Anna Baumgart (born 1966) is a Polish artist, best known for her large
installation pieces and film. She is based in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...
.
While she covers many different issues in her works, "all of them share a preoccupation with repression."
Her works are in the permanent collections of several Polish museums.
Early life and education
Baumgart was born in
Wroclaw in 1966.
In 1994 Baumgart graduated from the department of sculpture of the
Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Poland.
Career
Themes
Baumgart uses
historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...
to examine and re-examine the past through art.
She also explores how the media can shape the narrative of a historical moment by reducing it to a single iconography. ''Szum Magazine'' writes that Baumgart likes to play with history and themes in culture.
Baumgart also examines issues related to gender, such as how to redefine the "notion of '
hysteria' ".
She is interested in examining roles relating to motherhood and the system as they shape the mental development of a child.
Work
In her work, ''Let Unrestrained Anger Be Eliminated'' (1996), Baumgart uses technology and the human body to explore the "resonance between maleness and femaleness." She explores the roles of how a child's development is shaped and whether it is through the mother or society in ''Who's Talking?'' (1998). Her work ''I've Got It From My Mother'' (2002) uses myths and symbols in the photographic and sculptural works of the artist and her daughter.
Baumgart used
found footage to create ''Real? (The Cranes Are Flying)'' (2001). Baumgart's first staged film was ''Ecstatics, Hysterics and Other Saintly Ladies'' (2004) and premiered at the
Zachęta National Gallery.
The film project, ''Fresh Cherries'' (2010) examines
prostitution in
concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
. It was created for the exhibition at the Art Centre in Falstad, Norway, where German concentration camp was located during the Second World War.
In 2010, Baumgart collaborated with artist,
Agnieszka Kurant
Agnieszka Kurant (born 1978) is a Polish interdisciplinary conceptual artist. She examines how economic, social, and cultural systems work in ways that blur the lines between reality and fiction.
Biography
Kurant was born in 1978 in Łódź, Po ...
, to create ''Project (...)'' which is an installation that spanned Chlodna Street where there was once a footbridge linking
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
communities to one another during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
* ''Mother'' (1999)
* ''Condoms, Money, Lady - No problem!'' (Prezerwatywy, pieniądze, money, lady - no problem, 1999)
Major exhibitions
* Media Art Biennale in 1997 and 1999, At The Time of Writing
Centre for Contemporary Art Zamek Ujazdowskiin Warsaw, 1998
* Public Relations, CCA Łaźnia in Gdańsk, 1999
* ''Sing, Slaves,'
Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art Kraków, Poland, 2014
* ''Three Plagues'', Galeria Labirynt – BWA Lublin, Poland, 2019
''Anna Baumgart. Revolution is not a dinner'' Galeria Miejska BWA w Bydgoszczy, 2019
Public collections
*
Zachęta National Gallery of Art
The Zachęta National Gallery of Art ( Polish: ''Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki'') is a contemporary art museum in the center of Warsaw, Poland. The Gallery's chief purpose is to present and support Polish contemporary art and artists. With num ...
*
Silesian Museum
Silesian Museum in Katowice ( pl, Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach) is a museum in the City of Katowice, Poland.
History
The museum was founded in 1929 by the Silesian Sejm, while the region was recovering from the Silesian Uprisings. In the XX ...
in Katowice
*
Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Poitou-Charentes
References
Citations
Sources
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baumgart, Anna
1966 births
Artists from Warsaw
Film people from Wrocław
Polish women artists
Polish women film directors
Living people
Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk alumni