover, Bony paid
the sitters for their time, remuneration becoming as important as the working class

24 Lauren Collins, ‘The Question Artist’, The New Yorker, (6 August 2012)
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/the-‐question-‐artist>
[accessed 23 August 2015].
25 Luis Camnitzer, Conceptualism in Latin American Art: Didactics of Liberation,
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007), p. 177.
22
family’s presence in the show. Consequently, the work instilled in viewers a sense of
shared humiliation as onlookers realized the Rodríguez family gave up their dignity
in exchange for monetary compensation.
Similarly, Santiago Sierra hires workers to perform menial tasks for hours at
a time recording the details of his agreements in a manner comparable to financial
transactions. As Claire Bishop explains, ‘…(S)ierra is at pains to make the details of
each payment to the workers part of the work’s description, turning the economic
context into one of his primary mediums.’ 26 Acknowledging the impact that
delegated performance has on revealing class disparity, Santiago Sierra’s work pays
tribute to Bony’s La Familia Obrera (1968) by objectifying those it aims to
represent. As Kenneth Rogers remarks, ‘…(S)panish artist Santiago Sierra, working
in Mexico, Peru, Cuba, and Brazil, made a series of remuneration pieces in the
tradition of Bony, in which he hired local workers to perform actions that would
become art.’27
Since 2011 Sierra has been paying war veterans to stand silently in art
galleries, facing corners or walls. One of the works in the series, Veterans of the Wars
in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam facing the corner (2013) (Fig. 11), depicts a
veteran positioned facing a corner in a gallery, his gaze averted. His stance is
reminiscent of a child’s punishment with guilt and pride mixed in. Although staged,
the veteran’s action symbolizes the universal soldier plight. A victim of his country’s
war policy, the man stands in protest of conflict, in remorse for the violence he
committed in the name of defense, in honor to his fallen fellow soldiers. Patriotism
seems to have worn off. Or was it the need for money that drove him to the
warfront? The same need for money that made him respond to the casting call for
Sierra’s performance. He is a faceless veteran willing to degrade himself not for the
sake of art but for the small monetary reward awaiting him at the end of his shift.

26 Claire Bishop, ‘Delegated Performance: Outsourcing Authenticity’, p. 94.
27 Kenneth Rogers, ‘Capital implications: the function of labor in the video art of Juan
Davis and Yoshua Okón’, in Digital Media, Cultural Production and Speculative
Capitalism, Freya Schiwy, Alessandro Fornazzari, and Susan Antebi (New York,
Routledge, 2011), p. 45.
23
Sadly, after fighting for their country, many soldiers return home to fight
unemployment. According to Maria Gallucci:

Around 21.4 million men and women were veterans of the U.S. Armed
Forces last year, or roughly 9 percent of the civilian adult population
[…]. Some 2.8 million people are veterans of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, a group collectively referred to as Gulf War-‐era II
veterans. These veterans saw unemployment rates of 9 percent in
2013, compared with the national civilian average of 7 percent, and all
veterans in recent years have made up a disproportionately high
percentage of the nation’s adult homeless population. Some 900,000
veterans currently depend on federal food stamp benefits to buy basic
items such as milk, cheese, meat and bread.28

At once brutal and compelling, the veteran series places returned soldiers,
within Sierra’s body of work, in the same socio-‐economic category as illegal
immigrants, prostitutes and drug addicts. While in combat, soldiers follow
instructions, carrying out actions they have not devised, ready to die in order to help
others maintain their way of life. What drives them to enroll in the army, the artist
believes, is the payment they receive as compensation. As such, they sell their
bodies just as prostitutes do. As Sierra explained when interviewed by Reuben Moss
and Juan Albarrán:

In prostitution, you let the other enjoy your body, and you don´t have
pleasure, you only have money; and in the case of soldiers you forget
your own criteria and you become part of the mass criteria, you just
obey, even if you have to die. The army is the profession of the future
for the masses of unemployed people.29

No longer useful, veterans are presented as exploited while in service and
marginalized once released from the army. By asking participants to face away from
the viewer, Sierra uses negation to add visibility to the forgotten soldiers and their

28 Maria Gallucci, ‘Veterans Day 2014: Vets Face Challenge Despite Improvements in
Jobless Rates, Homelessness’, International Business Times, (11 November 2014)

<http://www.ibtimes.com/veterans-‐day-‐2014-‐vets-‐face-‐challenges-‐despite-‐
improvements-‐jobless-‐rates-‐1721570> [accessed 17 August 2015].
29 Reuben Moss and Juan Albarrán, ‘Shame, Guilt and Punishment: On Santiago
Sierra’s Veterans’, Art Experience: NYC, I (2012), p. 28.
24
struggles. Despite remaining anonymous, veterans bring authenticity and tangibility
to the subject of war inviting the public to question the reasons behind one’s
decision to join the military in countries where enrolling is voluntary.
Workers who cannot be paid, remunerated to remain inside cardboard boxes
(2000) and Veterans of the Wars series share a common trait. They hide bodies or
faces instilling in viewers a high dose of discomfort and triggering feelings of guilt
and shame. The fact that the participants are actual asylum seekers and war
veterans adds to the intensity of the experience. Similarly, the artist is placing
members of socially or politically disadvantaged groups in situations deemed
exploitative, tattooing prostitutes, spraying immigrant workers with polyurethane,
bleaching the hair of illegal African street vendors. Santiago Sierra is using others,
instead of himself, to infuse the works with genuineness and objectivity. He is
deliberately delegating his performances with the aim of delivering a more
authentic act. As Claire Bishop corroborates:

By relocating sovereign and self-‐constituting authenticity away from
the singular artist (who is naked, masturbates, is shot in the arm, etc.)
and onto the collective presence of the performers, who
metonymically signify a solidly sociopolitical issue (homelessness,
race, immigration, disability, etc.), the artist outsources authenticity
and relies on his performers to supply this more vividly, without the
disruptive filter of celebrity.30

Moreover, by employing ostracized individuals, Sierra is not only
highlighting their identity, he is also presenting affluent art audiences with a picture
of the participants’ suffering, attempting to instill in viewers the same discomfort
that his workers experience daily. Still, the artist is not offering a solution, nor does
he expect his works to provide answers to the issues raised. What he accomplishes,
however, is to turn the spotlight on those that society tends to neglect.

30 Claire Bishop, ‘Delegated Performance: Outsourcing Authenticity’, p. 110.
25
CHAPTER TWO

Artur Żmijewski: Blurring the Line between Freedom of Choice and Coercion

Arguably one of the most controversial figures in contemporary art, Artur
Żmijewski tries to conquer new performance territory. A filmmaker and
photographer, Żmijewski initially studied sculpture at the Warsaw Academy of Fine
Arts, later completing his training at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
Born in 1966 in Warsaw, Poland, the artist grew up under the Soviet-‐imposed
communist regime. Witnessing the end of the Cold War and the fast arrival of
capitalism greatly impacted his creative endeavors and led to a provocative, taboo-‐
breaking practice that included depicting the oppressed along with the crippled, the
sick, the forgotten. The artist uses the bodies of others, able or with limitations, to
reveal conflicts and examine individual and collective trauma. His works tackle
issues of national identity, discrimination, social inequity and tensions stemming
from religious and ideological clashes.
Żmijewski relies on video to record participants’ reactions when prompted to
act freely in response to provocation. Interview-‐based or documentary in style, most
of his films emphasize people’s propensity toward hatred and malevolence. As Ken
Johnson remarks, ‘Mr. Żmijewski […] practices a form of relational aesthetics in
which ordinary people are invited to participate in artificially constructed situations
as a way of revealing deep social problems.’31 Them (2007) (Fig. 12) is a case in
point. The film, shot over a series of four workshops, depicts the rise in animosity
between representatives of four groups with diverging ideologies. Constructed in
advance, the scenario follows the relational structures set in place by the artist with
drama unfolding through episodes in which characters interact. Each episode
consists of a workshop that is first filmed and later edited to depict a gradual
crescendo of conflict-‐laden scenes. As director, the artist incites antagonism thus

31 Ken Johnson, ‘An Artist Turns People Into His Marionettes’, The New York Times,
(29 November 2009) <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/arts/design/

30zmijewski.html?_r=0> [accessed 15 June 2015].
26
presenting viewers with his own artistic vision rather than the unaltered opinions of
participants.
To create Them (2007), Żmijewski gathered members of the All Polish Youth,
a youth organization with a strong nationalist sentiment, a Jewish youth group,
several conservative Catholic women, and a group of left-‐wing civil rights activists
and asked them to create a poster or banner that best reflected the idea of Poland
based on their group’s beliefs. Once the posters were finished, the images produced
were transferred onto t-‐shirts that were handed to participants at the beginning of
the second session. While the newly adopted visual identifiers helped each group
distinguish itself from the others, they also emphasized their opposing views.
Consequently, the t-‐shirts stirred in aversion and eliminated any possibility of
cohesion and agreement between groups. Known for their anti-‐Semitic beliefs as
well as intolerance toward gay and women’s rights, the Catholics and the radically
minded nationalists formed a common front against the left-‐wing human rights
activists and the Jews. Blinded by the ideologies of the groups they belonged to,
participants failed to reach a compromise or act in a civilized manner. With every
meeting, the rift between groups became larger and deeper and the chances for
dialogue smaller and smaller. As tensions rose, conflict gradually erupted turning
what started as a discussion into a full-‐fledged aggression. In their rage, participants
destroyed the opposing camps’ symbolic artworks.
Conceived to reveal, rather than ameliorate, political tensions, this work
challenges the idea that art brings people together placing Artur Żmijewski at the
forefront of what Claire Bishop calls relational antagonism 32 . In collaborative,
performance-‐based works, antagonism stems from the relation between performer,
his or her assigned role, and the audience for whom the act is designed. Indeed,
Them (2007) startles viewers by giving them a chance to ponder upon their own
beliefs and moral dilemmas. The artist uses living subjects to prove, rather than
discuss, social evils. Moreover, Żmijewski’s double agency (the work was included in
the Double Agent exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in

32 “Relational antagonism” refers to art that engages viewers by inflicting a sense of
unease causing them to reflect upon the tensions in society.
27
2008) is evident as he initiates the experiment, yet does not claim authorship over
its consequences. No longer the principal agent of his own work, the artist operates
via non-‐professional surrogates. Double Agent was a group exhibition that presented
the works of artists who used other people as medium. Included in the show were
works by Artur Żmijewski, Paweł Althamer, Nowolipie Group, Phil Collins, Dora
García, Christoph Schlingensief, Barbara Visser, and Donelle Woolford.
Them (2007) was based on an game that Żmijewski took part in as a student
at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under professor Grzegorz Kowalski. As Jan
Verwoert explains, ‘Participants assemble in one space, formulate their respective
position through an art work, and then respond to each other by altering the others’
works in whatever way they deem appropriate. Again, this is a situation in which
potentially anything goes.’33 The experiment proves that, when fueled by divergence
in opinions and driven by fanatical beliefs, temptation is high for pathological
tendencies to get unleashed. Taking this idea further as the basis of his film,
Żmijewski is using others to unveil the dark side of human nature in a
confrontational setting.
Similarly, Repetition (2005) (Fig. 13) exposes vicious behavioral proclivities
when people are assigned malicious roles. A remake of Professor Philip Zimbardo’s
famous Stanford prison experiment, Repetition (2005) recreated the initial
undertaking albeit with a twist. As Dora Apel remarks, ‘Żmijewski’s reconstruction
of the project in Warsaw utilized older unemployed Polish men and included
psychologists acting as experts who could stop the experiment, a former prison
inmate, and a sociologist involved in prison system reforms.’34 The intention was to
replicate the prison setting and its rules. The sixteen men, seven prisoners and nine
guards, all volunteers who knew the details of the situation they would be involved
in, were tested prior to being selected to ensure they were mentally stable. The
purpose of the experiment was to assess how people react in a new situation,
specifically when forced to play opposing roles despite belonging to the same social

33 Jan Verwoert, ‘Game Theory’, Frieze, 114 (2008), p. 166-‐167.
34 Dora Apel, War Culture and the Contest of Images, (New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press, 2012), p. 100.
28
group. To accomplish this task, the artist used hidden cameras to record
participants’ reactions. As the men took on their roles, oppression set in triggering a
wide range of manifestations, from brutality to fear to frustration. According to Jan
Verwoert:

First, the guards become progressively more sadistic as they realize
that the bare life of the prisoners is completely at their disposal. Then,
their newly discovered state of seemingly unlimited transgression
provokes conflicts between them over how best to enforce their
authority. Meanwhile, the prisoners get cannier in their subversive
strategies. One prisoner in particular shifts effortlessly between forms
of extreme obedience and obscene gestures of adolescent revolt.35

However, unlike the original experiment, Repetition (2005) did not need to
be stopped. Participants consented to leave the mock prison after seven days, before
violence got out of control, as compromise was sought over torture, hence validating
Żmijewski’s claim that no experiment should be considered conclusive if it
happened only once. Repetition, then, becomes imperative. By allowing participants
to assume responsibility for their own decisions and acts, the artist extends agency
to his collaborators inviting viewers to witness the work’s real outcome. Indeed, as
seen on page 10, Dave Beech defines collaborators as participants with decision-‐
making, hence, authorial rights. As Żmijewski explains when interviewed by
Valentina Sansone, ‘It was a great unknown, we were following a situation that was
progressing, but nobody knew where, a dangerous situation – we were on the edge
all the time.’36
The condition of bare life mentioned by Verwoert refers to Giorgio
Agamben’s notion of homo sacer, a man deprived of rights, outlawed and
unprotected, thus vulnerable to anyone who wishes to inflict upon him bodily harm.
As Mathew Abbott remarks, ‘…(A)s a being that can be killed but not sacrificed
[homo sacer] is exposed not to ritualised but rather to arbitrary violence.’ 37

