For his first institutional exhibition in China, Polish contemporary artist Paweł Althamer will chiefly present two of his iconic works which explore the relationship between individual identity, social relations, and the making of art: Draftsmen’s Congress and Venetians. In Draftsmen’s Congress, Althamer invites museum visitors to draw at will on the floor and walls of the exhibition space, intentionally creating an open-ended dialogue among participants in which communication takes place by interacting with and responding to each other’s drawn gestures. Venetians reflects Althamer’s interest in social, site-specific sculpture. For the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, the artist worked with his father’s plastics manufacturing company to cast the faces and hands of 90 of the city’s dwindling local population. He then attached these molds to bodies made of thick, intertwined plastic ribbons, juxtaposing the realism of their hands and faces—humanistic symbols of occupation and identity—with their haunting, skeletal frames.
The UCCA presentation of “Paweł Althamer” is supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing.