[artinfo] Lodz Biennale

[e-Flux]

Lodz Biennale
October 2 - 31, 2004
Lodz, Poland

Lodz was founded in 1820 upon a decision of the authorities of the 
Kingdom of Poland to transform a village of around 800 inhabitants 
into an industrial town - "a city of factories". Soon Lodz became an 
important industrial center and, by the beginning of World War II, a 
vibrant and rich European metropolis with over half million citizens, 
where a cross-cultural religious life, mostly of Poles, Germans, Jews 
and Russians, played an important role.

Lodz was always a place of important artistic activities: at the very 
beginning of 1930s one of the first in the world collection of works 
of modern art was founded by a group of constructivist artists, among 
them Wladyslaw Strzeminski, Katarzyna Kobro, Henryk Stazewski. With 
this collection of avant-garde works, one of the earliest in Europe, 
a Muzeum Sztuki (Museum of Art) was established. After the war, 
during the 50s, 60s and 70s, many well-known film makers, among them 
Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieslowski, the radical avant-garde group 
"Workshop" and many others, came out of Lodz Film Academy.

In 1981 Lodz became a site of a large international exhibition of 
minimal and conceptual art initiated by Ryszard Wasko and entitled 
Construction in Process. This exhibition, comprised of site specific 
works by more than 50 international artists, curated and organized by 
artists, and supported by the Solidarity movement. Construction in 
Process took place at vacant industrial sites in the city.

The first edition of Lodz Biennale is based upon ideas developed 
during Construction in Process exhibitions - that of priority of 
process and dialogue over product. One of the main goals for this 
edition of Lodz Biennale is to present a challenging international 
exhibition where all works will be made exclusively for this project. 
The Biennale will provide the terrain of the exhibition and also, 
importantly, a terrain of opportunity to meet other artists to 
encourage a direct artists' dialogue.

The opening of the Lodz Biennale will be held on October 2, 2004 and 
the exhibition will be on view through October 31, 2004.

Participating artists will be invited be a special International 
Committee comprised of curators, writers and artists:

Zdenka Badovinac - director of Moderna Galerija, Ljubliana
Leon Golub - artist, New York
Robert C. Morgan - writer, New York
Anda Rottenberg - art-critic, Warsaw
Won Il-Rhee - critic and curator, former director of Gwangju Biennale
Gregory Volk - writer, New York
Lilly Wei - art-critic, New York
Lawrence Weiner - artist, New York
Emmett Williams - poet & artist, Berlin