35 Verwoert, Op. cit., p. 166.
36 Valentina Sansone, ‘Let’s Get Rid of Art’, Flash Art International, 42, (2009), p. 67.
37 Mathew Abbott, The Figure of This World: Agamben and the Question of Political
Ontology, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014), p. 85.
29
Repetition (2005) is Żmijewski‘s way of proving that, when handed the scepter of
authority, people show their evil side, the powerful exerting violence over the
homines sacri, the weak becoming pawns at the mercy of the strong. Consequently, it
is through the use of others that the artist is able to recreate Zimbardo’s experiment.
One may argue that Marina Abramović’s performances are equally
disturbing. Indeed, in one of her early seminal works, Rhythm 0 (1975) (Fig. 14),
Abramović stands for six hours next to a table with 72 different objects laid on it,
among them a feather, a pen, a book, a saw, a rose, honey, paint, scissors, gun, and
bullet. As both medium and subject, her body becomes the tool used to test the
limits of audience participation. While some refrain from hurting her, others are
violent and seemingly unstoppable in their rage. At the end of the six hours she
leaves the scene naked, dripping with blood and tears.
A lasting legacy in performance art notwithstanding, Rhythm 0 (1975) differs
from socially engaged art. The work does not reveal marginalization, inequalities or
political tensions. Although extremely powerful and similar to Them (2007) and
Repetition (2005) in terms of potential to unleash uncontrolled human rage once
barriers are removed, the artist’s choice to use her own body serves a different
purpose. It does not invite viewers to think about the less fortunate but rather to
contemplate on the ravaging effects of agency. Allowing the audience to paint,
decorate, potentially mutilate, rape or even kill her, Abramović strips herself down
to bare life. Still, despite handing control over to the audience, her act is voluntary
ending once the performance is over, hence not comparable to the marginalized
who, as homo sacer, is abused, tortured, or humiliated by sovereign power.
Consequently, the use of others, members of the depicted minorities, prevails as a
compelling tool in portraying injustices and instilling guilt in middle-‐class
audiences.
Role Exchange (1975) (Fig. 15) proves this point. To showcase class disparity,
Marina Abramović traded roles with a prostitute from the Red Light District in
Amsterdam. The artist sat in the prostitute’s window while the prostitute replaced
Abramović during the opening of her show at the De Appel Gallery. Upon entering
30
the gallery, visitors were surprised to see the prostitute, the encounter forcing them
to question the stigma associated with sex labor.
Testing the reaction of the homo sacer when coerced into accepting a doomed
role, Żmijewski’s eleven-‐minute video 80064 (2004) (Fig. 16) depicts the re-‐
tattooing of the prison ID number on the arm of 92-‐year old Józef Tarnawa,
an Auschwitz survivor. Although Tarnawa initially protests, claiming that the new
tattoo would lack authenticity, the artist convinces him and the re-‐tattooing takes
place as per the agreement entered into prior to filming. As Żmijewski explains, ‘It
was a deal: we met before and he signed a contract stating that I pay him 500 Euro
for renewing the tattoo.’38 Asked by Żmijewski if he ever protested the treatment
imposed on him by the Nazis, Tarnawa replies, ‘Protest? What do you mean protest?
Adapt – try and survive!’39 By agreeing to have his number re-‐tattooed, Tarnawa is
giving in, becoming a victim once more. He falls into the compliance trap validating
the mark that the old trauma left on him. Emancipation via usurping sovereign
power over bare life is still unthinkable, sixty years later. Here the notion of
revictimization comes in conflict with Sigmund Freud’s theory that calls for a second
iteration in order for trauma to be registered as such.40 Freud, however, died in
1939 right before extermination camps were introduced. As Milija Gluhovic
remarks, ‘…(T)arnawa’s agreement to have his Auschwitz tattoo refreshed confirms
that those who survived Auschwitz did so usually at the cost of submitting to and
participating in the traumatic conditions of camp life.’41 Still, Gluhovic admits:

For Tarnawa to consent to have his Auschwitz number re-‐tattooed
many decades after the original procedure, no matter how coercive
the actual soliciting of this consent may have been, is certainly

38 Milija Gluhovic, Performing European Memories: Trauma, Ethics, Politics, (New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), p. 229.

39 Sebastian Cichocki and Jane Fraver, Artur Żmijewski: If it happened only once it’s as
if never happened, (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2005), p. 24.

40 According to Sigmund Freud, it takes two traumas to make a trauma. A first event
must be followed by a second event that the subject, now older, can understand and
record.
41 Gluhovic, Op. cit., p. 235.
31
different from being forced to submit to the humiliating procedure
within the horror of extermination. 42

As the man talks about his suffering and degradation while in the
concentration camp, old wounds are being reopened. Moreover, the concrete
physical pain produced by the tattooist adds to the emotional pain. One may
symbolically draw a parallel between 80064 (2004) and the cruel medical
experiments conducted by the Nazis on prisoners like Józef Tarnawa during WWII.
By compelling Tarnawa to retell his story while allowing for his number ID to be
refreshed, Żmijewski hopes to engage viewers and penetrate deep into their minds.
As Milija Gluhovic points out, the artist is not looking to restore the survivor’s
dignity and identity. Instead, Gluhovic claims, Żmijewski aims to, ‘…(B)reak
(sometimes coercively and violently) through the protective layers of [his]
consciousness in order to capture the feeling of what having been in the Nazi
extermination camps was like, and make [his] “deep memory” of the traumatic past
literally accessible to those who were not there.’43 Indeed, unearthing harrowing
events through storytelling deeply affects those who did not experience the ordeal
firsthand. According to Marianne Hirsch, ‘…(I)t is only in subsequent generations
that trauma can be witnessed and worked through, by those who were not there to
live it but who received its effects, belatedly, through the narratives, actions and
symptoms of the previous generation.’44
Using Tarnawa is key in ensuring authenticity and creating a gripping
performance. Żmijewski entrusts the survivor with delivering an act that, besides
involving the re-‐tattooing of his camp ID number, admittedly a painful experience
both physically as well as emotionally, is script-‐free. Although the artist remains in
charge of the performance by conducting the interview, the spotlight belongs to the
92-‐year old survivor whose disturbing past becomes the attention grabber. Tarnawa

42 ibid. p. 234.
43 ibid. p. 228.
44 Marianne Hirsch, ‘Surviving Images: Holocaust Photographs and the Work of
Postmemory’, in Visual Culture and the Holocaust, Barbie Zelizer (London: The
Athlone Press, 2001), p. 222.

32
opens up about his experience describing the abuse and terror imposed by SS officer
Gerhard Palitzsch, notorious for his brutal acts, and responding to Żmijewski’s
questions by providing detailed information such as his date of birth, 16 April 1912,
and the date he was removed from civilian life and taken to Auschwitz, 4 December
1942. 80064 (2004) goes beyond the performance realm turning into one man’s
personal recount of life behind bars in a concentration camp. It is only through
delegated performance that the artist is able to present viewers with a real
testimony and not an artist-‐led re-‐enactment of someone else’s story.
While the 2001 publication of Jan Gross’ Neighbors: The Destruction of the
Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland sparked controversy and triggered the
creation of numerous artworks with Jewish content, among them Mirosław Bałka’s
How It Is (2009), Yael Bartana’s And Europe Will Be Stunned (2007-‐2011), Wojciech
Wilczyk’s There’s No Such Thing As An Innocent Eye (2008), and Rafał Betlejewski’s I
Miss You, Jew! (2005-‐ongoing), for Żmijewski, the book’s impact was one of interest
validation. His Game of Tag (1999), featuring naked men and women playing a game
of tag in former gas chambers, preceded Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish
Community in Jedwabne, Poland. Following the book’s publication, the artist’s initial
attack on cultural taboos shifted toward reexamining the war and its aftermath.
Exploring national identity and individual memory, Our Songbook (2003)
(Fig. 17) presents viewers with an emotional display of Polish pride. The
performance takes place in a nursing home in Tel Aviv where Artur Żmijewski asks
several residents, Polish Jews who emigrated to Israel during or after World War II,
to sing songs from their childhood and youth. They sing, individually, songs or
fragments of songs, stumbling upon forgotten verses or humming the refrains.
Popular songs are mixed in with the Polish national anthem and songs about love.
Despite being forced to leave Poland because of anti-‐Semitism, they still feel
connected to their country of birth, their first language, their memories. They are
Jews, but they are also Poles, and their patriotism pervades through the choice of
their songs. As they scratch their head and shyly look for missing words,
participants deliver a moving act, one that cannot be replicated by the artist or any
hired actor. It is through them that Żmijewski attempts to shatter the belief that
33
Polish Jews are filled with resentment toward the country that robbed them of their
youth and dignity. The depth of their feelings stands testament to their allegiance to
Poland while the frailty of their memory and brittleness of voices adds to the
poignancy of their performance.
Switching from Holocaust trauma to current day victims of marginalization,
Żmijewski’s series of documentary style portraits Dorota (2006), Halina (2006),
Aldo (2007), Yolanda (2007), Patricia (2007) offers a glimpse into the lives of low-‐
paid workers from Poland, Italy, Mexico, and Germany. The artist increasingly
moves away from the national preoccupations of his earlier subjects to cast a wider,
more global net by depicting the oppressed in all their humbleness. Dorota, Halina,
Aldo, Yolanda, and Patricia were filmed over 24 hours, the camera following them at
their places of work, on the way to work, running errands in the afternoon, and at
home with their families. Edited to 15 minutes, down from 24 hours, the resulting
videos are visual diaries that shed light on otherness through the unmasking of
everyday realities faced by the invisible, yet omnipresent workers. Dorota (2006)
(Fig. 18) shows a day in the life of a cashier who works at Real, a Polish
hypermarket. Dorota wakes up every day and does her hair and makeup. Wearing
fancy clothes and looking like a movie star she takes the bus to work, her
appearance in dissonance with the looks of other bus riders as well as shoppers
once at the supermarket. She returns home where she starts vacuuming her tidy
apartment composed of a blue room and a pink room. Despite having what many
may consider a life of doom and hardship, Dorota in not unhappy. She is married,
has two children and a job. She goes through the day without thinking too much.
When she finally falls asleep, all she seems to care about is how to protect her
hairdo. By recording his protagonist’s mundane life and pointing to the repetitive
physical tasks that make up her day, the artist invites viewers to go on a ‘behind-‐
the-‐scenes’ tour that leads to the discovery of the private Dorota. She represents the
masses whose existence is dependent on manual labor and who, like other low-‐paid
workers, is invisible and ignored by society. Asked by Valentina Sansone why he
chose to portray Dorota, Halina, Aldo, Yolanda, Patricia, along with the other
workers featured in the eponymous series of films, Żmijewski explains:
34

It’s fully acceptable do declare in public: “I’m a lesbian, I’m gay or I’m
ill with a brain tumor.” Even if you say: “I was a heroin junkie,”
members of the middle class are ready for your confession. But what if
you are a construction worker or a cleaning lady? What if you are an
immigrant worker and you are not educated?” That kind of coming
out is shameful. I met these workers and I tried to show their world –
to break the silence. […] So all those invisible lower-‐class people
suddenly appear in these series, in all their degraded beauty, and say,
“Here we are, notice us!”45

Globalization has established a new set of rules reinforcing stratification
based on social status. By depicting real, low-‐income people engaged in day-‐to-‐day
activities, Żmijewski is bringing to light facts of life that are ubiquitous, yet seem to
be overlooked. His portrait-‐like works unveil the protagonists’ struggles
emphasizing their doomed condition. Devoid of hope, these workers are condemned
to an endlessly laborious life as dictated by the system they are part of.
Giorgio Agamben theory of bare life frames this social reality well. Stemming
from sovereignty and its state of exclusion or exception, society treats those at the
lower end of the socio-‐economic hierarchy as if they have little or no value. At once
helpless and weak, the underprivileged are at risk of becoming homines sacri. The
lowly workers, the illegal immigrants, the destitutes, seem trapped in their life,
tacitly accepting their fate, unable to escape domination or change the rules of the
game. As Agamben remarks, ‘If it is the sovereign who, insofar as he decides on the
state of exception, has the power to decide which life may be killed without the
commission of homicide, in the age of biopolitics46 this power becomes emancipated
from the state of exception and transformed into the power to decide the point at
which life ceases to be politically relevant.’47 The value or non-‐value of life thus rests
with the sovereign. In the context of the free market economy the working class and
the poor are at the mercy of the capitalist class. As basic human resources the
economy uses them as needed. Their lack of skills and education makes them

45 Sansone, Op. cit., p. 67.
46 Biopolitics refers to social and political power over life.
47 Agamben, Giorgio, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1998), p. 142.
35
vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. From a political standpoint, the refugees’ lack
of legal status renders the value of their life similarly nil.
Artur Żmijewski joins Santiago Sierra in exploring societal exclusion by
questioning the dichotomies of human and inhuman, bare life and sovereignty, norm
and exception, remorse and virtue. Although they differ in the way they present
their work, as Sierra’s choice to deliver the message is live performance while
Żmijewski prefers film, their intentions are comparable, to render viewers strangely
complicit and instill in them a sense of discomfort and guilt. Indeed, using relational
antagonism, Sierra and Żmijewski create works that challenge one’s conscience
through unease and sustained tension. Moreover, rather than attempting to retell
stories using their own voice, both artists rely on members of stigmatized groups to
unveil harsh realities and forgotten truths. As will be seen, Yael Bartana addresses
similar issues albeit with a twist, as she occasionally blurs the line between fact and
fiction.

