Krzysztof Wodiczko, Professor (on sabbatical 2007-2008)

Profile
Work
- Images and Projects
- Solo Exhibitions
- Group Exhibitions
- Public Projections
- Television/Radio Programs/Films
- Public Collections
Publications

Contact Info
Room: N51-397CAVS
617-253-5862
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Related Links
Interrogative Design Group

Profile

Krzysztof Wodiczko emigrated twice, from Poland to Canada and then from Canada to the United States. He now shares his time between New York, where he lives and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is a professor of Visual Arts, a head of Interrogative Design Group, and a director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Since 1980, has created over 70 Public Projections of still and video images that critically animate historic monuments and civic edifices. Public Projections with still images include: The Grand Army Plaza Memorial Arch, Brooklyn, NY (1983); The South African Embassy, London (1985); The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. (1988); The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1989),The Lenin Monument, Berlin (1990) and Arco de la Victoria, Madrid (1991). Public Projections involving sound and motion began with City Hall Tower, Krakow (1996) and later engaged the following monumental city symbolic structers: Bunker Hill Monument, Boston (1998); A-Bomb Dome, Hiroshima (1999); El Centro Cultural, Tijuana, Mexico (2001); facade of the National Gallery in Warsaw (2005) and the Kustmuseum Basel, Switzerald (2006). The Hiroshima Projection, was organized after Krzysztof Wodiczko was awarded the Hiroshima Art Prize. The next Public Projections are planned to take place in Caracas, Venezula,(in 2007), Lisbon, Portugal and Boston, Massachusetts, and Stuttgart, Germany (in 2008).

Throughout his career, Mr. Wodiczko has also developed a series of tools and devices for urban interventions, such as Homeless Vehicle (1988-89), Poliscar (1991), as well as portable and wearable communication instrumentations such as Alien Staff (1992), Porte-Parole (1994), AEgis (2000) and Dis-Armor (1999-present). Dis-Armor, which was first developed for the City of Hiroshima, than was on view in the Triennial exhibition at the International Center of Photography and more recently in the exhibition called the Interventionists at MASS MoCA.

Mr. Wodiczko's work has been exhibited in numerous international festival and exhibitions including: Paris Biennale (twice), Biennale of Sao Paulo( twice), The Sydney Biennale, Documenta, Germany (twice); The Kwang-ju Biennale, South Korea; The Venice Biennale (twice); The Biennale in Lyon, France, The Helsinki Biennale, Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, Kyoto Biennale, the Yokohama Triennale and the International Center for Photography Triennial in New York.

In 2005 a major individual exhibition titled "IF YOU SEE SOMETHING..."was held at the Galerie Lelong in New York and a major retrospective exhibition of Mr. Wodiczko's work was organized at the the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and, independently, at the Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Center in Krakow in Poland.
The major retrospective exhibition of Krzysztof Wodiczko are planned in 2007 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas, Venezula and in Kunstverein in Stuttgart, Germany.

Mr. Wodiczko with the architect Julian Bonder is commissioned by the city of Nantes, to design a Memorial commemorating the Abolition of Slavery in France. (Opening in 2007)
In fall 2006 Krzysztof wodiczko has been awarded a "Percent for Art" commission for Robert W. Healy Public Safety Facility and Emergency Communication Center building in Cambridge, Massachussets.

In 2005 and 2006 , as a part of Art 21, a PBS series, a program devoted to Mr.Wodiczko's work has been nationally broadcast.

Mr. Wodiczko's work can be found in numerous public collections such as: The Fundació Tapies, Barcelona, Spain; Museum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland, The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Artbank, Canada; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France; FNAC, and FNAC Ile de France, Paris; FRAC Pays de la Loire, Nantes, France; The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; The Jewish Museum, New York; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, The Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw ,MACBA, Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, and Kunstmuseum Basel.

In 1998 Krzysztof Wodiczko has received the 4th Hiroshima Art Prize "for his contribution as an artist to the world peace" and in 2004 the Kepes Award, at MIT.

In 2005 he received an annual award from the College Art Association for the "distinguished body of artistic work".

Education: 1968 M.F.A. in Industrial Design from Akademia Sztuk Pieknych (Academy of Fine Arts), Warsaw (where he also had completed his undergraduate studies).
He also holds an honorary doctoral degree from the Maine College of Art (2004).