36
CHAPTER THREE

Yael Bartana: Exposing the Other’s Longing to Belong

Working primarily in film, Yael Bartana investigates questions surrounding society,
religion, and politics focusing on the meanings of homeland and belonging. Like
Artur Żmijewski and Santiago Sierra, Bartana employs the use of others to deliver
her message. Part documentaries, part staged propagandas, Bartana’s films bring to
light unresolved political conflicts unveiling the scars left by some of history’s
deepest wounds. Through her provocative choice of topics, she explores contested
histories questioning collective memory and national identity. Some of her works
zoom in on Israel’s right to existence while others depict European Jews’ struggle to
live outside Israel amid persistence of anti-‐Semitism and rise of extreme right in
Europe. In addition to the works with Jewish content, Bartana’s films encompass a
wide range of other subjects from rituals to symbolical representations of peace to
immigration and cultural assimilation.
True Finn (2014) (Fig. 19) asks a seemingly simple, yet multi-‐faceted
question – who is a true Finn? Taking its title from Finns Party, Finland’s populist
nationalist party and the country’s largest parliamentary opposition since 2011,
Bartana’s film presents viewers with a critical debate over core values and national
pride. Indeed, as Raimar Stange remarks, ‘At stake in True Finn is the idea of
‘national identity’, its problematic history, contradictory present and precarious
future in a globalized world.’48 As a result of an open call, eight Finnish citizens of
varying religious and political affiliations, originally from places like Japan,
Germany, Estonia, Sweden, Canada and Somalia, gather together in a remote cabin
in the countryside where they spend seven days sharing their experiences of
belonging to, or feeling isolated from, Finnish society while engaging in a plethora of
group activities, some typically Finnish, such as fishing, going to the sauna, chopping
logs, and collecting firewood. Following the artist’s directions, they design a new
flag, compose the lyrics of a new national anthem, and give election speeches aimed

48 Raimar Stange, ‘Yael Bartana’, Art Review, 67 (2015), p. 138.
37
at being voted a true Finn. Debating is at the core of the work and almost every
activity brings along an opportunity for opinion sharing and decision making. As
Galia Yahav remarks:

Problems begin to emerge at the very first communal meal: Should a
prayer be uttered before they start eating? And what about the atheist
in the group? […] The group designs a flag. “I don’t think the Finns
have ever been a warlike people; there’s nothing to be ashamed of in
the present flag. Finland is pure. There’s innocence, whiteness, purity”
in the current flag. Does the white symbolize “the space for the
individual and the community”? The discussion continues to revolve
around questions of the meaning of national symbols in the global era.
The second task is to write a new national anthem. This time the
dispute is over religious references and the name of God. Gradually
the question of “who is a Finn” emerges, and of who has the right to
buy land in the country.’49

Wearing “True Finn” emblazoned T-‐shirts and traditional Finnish garb,
participants are depicted as members of the same team, ‘Team Finland’. Despite
differences in opinions, they are able to cooperate and work together on projects.
Moreover, discussions are courteous and tone is measured. Language is kept to a
minimum turning dialogue into an amiable and concise exchange of ideas. There are
no heated arguments, no outbursts, no accusations. Viewers are invited to engage
with the topics and reflect upon the issues raised.
In addition to immigration, True Finn (2014) examines the issue of
assimilation through the lens of indigenous people. When a Sámi woman visits,
participants are compelled to debate whether Sámis should be considered the
original Finns. Integrated into the general population, Sámis are indigenous people
currently living in small communities in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and on
Russian Kola peninsula. Bartana’s introduction of the Sámi woman is deliberate and
geared toward questioning the status of indigenous people worldwide, not just in
Finland. As minorities, their language, clothing, and customs tend to be
overshadowed by the dominant culture they are part of. Despite efforts by the new

49 Galia Yahav, ‘Freeze frame: Maybe Israel isn’t so dissimilar from Finland after all’,
Haaretz, (10 January 2015) <http://www.haaretz.com/life/arts-‐leisure/.premium-‐

1.635983> [accessed 11 June 2015].
38
generation to be included in the general society, Sámis, Eskimos, Inuits, Native
Americans, and others are deemed to belong to the indigenous community.
Exclusion ensues. Indeed, the very question of whether or not to consider Sámis as
true Finns stems from inadvertent discrimination.
Resembling a reality TV show, Bartana conceived True Finn (2014) as an
exercise in accepting the Other under the guise of defining a Finnish patriot. The
social project ends with one of the participants, a Somali-‐born man, selected as the
winner of the contest and named the ‘true Finn of the week’, raising the newly
designed flag.
As Raimar Stange points out, ‘With True Finn […] the artist succeeds in
creating a multilayered reflection on the theme of nationalism, which asks many
questions but consistently avoids giving answers. And in this case she relies not on
loud provocation but on sensitive, thoughtful chords.’50 By contrast, Żmijewski’s film
Them (2007) depicts anger and confrontation. Members of the four ideologically
opposite groups clash and resort to violence. They react to each other’s slogans and
beliefs with vehemence and unstoppable rage. Indeed, while True Finn (2014) is
centered around collaboration, as Bartana asked participants to collectively design a
new flag and compose a new anthem, Them (2007) depicts extreme violence as
Żmijewski encourages members of the four groups to freely react against the
opposing camp’s artwork and respond to provocation without any fear of being
reprimanded. For both artists, using delegated performance is key in allowing
viewers to witness participants’ real, unmediated reactions. Referring to the use of
users, Yael Bartana explains:

It was very important for them to be included in the project and it’s
really real, it’s very sincere. It’s an obvious kind of reaction to the
situations they were placed in, but they really do want to be
recognized as true Finns. If you’re privileged and are not deprived of

50 Stange, Op. cit. p. 138.
39
your rights, there is no doubt about who you are. You don’t have to
fight for it, you’re just there. But they have to fight to be recognized.51

As opposed to Santiago Sierra who hides invisible immigrants in boxes and
places them ostentatiously in museums in order to increase their visibility, Yael
Bartana gives them a voice and a platform for debate and discussion. Despite the
two artists’ difference in approaches, the intention is the same, to raise public
awareness and trigger social acceptance.
Collective guilt and one’s readiness to accept the Other is also explored in
Bartana’s trilogy And Europe Will Be Stunned (2007-‐2011), albeit through the lens of
Polish-‐Jewish relations. Consisting of three films, Mary Koszmary (Nightmares)
(2007), Mur i wieza (Wall and Tower) (2009), and Zamach (Assassination) (2011),
the work addresses present-‐day anti-‐Semitism and persisting nationalism in Poland
while, at the same time, acknowledging the desire of the new generation of Poles to
heal the wounds of the Holocaust.
The protagonist of Mary Koszmary (Nightmares) (2007) (Fig. 20) is real-‐life
activist Sławomir Sierakowski, founder of Krytyka Polityczna (The Political
Critique), a left-‐wing political movement that includes Artur Żmijewski and Yael
Bartana among others. In the film, the Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland
(JRMiP), a movement initiated by Bartana, calls for the return of three million Polish
Jews in order to reestablish the annihilated Jewish community. Cast as the
movement‘s leader, Sierakowski is seen delivering a powerful speech in a run-‐down
stadium where empty seats evoke an uncanny sense of disappearance and guilt. As
Anthony Downey remarks:

…(S)ierakowski calls upon Jews to return to Poland not only to heal
the nation’s wounds but also to create social order that will be based
upon equality, social justice and collectivity of differences. The loss of
over three million Jews from Poland has created a vacuum in the
country, and the nation’s trauma has been amplified by the absence of

51 Sara Roffino, ‘In Conversation: Yael Bartana with Sara Roffino’, The Brooklyn Rail,
(5 February 2015) <http://www.brooklynrail.org/2015/02/art/yael-‐bartana-‐with-‐

sara-‐roffino> [accessed 14 June 2015].
40
one-‐time neighbors. Poland, for the orator, is a lesser place without
them, and they need to return.52

The appeal, however, is not to those who perished but to the living. One
needs to look beyond the metaphorical call for the return of the three million Jews
to the land of their ancestors to uncover the multiple layers of meanings present in
Mary Koszmary (Nightmares) (2007). The artist uses Sierakowski and his status as
founder and leader of Krytyka Polityczna to call for an end to social exclusion. As per
the Krytyka Polityczna’s movement’s platform, members of this powerful circle of
intellectuals vie for a Europe free of anti-‐Semitism and discrimination. Indeed,
Sierakowski’s words in the movie stem from his own beliefs. As Anthony Downey
corroborates, ‘It was Sierakowski – alongside Kinga Dunin, an activist connected to
Krytyka Polityczna – who wrote the script for Nightmares, the first film in Bartana’s
trilogy.’53 Sierakowski’s contribution to the work cannot be overestimated making
Bartana’s decision to delegate the performance a well-‐suited choice. Delegation
continued in Zamach (Assassination) (2011). The last of the three films featured
speeches by actual Polish and Israeli media personalities and artists, including
Polish art historian Anda Rottenberg, Polish painter Wilhelm Sasnal, Polish-‐born
Israeli writer/illustrator and Holocaust survivor Alona Frankel, and Israeli
journalist Yaron London, thus further blurring the line between the film’s utopic
message and the existing social reality.
Moreover, the initially fictional Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland
(JRMiP), created by Bartana for And Europe Will Be Stunned (2007-‐2011), led to a
real movement whose members and sympathizers met in Berlin in 2012 at the First
International Congress of the JRMiP (Fig. 21). The aim of the three-‐day gathering
was to address the issues of the Diasporas in general and to create a platform for the
movement. The point of departure was a letter written by Sławomir Sierakowski for
Bartana’s trilogy and presented to viewers in Zamach (Assassination) (2011). In this
letter he posed several questions, among them how to eliminate marginalization
and welcome the Other. What Bartana has done, with Sierakowski’s help, was take

52 Anthony Downey, ‘Yael Bartana’, Art Review, 51 (2011), p. 97.
53 ibid. p. 97.
41
the Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP) from the realm of fiction to the
position of agency. As Volker Pantenburg points out, ‘What started out as a project
of inventing an alternative historical trajectory, with the aim of ‘healing the mutual
trauma’ of both the Jewish and Polish people, has since developed a life of its own.’54
In his essay The Meaning of Working Through the Past, Theodor Adorno
introduces the notion of return to the subject as an attempt to eliminate the causes
of harmful events. It was Adorno’s belief that only by examining the subjective, not
objective, factors that led to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany would one be able
to critically reflect on the past. In addition to looking at cultural and individual anti-‐
Semitism as a means of exploring the hatred that pervaded German society, he
suggested turning to the subject by analyzing the persistence of guilt on one’s
conscience. As Adorno suggests, ‘A working through of the past understood as
enlightenment is essentially such a turn toward the subject, the reinforcement of a
person’s self-‐consciousness and hence also of his self.’55 The question Adorno raises
in The Meaning of Working Through the Past is whether freeing oneself from the
collective guilt is beneficial to society. Forgetting the past and wiping clean the
history books seems to be a convenient approach adopted by the modern man
caught in the present. Although the desire to forget painful events is natural, Adorno
believes that remembering such events may keep them from being repeated. The
problem then does not lie in the unconscious erasure of painful memories but in the
conscious desire to forget such memories. The solution, he claims, is trying to
preserve those memories that one would like to repress. And Europe Will Be Stunned
(2007-‐2011) attempts just that. Bartana uses Adorno’s theory to work through the
past in order to raise awareness and avoid history from repeating itself.
While both Artur Żmijewski and Yael Bartana ask viewers to reflect upon the
atrocities of World War II, they do it in different ways. As opposed to Żmijewski who

54 Volker Pantenburg, ‘Loudspeaker and Flag: Yael Bartana, from Documentation to
Conjuration’, Afterall, 29 (2012), p. 56.

55 Theodor Adorno, Can One Live After Auschwitz?: A Philosophical Reader, (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 2003), p. 17.
42
is inflicting physical pain on 92-‐year old Józef Tarnawa, Bartana opens old
psychological wounds.
Indeed, as Adorno further comments in Education After Auschwitz, teaching
the new generation lessons from the past would provide, ‘…(A)n intellectual,
cultural, and social climate in which a recurrence would no longer be possible, a
climate, therefore, in which the motives that led to the horror would become
relatively conscious.’56
Although the Holocaust ended in 1945 and the state of Israel was proclaimed
three years later bringing along hope for Jews worldwide, anti-‐Semitism and hatred
persisted. Reflecting on her life as an Israeli citizen and her experiences living in a
country where military training is compulsory for both young men and women,
Bartana’s Profile (2000) (Fig. 22) offers viewers a glimpse into the training of female
soldiers serving in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). The location is a shooting range.
Profile (2000) depicts a row of army recruits as they prepare, then execute the drills
as instructed by their commander. They assume the shooting position, aim at the
target, pull and release the trigger. Each movement is repeated impassively while
listening to commands. One soldier becomes the protagonist as the camera focuses
on her face, eyes, and hands. Her hesitations convey a sense of uncertainty mixed
with apprehension. As Jacqueline Rose remarks, ‘Slowly, through the tiniest almost
invisible gestures and expressions, you start to realise that this one recruit is losing
her way. She drops her gaze, leans almost too closely on her rifle as if it is holding
her up rather than the other way round.’57
Watching the soldiers practice the shooting drills, viewers are invited to
consider their own feelings toward confrontation and national defense while
pondering on the troops’ emotional investment in the war. Bartana’s decision to
present the soldiers in training rather than acting out the performance herself was
crucial in ensuring the delivery of genuine, unmediated, emotions. Whether enrolled
in military service voluntarily or as mandated by their country’s defense policy,

56 ibid. p. 22.
57 Jacqueline Rose, Women in Dark Times, (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing,
2014), p. 236.
43
soldiers are not devoid of feelings. They obey orders and carry out actions that are
sometimes in conflict with their own beliefs. Although using active recruits, not
veterans, and showing their faces instead of hiding them from the viewer, thus
revealing the soldiers’ insecurities, Bartana’s Profile (2000) is akin to Sierra’s
veteran series as it strikes a similar chord.
Yael Bartana was born in 1970 in Kfar Yehezkel, a small farming community
in northern Israel. The daughter of Zionist parents, she grew up surrounded by
descendants of Jewish pioneers who, in addition to ranking labor highest on the
value scale, shared common ideological beliefs. Her early work, depicting slices of
settlers’ lives, revolves around rituals that stem from her protagonists’ devotion to
land and their inherent sense of belonging. After graduating from the Bezalel
Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Bartana moved to New York where she
enrolled in the School of Visual Arts. She later relocated to Europe, studying at the
Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and splitting her time between Amsterdam and Berlin.
Hovering between multiple countries and cultural traditions, Bartana is able
produce work that is objective, yet infused with a dose of self-‐reflection stemming
from her own inner conflicts. As an Israeli living and working outside Israel, Yael
Bartana examines anti-‐Semitism and discrimination from a unique vantage point.
An immigrant herself, she understands her subjects’ identity struggles and social
cohesion hurdles. As Marisa Fox-‐Bevilacqua remarks:

She has an uncanny ability to tap into the zeitgeist, exploring and
manipulating pictures, words and symbols to question issues that are
fundamental to these troubling times and to her – an Israeli artist
living in the Diaspora, dealing with issues of Jewish identity versus
assimilation, wondering where national pride ends and xenophobic
hatred begins.58

Her voice is loud and clear. As Jacqueline Rose points out:

There is no limit to the scope of Bartana’s vision: ‘We direct our
appeal not only to Jews. We accept into our ranks all those for whom

58 Marisa Fox-‐Bevilacqua, ‘Artist Yael Bartana taps into Jewish-‐Diaspora zeitgeist’,
Haaretz, (9 February 2015) < http://www.haaretz.com/life/arts-‐leisure/.premium-‐

1.640834> [accessed 25 June 2015].
44
there is no place in their homeland, the expelled and the persecuted.
There will be no discrimination. We will not check your identity cards
or question your refugee status.59

Indeed, while trying to heal the wounds of the past, the artist is also bringing
to light inequities that continue to plague society today questioning our readiness to
accept the Other in an increasingly globalized world. Like Żmijewski and Sierra,
Bartana leaves her works open-‐ended inviting viewers to critically engage with the
issues she is raising.

59 Rose, Op. cit., p. 240.
45
CONCLUSION

This dissertation aims to emphasize the role played by participants in performance
art validating their impact on the work’s authenticity. By hiring others to portray
themselves or their socio-‐economical condition, artists relinquish full control of the
outcome of their work allowing for spontaneity to replace the scripted material.
This process ensures the delivery of a more authentic performance, one that stems
from the participant’s experience, not the artist’s view of the issue and his or her
interpretation. Indeed, as Claire Bishop remarks, ‘…(T)his leads to a situation in
which […] artists are praised for their authorial renunciation.’ 60 Consequently,
participatory art becomes a fusion between social reality and artistic expression
with the social aspect of the work weighing in more heavily. According to Harry
Weeks, such practices ‘…(H)ave led to the increasingly ‘collaborative or collective
modes of production’ as a means of importing sociality into the artistic process.’61
Moreover, the use of delegated performance helps create discomfort and instill
feelings of guilt in middle class gallery goers, a socially privileged group whose
members do not habitually commingle with lower class participants.
Blurring the line between art and life, the three artists featured in this paper,
Santiago Sierra, Artur Żmijewski, and Yael Bartana, share a common goal, to expose
social injustices and raise awareness of marginalization stemming from
discrimination. Marked by the end of the Cold War and the start of globalization, the
1990s ushered in a new era of contrasts and tensions. As technology advanced,
unemployment grew and the gap between the rich and the poor widened. This led to
social stratification, ostracization, and migration across national borders. Despite
efforts by social activists to implement change, assimilation and unequivocal
acceptance of the Other have yet to take place in economically advanced countries.
Unlike activists who fight for change, artists draw attention to the issues raised by

60 Bishop, Claire, ‘The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents’, Artforum
International, (2006), p. 182.

61 Harry Weeks, ‘Ethics in Public: The Return of Antagonistic Performance’, in
Interactive Contemporary Art: Participation in Practice, Kathryn Brown, (London: I.B.
Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2014), p. 178.
46
turning the spotlight on the less visible, the poor, the oppressed, the forgotten. As
Grant Kester remarks, they, …(S)eek to empower or “give voice” to disenfranchised
communities.’62 Although Santiago Sierra, Artur Żmijewski, and Yael Bartana differ
with respect to the mode of production and exhibition, as Sierra opts for live acts
with photographic documentation, while Żmijewski and Bartana record
performances and later create films based on the edited footage of their own
recordings, the three artists produce socially relevant, attention-‐grabbing pieces
that focus on interrogating the political, economic, and social conditions that make
their works possible. Additionally, they tackle issues of national identity, individual
and collective trauma, human behavior under coercion, and hatred, past and
present. The artists accomplish these tasks by delegating their performances to
others, members of the social groups they depict, who are either allowed to play
freely or asked to follow a script. While some enjoy the sudden attention, most of
them, as Anthony Downey points out, ‘…(D)ebase themselves in the name of artistic
production.’63 Partaking is consensual and terms of participation, including length of
performance, participants’ duties, and monetary compensation, if any, are agreed
upon prior to the commencement of the work. Known for producing notoriously
disturbing material, Santiago Sierra remunerates his participants thus dismissing
any claims of exploitation.
Still, despite the existence of contractual agreements, the fact that people are
willing to degrade themselves in exchange for money or their perception of fifteen
minutes of fame is what Santiago Sierra, Artur Żmijewski, and Yael Bartana want
viewers to ponder on. As seen on page 25, Claire Bishop believes that witnessing
actual prostitutes, immigrants, factory workers or Holocaust survivors offering an
intimate glimpse into their lives yields a far more compelling experience than
watching an artist play the role of the abused and simulating poverty, misery, and
hopelessness. Indeed, knowing that the artist’s act is voluntary and ends at the

62 Grant Kester, Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art,
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), p. 15.

63 Anthony Downey, ‘An Ethics of Engagement: Collaborative Art Practices and the
Return of the Ethnographer’, Third Text, 23 (2009), p. 597.

47
conclusion of the performance diminishes the poignancy of a self-‐delivered piece. By
contrast, using others – real life recipients of humiliation, abuse, and torture –
prevails, as middle-‐class audiences are given the chance to examine participants’
deprived world and see it through their eyes, the eyes of the homo sacer who was
stripped of dignity in the concentration camp, expelled from the land of his
ancestors, or who is physically present in our society yet invisible due to his status.

Word Count: 13770

48
BIBLIOGRAPHY

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(2012), 91-‐112.

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(2007), 267-‐275.

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51
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52
ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1. Santiago Sierra, Workers who cannot be paid, remunerated to remain inside
cardboard boxes, 2000, Kunst-‐Werke, Berlin, Germany

Fig. 2. Santiago Sierra, Person remunerated for a period of 360 consecutive hours,
2000, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA

53

Fig. 3. Santiago Sierra, 160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People, 2000, El Gallo Arte
Contemporáneo, Salamanca, Spain

Fig. 4. Chris Burden, Shoot, 1971, F Space, Santa Ana, California, USA

54

Fig. 5. Chris Burden, Trans-‐fixed, 1974, Speedway Avenue, Venice, California, USA

Fig. 6. Santiago Sierra, 7 Forms of 60 x 60 x 600 cm each, constructed to be supported
perpendicular to a wall, 2010, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art,
Brisbane, Australia
55

Fig. 7. Robert Morris, Installation view, 1964, Green Gallery, New York, USA

Fig. 8. Santiago Sierra, Person saying a phrase, 2002, New Street, Birmingham,
England
56

Fig. 9. Tino Sehgal, These Associations, 2012, Tate Modern, London, England

Fig. 10. Oscar Bony, La Familia Obrera, 1968, Instituto Di Tella, Buenos Aires,
Argentina
57

Fig. 11. Santiago Sierra, Veterans of the Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam facing
the corner, 2013, Team Gallery, New York, USA

Fig. 12. Artur Żmijewski, Them, 2007, Warsaw, Poland
58

Fig. 13. Artur Żmijewski, Repetition, 2005, Warsaw, Poland

Fig. 14. Marina Abramović, Rhythm 0, 1975, Galleria Studio Morra, Naples, Italy
59

Fig. 15. Marina Abramović, Role Exchange, 1975, De Appel Gallery, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands

Fig. 16. Artur Żmijewski, 80064, 2004, Warsaw, Poland
60
Fig. 17. Artur Żmijewski, Our Songbook, 2003, Tel Aviv, Israel

Fig. 18. Artur Żmijewski, Dorota, 2006, Warsaw, Poland
61
Fig. 19. Yael Bartana, True Finn, 2014, Finland

Fig. 20. Yael Bartana, Mary Koszmary (Nightmares), 2007, Warsaw, Poland
62
Fig. 21. First International Congress of the Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland
(JRMiP), 2012, Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany

Fig. 22. Yael Bartana, Profile, 2000, Israel

63
APPENDIX 1: ARTIST CV

SANTIAGO SIERRA

1966 Born in Madrid, Spain

EDUCATION

1995-‐97 Escuela de San Carlos, Universidad Autónoma de México, Mexico City,
Mexico
1989-‐91 Hochschule für Bildende Künste (F.E. Walter, B.J. Blume and S. Brown)
Hamburg, Germany
1989 Círculo de Bellas Artes, (J.G.Dokoupil), Madrid, Spain
1989 BA in Fine Arts, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015
La Lona, Laboratory, Mexico City, Mexico

2014
The Flock (El Rebaño), Team Gallery, New York, USA

2013
Sculpture, photography, film, Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg, Germany
Veterans, Team Gallery, New York, USA
Santiago Sierra, Greenaway Gallery, Kent Town, Australia
Santiago Sierra Germany 1990-‐2012, Kunsteverein Arnsberg, Arnsberg, Germany
Void, Derry, Ireland
Destroyed Word, Museum De Pont, Tilburg, Netherlands
40m3 of Earth from the Iberian, KOW Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Sculpture, photography, film, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Destroyed Word, Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Auckland, New Zealand
Pigs devouring the Hellenic, Italic and Iberic peninsulas, Prometeo Gallery, Milan,
Italy

2012
NO, Global Tour, Team Gallery, New York, USA
Dedicated to the Workers and Unemployed, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Santiago Sierra, Hafnarhús, Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland

2011
CMX 04, Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain
NO, Global Tour, ARTIUM Centro Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo Basco,
Vitoria, Spain

64
2010
7 forms measuring 600 x 60 x 60 cm, constructed to be held horizontally to a wall,
Gallery 1.2 GoMA, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
NO, Global Tour, Katzen Arts Center, American University Museum, Washington, USA
Los Penetrados, Team Gallery, New York, USA

2009
Los Penetrados, Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain
Death Counter, part of Offer & Exchange: Sites of Negotiation in Contemporary Art,
Hiscox Headquarters, London, UK
Santiago Sierra, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
Santiago Sierra, MARCO, Vigo, Spain
Ponticelli, Museo Madre, Naples, Italy
Santiago Sierra, Prometeo Gallery, Milan, Italy

2007
Santiago Sierra, Prometeo Gallery, Milan, Italy
Proyecto Caracas, Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela
Submission, Proyecto Juárez, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Santiago Sierra -‐ New Works, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
The Trap and The Adults, Centro Cultural Matucana, Santiago de Chile, Chile
Himnos, Cabildo de Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
1549 State’s Crimes, Antiguo Edificio de la Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores de la
Plaza de las Tres Culturas, Tlatelolco, Mexico City

2006
Santiago Sierra, CAC, Malaga, Spain
Diamond Traffic Kills / Gold Traffic Kills, Chus Bures Space, Madrid, Spain
245 m3, Stommeln Synagogue, Pulheim, Germany
Santiago Sierra, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
89 Huichols, San Andres Jalisco, Jalisco, Mexico

2005
Santiago Sierra: Haus Im Schlamm, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany
Una persona, Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Trento, Italy
Santiago Sierra Under Construction 2: Casa Poporului, National Museum of
Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania

2004
Santiago Sierra, Museum Dhondt-‐Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
Santiago Sierra, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Santiago Sierra -‐ Klassenkampf, Poleschi Arte Contemporanea, Lucca, Italy
Santiago Sierra, Galerie Peter Kilchmann Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
300 Tons, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria
Santiago Sierra, Centre d'art contemporain de Brétigny, Brétigny, France
Santiago Sierra, NRW Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf, Germany
65
2003
100 Hidden Individuals, Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain
Santiago Sierra, Galeria Enrique Guerrero, Mexico City, Mexico
Hooded Woman Seated Facing The Wall, Spanish Pavilion, 50th Venice Biennial,
Venice, Italy
Lighted Building, Arcos de Belen, Mexico City, Mexico

2002
Hiring and Arrangement of 30 Workers in Relation to Their Skin Color,
Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
The Displacement of a Cacerolada, Kunsthalle Wien, Project Space Karlsplatz,
Vienna, Austria
Group of persons facing the wall and person facing into a corner, Lisson Gallery,
London, UK
Two Maraca Players, Galería Enrique Guerrero, Mexico City, Mexico
Person saying a phrase, New Street, Birmingham, UK
Santiago Sierra Works: 1990-‐2002, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
The history of the Fokskal Gallery taught to an unemployed Ukrainian, Galería Foksal,
Warsaw, Poland
Construction and installation of 12 forms 75 x 75 x 800 cm organized in two spaces,
Carlier-‐Gebauer, Berlin, Germany
Spraying polyurethane over 18 people, Claudio Poleschi Arte Contemporanea, Lucca,
Italy
Documents, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
9 forms 100 x 100 x 600 cm each, constructed to be supported perpendicular to a wall,
Deitch Projects, New York, USA
3,000 holes of 180 x 50 x 50 cm each, Montenmedio Arte Contemporáneo, Cádiz,
Spain

2001
20 Workers in a ship's storage room, Port of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
133 Persons paid to have their hair dyed blond, Arsenale, Venice, Italy
430 People paid 30 soles per hour, Galería Pancho Fierro, Lima, Peru
Object measuring 600 x 57 x 52 cm constructed to be held horizontally to a wall,
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Project Room, Galeria Enrique Guerrero, Miami Art Fair, Miami, USA
11 People paid to learn a phrase, Casa de la Cultura de Zinacantán, Mexico

2000
Workers who cannot be paid, remunerated to remain inside cardboard boxes, Kunst-‐
Werke, Berlin, Germany
Person remunerated for a period of 360 consecutive hours, P.S.1 Contemporary Art
Center, New York, USA
The wall of a gallery pulled out, inclined 60 degrees from the ground and
sustained by 5 people, Acceso A, Mexico City, Mexico
12 workers paid to remain inside cardboard boxes, ACE Gallery, New York, USA
66
1999
250cm line tattooed on 6 paid people, Espacio Aglutinador, Havana, Cuba
465 Paid people, Rufino Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, Mexico
24 blocks of concrete constantly moved during a day’s work by paid workers, ACE
Gallery, Los Angeles and New York, USA
Elimination of the wooden platform of the double floor, Ex-‐Teresa Space, Mexico City,
Mexico
8 people paid to remain inside cardboard boxes, G & T Building, Guatemala City,
Guatemala

1998
Obstruction of a freeway with a truck’s trailer, La Torre de los Vientos, Mexico City,
Mexico

1997
Bundle of 1000 x 400 x 250 cm composed of waste plastic and suspended from the
front of a building, Galeria Art & Idea, Mexico City, Mexico

1996
15 Hexahedrons of 250 x 250 x 250 cm, Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico

1994
2 cylinders both measuring 250 x 250 cm, composed of posters that have been torn
down, Espacio P, Madrid, Spain
86 metallic billboard supports measuring 300 x 80 cm, Galeria Angel Romero, Madrid,
Spain

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015
Beleza?, Centro Cultural Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Say What?, Galeri Zilberman, Istanbul, Turkey
Progress and hygiene, Zachęta -‐ National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland

2014
Corpus, Zachęta -‐ National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
And the Trees Went Forth to Seek a King, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel
Smart New World, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
I'm Still Here, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
Booster: Art Sound Machine, Marta Herford, Herford, Germany
The End of the 20th Century. The Best Is Yet to Come. A Dialogue with the Marx
Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Black Box: Santiago Sierra and Jorge Galindo, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, USA

67
2013
Jorge Galindo and Santiago Sierra: Los encargados, Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid,
Spain
Together / Apart, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw,
Poland
Emergency Pavilion: Rebuilding Utopia, Biennale di Venezia, Collateral Event, 55°,
Venice, Italy
The Immigrants, Experiment 2, Giudecca, Venice, Italy
Economics in art, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland
Other People’s Problems, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel

2012
Make It Easy Make It Porn, Isola Art Center, Milan, Italy
Radici. Memoria, identità e cambiamenti nell'arte di oggi, Fondazione Menegaz,
Castelbasso, Teramo, Italy
Realness Respect, Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz, Austria
Public Abstraction Private Construction IV V, Kunstverein Arnsberg, Arnsberg,
Germany
12 Rooms, Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany

2011
Cady Noland and Santiago Sierra, KOW Gallery, Berlin, Germany
11 Rooms, Manchester International Festival, Manchester, UK
Strategies of Knowledge and Power, Open Space, Vienna, Austria
The Workers, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, USA
Dirt, The Welcome Trust, London, UK
De-‐Building, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, Christchurch, New
Zealand
NO, Global Tour, Forum Expanded, 61 ° Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Nobody's Property: Art, Land, Space, 2000-‐2010, Princeton University Art Museum,
Princeton, USA
Investigation of a dog, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden

2010
No Ifs, No Buts, DEPO, Istanbul, Turkey
Gallery, Galerie, Galleria, Norma Mangione Gallery, Turin, Italy
Fetiches Críticos. Residuos de la Economía general, CA2M -‐ Centro de Arte Dos de
Mayo, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
Investigations of a dog, Ellipse Foundation, Alcoitão, Portugal
Arte y politica: Conflictos y Disyuntivas, Museo de Arte de Culiacan, Culiacan, Mexico
El Ángel Exterminador -‐ A Room for Spanish Contemporary Art, BOZAR -‐ Palais des
Beaux-‐Arts / Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Thrice upon a time, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
Nuevas Producciones: Proyecto Juárez, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City,
Mexico

68
2009
Repeat All, MIS, Sao Paulo, Brazil
L(..)King at others, Art Pavilion in Zagreb, Croatia
Arte ≠ Vida, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico
Lisson Presents 4, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Persona. Presencias Humana en la fotografía Contemporánea, Galeria Maior, Palma
de Mallorca, Spain
Cargo, Auto Center, Berlin, Germany
Performa, different sites in Manhattan, New York, USA
Political / Minimal, Muzeum Sztuki w Lodz, Lodz, Poland
The First Stop on the Super Highway, Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin-‐si, Korea
Offer & Exchange: Sites of negotiation in Contemporary Art, Electra, London, UK

2008
The Living Currency, Tate Modern, London, UK
All-‐Inclusive: A Tourist World, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
Arte no es Vida: Actions by Artists of the Americas, 1960-‐2000, El Museo del Barrio,
New York, USA
Greenwashing -‐ Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities, Fondazione Sandretto
Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy
Art in the Life World, Breaking Ground, Axis Arts Centre, Ballymun, Dublin, Ireland
Typical! Clichés of Jews and Others, The Jewish Museum Berlin, Germany
Terms of Use, Montehermoso Cultural Centre, Vitoria-‐Gasteiz, Spain
James Casabere, Elmgreen & Dragset, Alicia Framis, Santiago Sierra: Extraordinary
Rendition, Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain
¡Viva la Muerte!, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria

2007
Perplexed in Public, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Active Constellation, Brno House of Art, Brno, Czech Republic
Stable -‐ The Balance of Power, Para / Site Art Space, Hong Kong, China
Paranoia, The Freud Museum, London, UK
ROOM. Places of Art, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
We are your future, 2nd Moscow Biennial, Moscow, Russia
Listening Awry, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Concept: Photography -‐ Dialogues & Attitudes, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Into Me / Out of Me, MACRO, Rome, Italy
Entre Fronteiras, Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo, Spain
BOUND, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK
The Invisible Show, The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Objeto de Replica, Artium Centro-‐Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporaneo, Vitoria-‐
Gasteiz, Spain
¡Viva la Muerte!, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Existencias, MUSAC, Leon, Spain
Un/Fair Trade -‐ The Art of Justice, Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum,
Graz, Austria
69
Vom Tun und Lassen in der Kunst, Kunsthalle Göppingen, Göppingen, Germany
Generation Issue, Cuestión Xeracional, CGAC -‐ Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea,
Santiago di Compostela, Spain
Identity / Indentitäskonstruktion /Heimat, 7th International Photo Triennial, Odense,
Denmark
The Hours: Visual Art of Contemporary Latin American Art, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Sydney, Australia
New Economy, Artists Space, New York, USA
Into Me / Out of Me, MACRO Future, Rome, Ital
E-‐flux video rental, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, France
Not Afraid of the Dark, Hangar Bicocca -‐ Spazio d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
La era de la discrepancia, Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte -‐ MUCA, Mexico
City, Mexico
E-‐flux video rental, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, USA

2006
Art and photography, photography and art, Galerie Bernd Klüser, Munich, Germany
Surprise Surprise, ICA, London, UK
Paranoia, Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
Out of Place, The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK
Into Me / Out of Me, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
AUTO-‐NOM-‐MOBILE, Kunstverein Kassel, Kassel, Germany
TRANSIT, ArtFrankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
The View from Here: Acquisitions since 2000, Tate Modern, London, UK
Adquisiciones Recientes, ARTIUM Centro-‐Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo,
Vitoria-‐Gasteiz, Spain
E-‐Flux Video Rental, Arthouse at the Jones Center -‐ Contemporary Art for Texas,
Austin, USA
I Bienal del Fuego, Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela
Equal And Less Equal, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel
The Grand Promenade, National Museum of Contemporary Art -‐ EMST, Athens,
Greece
Franz West sin Franz West + Der Ficker, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Into Me / Out of Me, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
Enlaces + Dos -‐ Últimas adquisiciones, Patio Herreriano -‐ Museo de Arte
Contemporáneo Español, Valladolid, Spain
En las Fronteras / In borderlines, Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte
Contemporáneo MEIAC, Badajoz, Spain
Mex 1995 -‐ 2005, Sammlung Essl -‐ Kunsthaus, Klosterneuburg, Austria
Thesis Exhibitions 2006 Series Two, The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College,
Annandale-‐on-‐Hudson, USA
Certain Encounters -‐ Daros-‐Latinamerica Collection, The Morris and Helen Belkin Art
Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
En las Fronteras, Villa Croce Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Genoa, Italy

70
2005
Power Plays -‐ Artists Challenge Authorities, Para / Site Art Space, Hong Kong, China
Minimalism and After IV, DaimlerChrysler Collection, Berlin, Germany
This Peaceful War, The Jumex Collection, Glasgow, Scotland
Always a Little Further, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lenin Museum, Moscow, Russia
The body. The Ruin, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia
War is over -‐ 1945 -‐ 2005 la Libertá dellarte as a Picasso Warhol a Cattelan,
GAMeC -‐ Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
The Hours -‐ Visual Arts of Contemporary Latin America, Irish Museum of Modern Art,
Dublin, Ireland
Centre of Gravity, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul, Turkey
General Ideas -‐ Rethinking Conceptual Art 1987-‐2005, the CCA Wattis Institute for
Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA
Expérience de la durée -‐ Experiencing Duration, 8e Biennale de Lyon, La Biennale
d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, France
A Lucky Strike -‐ Art is the city, Contemporary Art Association Bremen, Bremen,
Germany
E-‐flux video rental, Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany
En attente, Casino Luxembourg -‐ Forum dart contemporain, Luxembourg
Police, Landesgalerie at the Upper Austrian Landesmuseum, Linz, Austria
Aural Cultures, The Banff Centre -‐ Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Canada
Mexico Attacks!, MADC Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San Jose, USA
Monuments for the USA, the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San
Francisco, USA
Interessi Zero, Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Trento, Italy
Short Stories -‐ Contemporary Selections, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, USA
Nothingness, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Eco -‐ Arte Contemporaneo Mexicano, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía,
Madrid, Spain

2004
Produciendo Realidad, Chisea di Matteo, Genoa, Italy
The Nude Form, Baden-‐Baden, Germany
111 Constructions with 10 Modules and 10 Workers, Peter Kilchmann Gallery, Zürich,
Switzerland
Nothingness, Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz, Austria
De Leur Temps, Collections Privées Francaises, Musee des Beaux Arts Tourcoing,
Tourcoing, France
System failure, Edith Russ Site for Media Art, Oldenburg, Germany
Seven Sins, MUSEION -‐ Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bolzano, Italy
Against the Grain -‐ New forms of drawing, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-‐Baden,
Germany
I need you, Kunsthaus CentrePasquArt -‐ Centre Darts, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
Social Capital -‐ Forms of Interaction, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
USA
71
The Big Nothing, ICA Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, USA
SOCIAL CREATURES -‐ How Body Becomes Art, Sprengel Museum Hanover, Hanover,
Germany
The Real Royal Trip / El Retorno, Patio Herreriano -‐ Museo de Arte Contemporáneo
Español, Valladolid, Spain
Material Witness, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland
Made in Mexico, ICA Boston, Boston, USA
Laocoonte devorado -‐ Arte y violencia política, ARTIUM Centro-‐Museo Vasco de Arte
Contemporáneo, Vitoria-‐Gasteiz, Spain

2003
Gli Altri, Gas Art Gallery, Torino, Italy
Stretch, The Power Plant, Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Independence, South London Gallery, London, UK
Guided by Heroes, Limburg, Belgium
Hardcore, Towards a New Activism, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
MARS. Art and War, Neue Galerie Graz, Graz, Austria
Witness, Barbican Art, London, UK
Mouvements de fonds -‐ Acquisitions 2002 du Fonds national dart contemporain, MAC
Musées d'Art Contemporain, Marseille, France
Phalanstère, CAC -‐ Centre d'art contemporain de Brétigny, Brétigny, France
El Real Viaje Real / The Real Royal Trip, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York,
USA
Fast Forward, ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art & Media Museum, Karlsruhe,
Germany
Cámara -‐ Videos Mala Onda, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico
Auto-‐nom, NRW-‐Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf, Germany
Terror Chic, Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Munich, Germany
COSTA Vece, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
In faccia al mondo. Il Ritratto nel contemporaneo medium fotografico, Villa Croce
Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Genoa, Switzerland
Money for nothing, Wellington City Gallery, Wellington, Australia
20 Million Mexicans Can’t Be Wrong, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK

2002
Comer O No Comer, CASA, Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Spain
No Return, Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach, Mönchengladbach, Germany
Spanish Contemporary Art, Borusan Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
Feria ARCO, Project Room, Galería Enrique Guerrero / Galerie Peter
Kilchmann, Madrid, Spain
Loop. Back to the Beginning, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA
Hello there!, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Otredad y Mismidad, Galeria de Arte Contemporaneo y Diseño, Puebla, Mexico
20 Million Mexicans Can’t Be Wrong, South London Gallery, London, UK
Centre of Attraction, The Baltic Triennial of International Art, Vilnius, Lithuania
Cut, Pulled, Colored & Burnt, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, USA
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Mexico City: An Exhibition about the Exchange Rates of Bodies and Values, P.S.1
Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
Protest! Respect!, New Kunsthalle St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Coartadas / alibis, Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Art & Economy -‐ joint project with the Siemens Arts Program, Deichtorhallen,
Hamburg, Germany
The Hall of Lost Steps, Borusan Sanat Galerisi, Istanbul, Turkey
Transsexual Express, Műcsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary
Alibis / coartadas, Institut du Mexique à Paris, Paris, France

2001
Purgatori, Valencia, Spain
Shelf Life, Gasworks Gallery, London, UK
Marking the Territory, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
ARS 01 -‐ Unfolding Perspectives, Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
Loop, Hypo Kunsthalle, Munich, Germany
Aftersun, Cala Sant Vicenc, Mallorca, Spain
3 Intervenciones Urbanas, Barcelona Art Report 2001, Barcelona, Spain
Transsexual Express: A Classic for the Third Millennium, Centre d'Art Santa Monica,
Barcelona, Spain
New World, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
Photography from the Collection of the DZ Bank, DZ Bank, Frankfurt, Germany
Alemania, Salle du Musée du Botanique, Brussels, Belgium
Alemania, Academia de Arte de Berin, Berlin, Germany

2000
Pervirtiendo el minimalismo, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid,
Spain
Novena de Muestra Internacinal Performance, X Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City,
Mexico
Leaving the Islands, Pusan International Contemporary Art Fair, Pusan, Korea
Documentos, ACE Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
A shot in the head, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Friends and Neighbors, 'EV.A 2000, Limerick, Ireland

1999
Representar / Intevenir, X Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico Nuevo, Centre d'Arts Plastiques, Villefranche-‐sur-‐Saone, France
Paradas Continua, Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico

1998
Made in Mexico -‐ Made in Venezuela, Art Metropole Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Expoarte Guadalajara VI, Galeria BF15, Jalisco, Mexico
Cambio II, Chopo University Museum, Mexico City, Mexico
Despues del Cuerpo, Galeria 127, Mexico City, Mexico
I Cambio, Sandra Gehring Gallery, New York, USA
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1997
Shopping, Galeria Art & Idea, Mexico City, Mexico
Opening, Galeria Art Deposit, Mexico City, Mexico
Documentos, Expo Guadalajara Arte V, Art Gallery Deposit, Mexico
New Text from Mexico, Galeria Art Deposit, New York, USA

1996
A otro lugar muy lejos de aquí, IV Expo Arte Guadalajara, Jalisco, México

1993
El ojo Atómico, Antimuseo de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, Spain
Trabajos de los 80, Galería Angel Romero, Madrid, Spain

1992
Dibujos Laborales, Angel Romero Gallery, Madrid, Spain

1991
VII Muestra de Arte Joven, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, Spain
Alemania, St. Petri zu Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

COLLECTIONS

Daimler Art Collection, Berlin, Germany
Daros Latinamerica, Zürich, Switzerland
Tate Britain, London, UK
Kiasma – Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
MACI – Museo Arte Contemporaneo Isernia, Isernia, Italy
ARTIUM Centro – Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporaneo, Vitoria-‐Gasteiz, Spain
Cal Cego – Colección de Arte Contemporáneo, Barcelona, Spain
MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y Leon, Leon, Spain
CAC – Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Málaga, Spain
Museo Patio Herreriano de Arte Contemporáneo Español, Valladolid, Spain
Fundación NMAC Montenmedio Arte Contemporáneo Vejer de la Frontera, Cadiz,
Spain

74

ARTUR ŻMIJEWSKI

1966 Born in Warsaw, Poland

EDUCATION

1999 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1995 Diploma, Studio of Professor Grzegorz Kowalski
1990-‐95 BA in Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015
State Art Gallery, Sopot, Poland

2014
Imprisoned, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland

2013
My Neighbors, Museo de Arte Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico
My Neighbors, Art Basel Parcours, Basel, Switzerland

2012
Working, CCA Warsaw Ujazdowski Castle, Poland
Democracies, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund, Germany

2011
Artur Żmijewski, Centro Cultural Banco do Nordeste do Brasil, Fortaleza, Brasil
Them, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada
Andrea, Christoph, Martin, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Democracies, De Hallen, Haarlem, The Netherlands

2010
Artur Żmijewski, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland
Artur Żmijewski, Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
Artur Żmijewski: Scenarios of dissidence, Galerie de l’UQAM, Montréal, Canada
Following Bauhaus, A Foundation, Liverpool, UK
Artur Żmijewski: Habana Libre, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden
Politics of Art, Artur Żmijewski, Fundaçao Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, Brazil
Democracies, Wyspa Institue of Art, Gdansk, Poland
Artur Żmijewski, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK

75
2009
Artur Żmijewski, X Initiative, New York, USA
Artur Żmijewski, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK
Two Monuments & Democracies, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Project 91: Artur Żmijewski, MoMA, New York, USA
Artur Żmijewski, Camera Austria, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria
Democracies, Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Democracies, Daad Galerie, Berlin, Germany

2008
Artur Żmijewski, Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Manukau City, New Zealand
Artur Żmijewski: The Social Studio, BAK -‐ Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht, The
Netherlands
Artur Żmijewski, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
Artur Żmijewski, Gallery TPW, Toronto, Canada
Artur Żmijewski: Them, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Radical Solidarity, Trafó Gallery, Budapest, Hungary

2007
Artur Żmijewski, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
Plug In: Artur Żmijewski , Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

2006
Artur Żmijewski, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Artur Zmijewski, Institute Stuki Wyspa, Gdansk, Poland

2005
Artur Żmijewski: Repetition, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, USA
Artur Żmijewski, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Artur Żmijewski, The Polish Pavillion, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Arrivals: Poland. Artur Żmijewski and Paweł Althamer, Modern Art of Oxford, Oxford,
UK

2004
Artur Żmijewski: Singing Lesson, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Artur Żmijewski, CAC Centre d’Art Contemporain de Brétigny, Brétigny, France
Our Songbook, Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok, Poland
Artur Żmijewski, Selected Works, 1998 – 2003, MIT List Visual Arts Centre,
Cambridge, USA
transmediale.salon, Klub im Podewil, Berlin, Germany
Artur Żmijewski: Filmy i zdjecia z lat 1997 – 2003, Galeria Sztuki BWA, Wałbrzych,
Poland

76
2003
Singing Lesson, Galerie Arsena, Bialystok, Poland
An Eye for an Eye, MUCA Roma, Mexico City, Mexico
Singing Lesson, Galeria Kronika, Bytom, Poland
Artur Żmijewski, Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK
An Eye for an Eye, ITESO University, Guadalajara, Mexico
Artur Żmijewski, Baltycka Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnejw Slupsku, Poland
Singing Lesson I + II, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
Singing Lesson II, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany
So genannte Welle nund andere Phänomene des Geistes, Kunstverein für die
Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
Artur Żmijewski, Baltycka Galerie Sztuki Wspolczesnej, Słupsk, Poland

2002
Karolina, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Singing Lesson, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

2001
Out for a Walk, Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
KR WP, a.r.t. Gallery, Płock, Poland

2000
The Game of Tag, a.r.t. Gallery, Plock, Poland

1999
Ausgewählte Arbeiten, Gallery & Foundation Wyspa Progress, Gdansk, Poland

1998
An Eye for an Eye, Gallery 2, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle,
Warsaw, Poland

1996
Sardines Song, a.r.t. Gallery, Plock, Poland

1995
The Babes Identity, Friends Gallery A.R, Warsaw, Poland

1994
Nudes, a.r.t. Gallery, Płock, Poland

77
GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2016
Die Sieben Todsünden, Diözesanmuseum St. Afra, Augsburg, Germany

2015
Who interprets the world?, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa,
Japan
We The People, The Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
Travestie für Fortgeschrittene: training, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig,
Germany
The Flesh of the World, University of Toronto Galleries, Toronto, Canada
Europa!, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Performing Public Art, Vienna Biennale -‐ Ideas for Change, Vienna, Austria
Vot Ken You Mach?, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Wrocław, Poland
LIAISON, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Stockholm, Sweden
Procedures For The Head/Polish Art Today, National Cultural Centre, Bratislava,
Czech Republic
Vertical Reach, Artspace, New Haven, CT, USA
TATTOO, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
You Must Change Your Life, Artefact Festival at STUK Art Center, Leuven, Belgium

2014
Turning Points, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
In the Shadows: Contemporary Artists and Obsessive Memory, Richmond Center for
Visual Arts, Kalamazoo, USA
Collection Display: Energy and Process, Tate Modern, London, UK
Inside, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Laguerra che verrà non è la prima, Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di
Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy
Artur Żmijewski: Projection Series, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montréal,
Canada
The Fifth Wall, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, USA
99 PROBLEMS, Roodkapje, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Past, Continuous -‐ Reflections on Social Realism in Contemporary Art, Fészek Artist's
Club, Budapest, Hungary
In the near future – The collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Museum
of Modern Art in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
As You Can See: Polish Art Today, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Warsaw,
Poland
Art in the Castle, Galeria Kordegarda, Warsaw, Poland

78
2013
The Day is Not Enough (A few autobiographical stories), Wrocław Contemporary
Museum, Wrocław, Poland
At Work, Kunstmuseum Siegen, Germany
TATTOO, Gewerbemuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
The Encyclopaedic Palace, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Disabled by Normality, DOX CCA, Prague, Czech Republic
Glory to the Academy, Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland
Freedom, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany
The blood on my hands, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Germany
Gestochen scharf, Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden, Germany
The Life of Others, Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey
Without Reality There Is No Utopia, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco,
USA
Cellblock II, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, USA
WE, Catalyst Arts Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland
What Can a Body Do?, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery / Haverford College, Philadelphia,
USA
Present Unlimited, Sofia Contemporary, Fabrika 126, Sofia, Bulgaria
Kritik und Krise. Kunst in Europa seit 1945, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin,
Germany
Women at Work, Frac de Pays de la Loire at Art Beijing, Beijing, China
On Apology, CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco, USA
Moving Forward, Counting Backwards, MUAC, Museo Universitario Arte
Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico

2012
Cantemus: Choirs, the sublime and the Exegesis of Being, ARGOS Centre for Art and
Media, Brussels, Belgium
Posture and Expression, COCO Kunstverein, Vienna, Austria
One Sixth of the Earth, ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany

2011
Victims and Martyrs, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg, Sweden
Polish! Contemporary Art from Poland, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Declining Democracy, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
Side by Side, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
Models for Taking Part, The Justina Barnicke Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Continuity, Center for Contemporary Art, Celje, Slovenia
The Power of Fantasy, Palais des Beaux-‐Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Too late, too little, and (how to) fail gracefully, Kunstfort Asperen, Asperen, The
Netherlands
Alternativa, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland
The Workers, MASS Moca, North Adams, USA Without Reality There Is No Utopia,
Centre Andaluz, Sevilla, Spain
Plot for a Biennale, Sharjah Biennale 10, Sharjah, UAE
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New in the Collection, De Hallen, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Models for Taking Part, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, Canada
Trembling Bodies/Körper in Aufruhr, Daad Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Parallel Worlds, Arsenal Berlin, Berlin, Germany
History in Art, Mueum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland
Freibeuter der utopie, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany

2010
Twenty-‐first Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane,
Australia
Die Nase des Michelangelo, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Deadly Sins, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland
Faux Amis, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
There is always a cup of sea for man to sail, 29th Sao Paulo Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Over and Over Again, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland
Workers Leaving the Workplace, Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz, Lodz, Poland
Post Monument, XIV Biennale Internazionale di Scultura di Carrara, Carrara, Italy
The Invisible Color: A Collection Display, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, The
Netherlands
La Monnaie Vivante, Screening, Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany
Kratos – About (il)legitimate(d) Power, Team Gallery, New York, USA
Territories of the In/Human, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Stuttgart,
Germany
On Publications, Portraits, Public Art and Performance, The Modern Institute,
Glasgow, Scotland
masqué, Magazin 4, Bregenz, Austria
Early Years, Kunst-‐Werke, Berlin, Germany
Kill Your Timid Notion, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scotland
Para Bellum 12 mm, Ca l’Arenas Centre d’Art, Museu de Mataró, Spain
Auto-‐Kino!, Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Projections, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
Let’s Talk About Nationalism! Between Ideology and Identity, KUMU Art Museum,
Tallinn, Estonia
Morality Act III, Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
…on the eastern front, Ludwig Museum Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
Monument to Transformation, Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb, Coratia
Scapegoat Society, Guest Projects, London, UK
Yael Bartana and Artur Żmijewski, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands
Indefinite Destinations, DEPO, Istanbul, Turkey
Indefinite Destinations, Sofia Version, The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate,
Sofia, Bulgaria
Bodies of Dispersions: mechanisms of Distention, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland
Katolicy w Kronice, Kronika Gallery, Bytom, Poland
Architecture and its Discontents, Kaleidoscope, Milan, Italy
Listen to your eyes – 49 nord 6 est, Frac Lorraine, Metz, France
80
2009
Chorda, Internationales Congress Center München, Munich, Germany
The Reach of Realism, MOCA, Miami, USA
Intimacy and Desecration, CACT, Bellinzona, Switzerland
Los de arriba y los de abajo, Sala de Arte Publico Siqueiros, Mexico City, Mexico
Projects 91, MoMA, New York, USA
Morality: Act I / Act II, Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Fonction Critique, Aperto, Montpellier, France
Coral Visual, Casa de la Cultura, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Transitland, The Red House, Sofia, Bulgaria
Monument to Transformation, Center for Visual Introspection, Bucharest, Romania
steirischer herbst 2009, steirischer herbst, Graz, Austria
What Keeps Mankind Alive, Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Knast sind immer die anderen, NGBK, Berlin, Germany
Awakening-‐Reactivation / The City of Swiecie -‐ A New Look, The Centre for Culture,
Sport and Recreation in Swiecie, Swiecie, Poland
As Long as it Lasts, Marian Goodmann, New York, USA
Work Now, Z33 Hasselt, Hasselt, Belgium
Take a Look at Me Now, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK
Opposition & Dialogues, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, Germany
On the Tectonics of History, ISCP, New York, USA
Monument to Transformation, City Gallery Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Effet Mirror, Galerie Michel Rein, Paris, France
Energy Class B, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, UK
Invasion of Sound. Music and the Visual Arts, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw,
Poland
Der katholische Faktor in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, BBK Niederbayern/Oberpfalz,
Regensburg, Germany
Kunst und Öffentlichkeit, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
International Collection of Contemporary Art. 5th Edition, Centre for Contemporary
Art, Warsaw, Poland
Soft Manipulation – Who is Afraid of the New Now?, Stiftfelsen 3,14 Bergen, Bergen,
Norway
Acting Out, ICA, Boston, USA
Video Europa, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France
Entr’Acte, The Hessel Museum and Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College,
Annandale-‐on-‐Hudson, New York, USA
Artefact. Behind The Image | The Image Behind, Stuk Arts Center, Leuven, Belgium
Vacuum Noise, TRAFO House, Budapest, Hungary
Das Böse ist ein Eichhörnchen, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig,
Germany
Assume Nothing. New Social Practice, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, British
Columbia, Canada
History of Violence, Haifa Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Power Games, Haifa Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Living Together, Montehermoso, Vitoria-‐Gasteiz, Spain
81
SCHISM. Polish Art of the 1990s, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle,
Warsaw, Poland
Wouldn’t be easier for the government to dissolve the people and elect another,
Gallery Nova, Zagreb, Croatia
Soft Manipulation, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg,
Luxembourg
Blind Spots, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna, Austria

2008
PhotoCairo4. The Long Shortcut, Cairo, Egypt
Narrow Cast: Reframing Global Video 1986/2008, Pitzer Art Galleries, Pitzer College,
Claremont, USA
Chosen, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland
Getting Even. Oppositions & Dialogues, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland
The Impossible Prison, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK
CAMP, Kunstverein Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
October Salon 008, October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia
Cutting Realities. Gender Strategies in Art, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, USA
Frictions and Conflicts – Cultural Exchange and Influence in Northeast Europe, Kalmar
Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden
Non Knowledge, Project Arts Center, Dublin, Ireland
Common Space, Private Space, Margaret Lawrence Gallery at the Victorian College of
the Arts, Melbourne, Australia
Average, Kunsthaus Langenthal, Langenthal, Switzerland
The Reality Effect, Henie Onstad Art Center, Høvikodden, Norway
Six Feet Under: Make Nice, White Box Gallery, New York, USA
Translate: The Impossible Collection, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland
After Nature, New Museum, New York, USA
Das Gelände, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
Land of Human Rights, Verein für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Graz, Austria
The Cinema Effect. Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image. Part II: Realisms,
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA
I’ve Got Something in My Eye, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-‐on-‐
Hudson, New York, USA
You Prison, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy
Shifting Identities, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Lost paradise – Der Blick des Engels, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
On the Tectonics of History, Motorenhalle, Dresden, Germany
Monument to Transformation, City Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
Vertrautes Terrain. Aktuelle Kunst in & über Deutschland, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
Die Lucky Bush, MuHKA – Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerpen,
Belgium
Double Agent, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
Du Dialogue Social, Motorenhalle Dresden, Dresden, Germany
God & Goods – Spirituality and Mass Confusion, Villa Manin, Codroipo, Italy
82
Territorial Phantom, Nederlands Instiuut voor Mediakunst, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands
Translocal Express. Golden Age, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia, cur. Kamil
Malinowski, March 26 – March 27
ITALIA ITALIE ITALIEN ITALY WLOSZKA. Ritti su la cima del mondo, noi scagliamo,
una volta ancora, la nostra sfida alle stelle!, ARCOS Museo D’Arte Contemporanea
Sannio, Benevento, Italy
So ist es und anders, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany
History Will Repeat Itself, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw,
Poland
Under The Skin – New Video From Poland, New Museum, New York, USA
Double Agent, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
Artur Żmijewski, Projection series, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal,
Canada
transmediale.08, Transmediale Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Conspire …Transmediale 08, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Mimétisme, Extra City – Center for Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium
Close Encounters. Central European Video Art, Fine Arts Center Galleries, University
of Rhode Island, Rhode Island, USA
Under Pain of Death, Austrian Cultural Centre, New York, USA
Collection Video & Films -‐ Isabelle & Jean-‐Conrad Lemaitre, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel,
Germany
Under Pain of Death, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, USA
Collection Videos & Films Isabelle & Jean-‐Conrad Lemaitre, Kunsthalle Kiel, Kiel,
Germany
LIAF08, Lofoten Internation Art Festival, Svolvaer, Norway

2007
1, 2, 3… Avant-‐Gardes, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain
Extravagant Bodies, Kontejner, Zagreb, Croatia
History Will Repeat Itself, Kunst-‐Werke Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Best of KunstFilmBiennale, Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi, India
Il corpo del reato: la reclusione / The Body of Evidence: Imprisonment, Centro d’Arte
Contemporanea del Ticino, Bellinzona, Switzerland
Bare Life, On the Seam / Socio-‐Political Contemporary Art Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Brave New Worlds, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
Stalking with Stories, apexart, New York,
Von Abts bis Zmijewski – Neue Werke aus der Sammlung Gegenwartskunst,
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
The Unbound Eyes of Anxiousness, International Centre of Graphic Art, Ljubljana,
Slovenia
27th International Biennial of Graphic Arts Ljubljana, Biennial of Graphic Arts
Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
There is no border…, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Germany
Asteism – Joke and Authority, Program Art Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Bodycheck, 10. Triennale Kleinplastik, Fellbach, Germany
83
History Will Repeat Itself, Hartware Medien Kunst Verein, Dortmund, Germany
History will repeat itself, HMKV in der Phoenix Halle Dortmund, Germany
1,2,3… Avant-‐Gardes (Open Form 2), Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Shooting Back, Thyssen-‐Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
Silence, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Prison, Bloomberg SPACE, London, UK
Das Bildschirmauge oder das neue Bild – 100 Videos, um die Welt neu zu denken,
Casino Luxembourg, Luxemburg
Collezione La Gaia, CeSAC, Caraglio, Italy
On Tectonics of History, Wyspa Institute of Art, Danzig, Poland
Eine Frage (nach) der Geste, Goethe-‐Institut Rom, Rome, Italy
Lessons in Learning, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA

2006
1, 2, 3… Avant-‐Gardes, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
Eine Frage (nach) der Geste, HGB Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Personal Affairs, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
Policja/Police, Bunkier Stzuki, Krakow, Poland
Höhepunkte der KunstFilmBiennale Köln, Kunst-‐Werke, Berlin, Germany
You won’t feel a thing, Kunsthaus Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Belief and Doubt, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, USA
Kulturzone 06, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
sonambiente berlin 2006, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
The Impossible Theatre, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
A Short History of Performance -‐ Part IV, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
Uniforms & Costumes, Herzliya Museum, Herzliya, Israel
The Impossible Theatre, Barbican Centre, London, UK
Une vision du monde, la collection video de Jean-‐Conrad et Isabelle Lemaître, La
Maison rouge, Paris, France
About the absence of the camp – Reflections of contemporary art on the topicality of
remembrance, Kunsthaus Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Positioning -‐ In the New Reality of Europe, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo,
Japan
Critique of Pure Image – Between Fake and Quotation, Les Complices, Zürich,
Switzerland
In Search of the Lost Time, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Strange Powers, Creative Time, New York, USA

2005
Between the Furniture and the Building, CAC Brétigny, Brétigny, France
Positioning, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
Irreducible, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA
War is Over, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy
NOT A DROP BUT THE FALL, Künstlerhaus Bremen, Germany
Critique of Pure Image – Between Fake and Quotation, Art Today Association Center
for Contemporary Art, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
84
October Salon 2005, October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia
Egocentric, Immoral, Outmoded, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Positioning, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Das unmögliche Theater, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Irreducible, Miami Art Central, Miami, USA
Panopticon, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Collective Creativity, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
Radiodays, De Appel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
transmediale.05, Transmediale Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Spektakel, Lustprinzip oder das Karnevaleske, Shedhalle, Zürich, Switzerland
Academy. Teaching Art, Learning Art, Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Irreducible: Contemporary Short Form Video 1995–2005, CCA Wattis Institute for
Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA
wybory.pl / [s] election.pl, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw,
Poland
Das Heilige und der Leib, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-‐Baden, Germany
Das Heilige und der Leib, National Museum of Art, Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw – Moscow / Mosow – Warsaw 1900 – 2000, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow,
Russia

2004
Instant Europe, Villa Manin, Codroipo, Italy
Effort, Koldo Mitxelen Kulturunea, San Sebastian, Spain
Apparemment léger, Les semaines européennes de l’image, Le Havre, France
Aarhus Festival of contemporary Art 2004, Aarhus Festival, Aarhus, Denmark
E.U. positive – Kunst aus dem neuen Europa, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
Fin des temps! L’ histoire n’est plus. L’art polonais du 20e siècle, Hôtel des Arts -‐
Conseil général du Var, Toulon, France
Mémoires du temps de l’immaturité, Passage de Retz, Paris, France
Under the red and white flag. New art from Poland, Zacheta National Gallery of Art,
Warsaw, Poland
Privatisierungen – zeitgenössische Kunst aus Osteuropa, Kunst-‐Werke Berlin, Berlin,
Germany
Passage d’Europe, Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-‐Etienne, St. Etienne, France
Videodreams. Zwischen Cinematischem und Theatralischem, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz,
Austria
Under the White and Red Flag, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania
A Pilgrimage, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Warsaw – Moscow / Mosow – Warsaw 1900 – 2000, National Gallery of Art Zacheta,
Warsaw, Poland
Pawel and Vincent, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, The Netherlands, with Paweł
Althamer
Duty and Rebellion, National Gallery of Art Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland
Videozoom, Palazzo San Carluccion, Polish Institute in Rome, Viterbo, Italy
Videoformes 2004, XIX International Video and New Media Art Event, Clermont-‐
Ferrand, France
85
2003
Pressing Flesh, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Art Focus 4, International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Jerusalem, Israel
Phalanstère, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Brétigny, Brétigny, France
Paweł Althamer & Artur Żmijewski, Kunstverein Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
Positive Charge, Umeå Kultur, Umeå, Swden
So genannte Wellen und andere Phänomene des Geiste, Kunstverein für die
Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
Sound Systems, Kunstverein Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Objekte in Ton, Kunstverein Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Hidden in a daylight, Foksal Gallery Foundation/Hotel pod Jeleniem, Cieszyn, Poland
Interior Secrets of the Body, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Des/fragmentar, Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte Roma, Mexico City, Mexico
Rhythm is a dancer, it’s a sous companion, you can feel it everywhere, Kulturhuset,
Stockholm, Sweden
Public Rituals, Art-‐Videos from Poland, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig
Wien, Vienna, Austria
Gleiche Rechte für Behinderte, Kornhausforum, Bern, Switzerland
Order, Labour, Gender, Kulturni Center Belgrade, Serbia
Topos Polonicus, Stockholm Art Fair, Sollentunamässan, Stockholm, Sweden
Reversed Art and Engineering, Skulpturens Hus Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
What Does the Corpe’s Pupil see?, Disctrict Museum, Bydgoszcz, Poland
Aktuelle Fotografie aus Polen, Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria
New Polish Video Art, Atelier Nord, Oslo, Norway
Hidden in a Daylight, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
InteGration, Program Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

2002
Die Aufgabe der Zeit, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany
A Need For Realism, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw,
Poland
Co widzi trupa wyszklona zrennica?, Galeria Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland
Nachbar(i)n. Polen-‐Österreich, WUK Projektraum, Vienna, Austria
Nachbar(i)n. Polen-‐Österreich, Arsenal Gallery, Poznan, Poland
Nachbar(i)n. Polen-‐Österreich, Austrian Cultural Forum, Warsaw, Poland
Poland, Academia Theater, Warsaw, Poland
Dangerous Liaisons, Arsenal Gallery, Poznan, Poland

2001
Abbild. Recent Portraiture and Depiction, Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria
Milano Europa 2000, Triennale di Milano, Palazzo della Triennale, Milano, Italy
What does the Corpe’s Glazed Pupil See?, Academia Theater, Warsaw, Poland
International Collection of Contemporary Art, Center for Contemporary Art Zamek
Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland
Cold War Between Art and Society, Theatrical association Laznia, Krakow, Poland

86
2000
Scene 2000, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
in freiheit endlich -‐ Polnische Kunst nach 1989, Kunsthalle Baden-‐Baden, Germany
After the Wall, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
SEXXX, Inzynierska 3, Warsaw, Poland
Polen – Postindustrial Sorrow, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Germany
Slawomier Belina – Eight, Maly Salon, National Gallery of Art Zacheta, Warsaw,
Poland
Art Gallery Forum, Gallery & Foundation Wyspa Progress, Centre for Contemporary
Art Laznia, Gdansk, Poland

1999
Art after the Wall, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
What you see is what you get, Medium Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
Blue Fire, 3rd Biennial Prague, City Gallery The House of the Stone Bell, Prague,
Czech Republic
Rondo, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Parteitag, BWA Gallery for Contemporary Art, Katowice, Poland
Generations, Manege Central Exhibition Hall, Pushkin Gallery 10, Saint Petersburg,
Russia

1998
Germinations X, the factory, Athens, Greece
The Figure in Polish 19th and 20th Sculpture Art, Centre of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko,
Poland
Fragments of Collection 3, National Gallery of Art Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland
Parteitag, a.r.t. Gallery, Plock, Poland
OIKOS IV, District Museum, Bydgoszcz, Poland
Fauna, New Manege, Moscow, Russia
Fauna, National Gallery of Art Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland
Via 4 Festival, Escape Provert – Centre Culturel, Savigny-‐le-‐Temple, France
At the Time of Writing, Centre for Contemporary Art, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw,
Poland

1997
Bez paszportu / Passport: Exchange (Ex) Change, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios,
Arthouse, Dublin, Ireland
New Territory of Expression, Centre for Contemporary Art, Zamek Ujazdowski,
Warsaw, Poland
Photography ‘97, Palac Sztuki, Krakow, Poland
Parteitag, Inzynierska 3, Warsaw, Poland
International Arts Meeting Katowice, BWA Gallery for Contemporary Art”, Katowice,
Poland

87
1996
A.R. Friends Gallery, Museum of Xawery Dunikowski, Krolikarnia Palace, National
Museum, Warsaw, Poland
Generation ‘96, BWA Gallery for Contemporary Art, Katowice, Poland
Me and AIDS, Czereja Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Me and AIDS, a.r.t. Gallery, Plock, Poland
Me and AIDS, Artists’ Society Water-‐Tower, Bydgoszcz, Poland
Me and AIDS, Gallery & Foundation Wyspa Progress, Gdansk, Poland

1995
Transhumation, Pictures Gallery, Kaunas, Lithuania

1994
On a Beautiful Meadow I am Getting Rid of Series of White Stools in Outer Space,
Czereja Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Sculpture from Movement, Aspekt Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Mobile Sculpture, Czereja Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

1991
Cardinal, Studio of Grzegorz Kowalski, Warsaw, Poland
Supper, Dziekanka Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

COLLECTIONS

CNAP Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris la Défense, France
Collezione La Gaia, Busca, Italy
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena, Italy
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France
Frans Hals Museum / De Hallen Haarlem, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France
Kunstsammlung der ERSTE Bank Gruppe, Vienna, Austria
Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest, Hungary
LVMH Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création, Paris, France
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Outset Contemporary Art Fund, London, UK
Tate Modern, London, UK

88

YAEL BARTANA

1970 Born in Kfar Yehezkel, Israel

EDUCATION

2000-‐01 Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1999 MFA, School of Visual Arts, New York, USA
1992-‐96 BFA, The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Israel

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015
Inferno, True Finn – Tosi suomalainenn, Petzel Gallery, New York, USA
Inferno, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, Germany
Inferno, Galeria Raffaella Cortese, Milano, Italy

2014
True Finn – Tosi suomalainenn, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
True Finn – Tosi suomalainenn, IHME Contemporary Art Festival, Helsinki, Finland
Inferno, Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, USA
True Finn – Tosi suomalainenn, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel

2013
Two Minutes of Standstill, Impulse Theater Biennale 2013, Cologne, Germany
…and Europe will be stunned, Petzel Gallery, New York, USA

2012
Wenn Ihr wollt, ist es kein Traum, Secession, Vienna, Austria
…and Europe will be stunned, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
…and Europe will be stunned, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
…and Europe will be stunned, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk,
Denmark
…and Europe will be stunned, Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario, Canada
…and Europe will be stunned, University of California, Irvine, USA

2011
…and Europe will be stunned, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne,
Australia
…and Europe will be stunned, 54th Venice Biennial, Polish Pavilion Zacheta Gallery,
Warsaw, Poland
…and Europe will be stunned, UAF/ ROOM gallery, University of California, Irvine,
USA

89
2010
…and Europe will be stunned, Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden
If you want, we’ll travel to the moon together. Mary Koszmary, Muri wieża,
Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
If you want, we’ll travel to the moon together. Mary Koszmary, Muri wieża, Sommer
Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel

2009
Muri wieża, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
Mary Koszmary, Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, USA
Mary Koszmary, Jewish Museum, New York, USA
Auto Sueno y Materia, The Kings of the Hill, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid,
Spain

2008
Kings of the Hill, Trembling Time, MoMA, PS1, New York, USA
Summer Camp, A declaration, Kerstin Engholm Galerie, Vienna, Austria
Mary Koszmary, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, Italy
Mary Koszmary, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel

2007
Summer Camp, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ritual, Wild Seeds, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
Yael Bartana: In the Army I was an outstanding soldier, Wild Seeds, Low relief II,
Profile, Summer Camp, Fondazione March per l’Arte Contemporanea, Padua, Italy

2006
When Adar Enters, Kings of the Hill, Trembling Time, Kunstverein Hamburg,
Hamburg, Germany
Odds and Ends, You could be Lucky, Ad de’lo Yoda, Kings of the Hill, Stedelijk van
Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Amateur Anthropologist, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
Sirens’ Song, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, UK

2005
Wild Seeds, Museum St.Gallen, St.Gallen, Switzerland
Photographic works in project space The Bakery, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands

2004
You could Be Lucky, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
When Adar Enters, Ad De’lo Yoda, Kings of the Hill, MIT, List Visual Arts Center,
Cambridge, USA
Trembling Time, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada
When Adar Enters, Blimp, Büro Friedrich, Berlin, Germany

90
2003
Kings of the Hill, MoMA, PS1, New York, USA
Blimp, Herzliya Museum for Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel
Purim Spiel, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Kings of the Hill, Kerstin Engholm Galerie, Vienna, Austria
Kings of the Hill, Herzliya Museum for Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel
Trembling Time, Kings of the Hill, Galeria comercial, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2002
Trembling Time, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen, The Netherlands
Profile, Tuning, Variables X Y Z Digital Art Lab, Holon, Israel

2001
Profile, Caermersklooster, Gent, Belgium

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015
True Finn, Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, USA
A Declaration, Weatherspoon art museum, Greensboro, USA

2014
Mary Koszmary, Performance Now, Queensland University of Technology Art
Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Short Memory, The Negev Museum of Art, Be’er Sheva, Israel
Vladivostok International Film Festival Pacific Meridian, Vladivostok, Russia
Story Time: Or Was It, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Helena Rubenstein Pavilion for
Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
La disparition des lucioles, La Collection Lambert, Avignon, France
A Moving Image, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Shifting Sands: Recent Videos of the middle East, Arizona State University Art
Museum, Tempe, USA
Inferno, SALT Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey
Art From Elsewhere, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, UK
True Finn, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
La Guerra che verra non e la prima, MART – Museum of Contemporary Art, Trento,
Italy
Bilder in der Zeit, Sammlung Goetz im Haus der Kunst, München, Germany
Les Gueules Cassées, Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany
And I laid traps for the troubadours who get killed before they reached Bombay, Clark
House, Bombay, India
9 Artists, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, USA
A Room of His Own, Art Sonje, Seoul, South Korea

91
2013
Vot ken you mach?, Contemporary Art, Films, Cartoons, Concerts on Jewish Identities
Today, Kunsthaus Dresden, Dresden, Germany
In the Aftermath of Trauma: Contemporary Video Installations, Mildred Lane Kemper
Art Museum, St. Louis, USA
Incomparable Histories, Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea, San Sebastián, Spain
The Glorious Rise and Fall…(and so on), Groot Ziekengasthuis, ’S-‐Hertogenbosch, The
Netherlands
Israel Now-‐Reinventing the future, Macro Testaccio, Rome, Italy
Speak Memory, Wallach Art Gallery NYC, New York, USA
9 Artists, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
Compromised Land, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of
New York, Purchase, New York, USA

2012
Io, tu, noi gli altri (Me, you, us and the other), Chiostri di San Pietro, Reggio Emilia,
Italy
VIP Showroom, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Contre L’Histoire, Kunsthalle Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
Chronicles of Dissent, Marginal Utility, Philadelphia, USA
True Stories: Scripted Realities, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New
Zealand
Middle East Europe, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic
Divided/Undivided. Art in Germany 1945-‐2010, Staatliche Kunstsammlunguen
Dresden, Dresden, Germany

2011
Kritische Masse, Hoschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Past Desire / Vergangenes Begehren, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria
Communitas/ Among Others, Camera Austria, Graz, Austria
Strange and Close (works from the Van Abbe Collection), CAPC Bordeaux, France
Drawn to Disaster, ICA Maine College of Art, Portland, USA
Moving Image, Kunstenlab, Deventer, The Netherlands
Rabble-‐Rousing Going forward backwards in modern art, Gemeentemuseum Den
Haag, Den Haag, The Netherlands
Patria O Libertad!, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, The Netherlands
L'énigme du portrait, MAC, Marseille, France
Be My Guest: 10 Encounters with Aboriginal Art, Museum of Contemporary
Aboriginal Art, Utrecht, The Netherlands
What if?, Hå gamle prestegard, Naerbø, Norway
You Are All Individuals!, Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Patria o Libertad!, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, The Netherlands
Two Works, Gallery Charim Unger / CUC, Berlin, Germany
Out of Place, Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, USA
Moving Worlds, Podbielski Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
The Right to Protest, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel
92
2010
Overview Israeli Video 2000-‐2010, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel
Yesterday will be better – Taking Memory into the Future, Aargauer Kunsthaus,
Aarau, Switzerland
The Yvonne Rainer Project, BFI Gallery, London, UK
Breaking News, Fondazione Fotografia, Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Italy
Muri wieża, Mary Koszmary, 29th Bienal de São Paolo, São Paolo, Brazil
Les Promesses du Passé, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Monumentalisme, The Temporary Stedelijk at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
A Declaration, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Che cosa sono le nuvole? Artworks from the Enea Righi Collection, Mary Koszmary,
Museion, Bolzano, Italy
… on the eastern front, video art from central and eastern Europe 1989-‐ 2009, Ludwig
Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Trembling Time: Recent Video From Israel, Tate Modern, London, UK
Early years, Muri wieża, Kunst-‐Werke, Berlin, Germany
Artes Mundi, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Der Offene Garten, Kunsthalle Lingen, Lingen, Germany
Homeless Home, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel
A Generation, Petach Tikva Museum, Petach Tikva, Israel

2009
Ecstatic Resistance, Grand Arts, Kansas City, USA
Niet normaal, difference on display., Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Who is afraid of the artist?, Palais des Arts de Dinard, Dinard, France
Architecture & Memory, British Film Institute, London, UK
Earth: Art of a Changing World, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK A Declaration,
Trembling Time, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
The Symbolic Efficiency of the Frame, International Contemporary Art Biannual,
Tirana, Albania
Acting Out: Social Experiments in Video, ICA, Boston, USA
Hugging & Wrestling, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland, USA
Pacific Meridian, Vladivostok International Film Festival for Asian Pacific Countries,
Vladivostok, Russia
Stranded Positions, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel, Switzerland
The Missing negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
The 11th presentation of Le Mois de la Photo a Montréal 2009, Montréal, Canada
Contour, 4th Biennial of Moving Image, Mechelen, Belgium
Troubles aux frontières, Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris, France
Pop Up!,Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany
Auto. Dream and Matter, Laboral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial, Gijon, Spain
and Dos De Mayo Art Centre, Madrid, Spain
Promised Land, Gemak, Gemeente museum Den Haag, De Hague, The Netherlands
Anabasis. Rituals of Homecoming, Book Art Museum, Lodz, Poland
93
2008
Imaginary Coordinates, Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership,
Chicago, USA
Floating Architectures and Constant Centers: Some Projections, Martin Art Gallery,
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, USA
C.H.O.S.E.N., Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland
She doesn’t think so but she’s dressed for the H-‐bomb, Starr auditorium, Tate Modern,
London, UK
We never looked better, The missing negatives of the Sonnenfeld collection, Museum of
the Jewish People, Tel Aviv, Israel
Video Exhibition, Contemporary Art Institute EXIT, Pejë, Kosovo
The Hidden Trace – Jewish Paths through modernity, Felix-‐Nussbaum-‐Haus,
Osnabruck, Germany
World Tale: Mixed Narrations: A Video Parade from Different Points, The Hacettepe
University Art Museum, Ankara, Turkey
Artist-‐Citizen, 49th October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia
Momentum, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, USA
The Art of the State, Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
H-‐BOX, Tate Modern, London, UK
Like an Attali Report, but different, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France
Democracy in the Age of Branding, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons The New
School for Design, New York, USA
The Object Quality of the Problem: The Space of Israel/Palestine, Henry Moore
Foundation, Leeds, UK
Brave New Worlds, Jumex Collection, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Territorial Phantom, Montevideo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Greenroom: Reconsidering the Documentary a Contemporary Art, CCS BARD
Hessel Museum, New York, USA
Deceiving the Enemy, Arteria, Bogota, Colombia
Time beyond Border, Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem, Israel
Personal Landscapes, Contemporary Art from Israel, American University Museum,
Washington, USA
Stutter and Twitch, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Les Inquiets, 5 artistes sous la pression de la guerre, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
H-‐BOX, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France: Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y
Leon, Leon, Spain; Musee d’Art Moderne Grand-‐Duc Jean, Luxembourg City,
Luxembourg; Tate Modern, London, UK

2007
Imaginary Zone, ZKM Seoul Office, Seoul, South Korea
A Forest and a Tree, Kunsthalle Energasse, Vienna, Austria
Transforming Memory. The Politics of Images, Art Gallery Nadezda Petrovic, Cacak,
Serbia
Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany
Brave New Worlds, Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, USA
94
Wherever We Go: Art, Identity, Cultures in Transit, San Francisco Art Institute, San
Francisco, USA
Um Atlas de Acontecimentos/ An Atlas of Events, The State of the World, Fundacao
Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, Portugal
Play Safe, Battlefields in the playground, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Im Auge des Zyklons/In the eye of the storm, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland
Regarding Fear and Hope, Monash University Museum of Art, Victoria, Australia
Thermocline of Art-‐New Asian Waves (a ZKM 10th Anniversary Exhibition), Museum
of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany
War and Cinema, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Dateline Israel: New Photography and Video Art, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA

2006
Demolition, Engholm/Engelhorn Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Records and Habits. The Time Machine / Images of Space, Tapies Foundation,
Barcelona, Spain
Israele, arte e vita, 1906-‐2006, Palazzo Reale, Milano, Italy
Wherever We Go, Spazio Oberdan, Milan, Italy
7th Werkleitz Biennial, Halle, Germany
INSIDE-‐OUT. Contemporary Artists from Israel, Museo de arte contemporanea de
Vigo, Vigo, Spain
Coding: Decoding, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center,
Copenhagen, Denmark
David Maljkovic, Gallery Nova, Zagreb, Croatia
The Art of Living: Contemporary Works from the Israel Museum, The Contemporary
Jewish Museum, San Francisco, USA
Une Vision du Monde, Works from the Lemaitre-‐collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris,
France

2005
Beograd Nekad I Sad, Galerija, Belgrade, Serbia
V Internationales Kunstfestival Magdeburg, Art Depot, Magdeburg, Germany
Prix de Rome.NL, Stichting de Appel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A forest and a tree, Yellow Bird Gallery, Newburgh, New York, USA
Trembling Time, Platform Garanti, Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey
The Hebrews -‐ 100 years of culture in Israel, The Israel Museum and Martin Gropius
Bau, Berlin, Germany
Reunion, ByArt Projects, Tel Aviv, Israel
Dorothea von Stetten Kunstpreis, Kunstmuseum BONN, Bonn, Germany
Irreducible, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA

2004
Time Zones: recent film and video, Tate Modern, London, UK
Time Depot, Petach Tikva Museum, Petach Tikva, Israel
Surfacing, Ludwig Museum Budapest, Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest,
Hungary
95
Wherever I am, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
You Could Be Lucky, Liverpool Biennial, Festival for Contemporary Art, Liverpool, UK
Point of Contact, Contemporary Art Exhibition, Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea
The 10 Commandments, Deutsches Hygiene-‐Museum, Dresden, Germany
The Mediterraneans, Museum of Modern Art Rome, Rome, Italy
Lonely Planet, Art Tower Mito, Contemporary Art Center, Ibaraki, Japan
Quicksand, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2003
Territories, Witte De With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Wonderyears -‐ New Reflections on Shoah and Nazism in Israel, Neue Gesellschaft für
Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany
Territories, Kunst-‐Werke Berlin, Berlin, Germany
After-‐Life, Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Overbeck-‐Gesellschaft, Lübeck Kunstverein, Lübeck, Germany
Trembling Time, The Promise, The Land, O.K Center for Contemporary Art, Vienna,
Austria
Trembling Time, Sheffield Festival of Contemporary Art, Sheffield, UK
Kaap Helder, Oude Rijkswerf Willemsoord (Kunst en Cultuur NoordHolland), Den
Helder, The Netherlands
Trembling Time, Galerie der Stadt Schwaz, Schwaz /Tirol, Austria
Profile, MARS-‐Art and War Graz, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz,
Austria

2002
Rendez-‐Vous, Musee d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France
What? A tale in free images, Brugge Culture Capital of Europe, Brugge, Belgium
Say Hello Wave Goodbye, Galerie Hohenlohe & Kalb, Vienna, Austria
Tele-‐Journeys, MIT List Visual Center, Cambridge, USA
Trembling Time, Disembodying the national army tune, The 4th Gwangju Biennale,
Gwangju, South Korea
Non-‐linear Editing, De Paviljoens, Almere, The Netherlands

2001
In the Meantime, De Appel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Neue Welt, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
2e Sybren Hellinga Kunstprijs 2001, Kunsthuis SYB, Beetsterzwaag, The Netherlands
Open Ateliers, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2000
Greater New York, MoMA, PS1, New York, USA
Open Ateliers, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Reflex Ensemble in Musical Dialoges, Borochov Gallery, Center for the Arts, Tel Aviv,
Israel

96
COLLECTIONS

Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Tate Modern, London, UK
Jewish Museum New York, New York, USA
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Museum de Paviljoens, Almere, The Netherlands
Kunsthalle St. Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France
Haags Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

97

Irina Moreno: A Look at Delegated Performance Through The Lens of Santiago Sierra, Artur Żmijewski, and Yael Bartana PDF

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A Look at Delegated Performance Through the Lens of

(2012), p. 102.

white, middle class, heterosexual, able-­‐bodied cisgender male.

International, (2006), p. 180.

November 2010) < http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/conceptual-­‐artists-­‐war-­‐

(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), p. 27.

(2012), p. 94.

When you hide something instead of teaching or revealing it, you

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Radio Liberty, (23 August 2005) <http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1060878.

Documentation’, Art Journal, 56 (1997), p. 12.

(2002), p. 103.

(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007), p. 177.

Jobless Rates, Homelessness’, International Business Times, (11 November 2014)

Sierra’s Veterans’, Art Experience: NYC, I (2012), p. 28.

(29 November 2009) <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/arts/design/

University Press, 2012), p. 100.

Ontology, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014), p. 85.

York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), p. 229.

if never happened, (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2005), p. 24.

University Press, 1998), p. 142.

Haaretz, (10 January 2015) <http://www.haaretz.com/life/arts-­‐leisure/.premium-­‐

(5 February 2015) <http://www.brooklynrail.org/2015/02/art/yael-­‐bartana-­‐with-­‐

Conjuration’, Afterall, 29 (2012), p. 56.

Stanford University Press, 2003), p. 17.

2014), p. 236.

Haaretz, (9 February 2015) < http://www.haaretz.com/life/arts-­‐leisure/.premium-­‐

International, (2006), p. 182.

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), p. 15.

Verwoert, Jan, ‘Game Theory’, Frieze, 114 (2008), 162-­‐167.

Fig. 18. Artur Żmijewski, Dorota, 2006, Warsaw, Poland

Fig. 22. Yael Bartana, Profile, 2000, Israel

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