Robert Kuśmirowski (born 1973) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

ist whose work includes

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, installations,

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

and

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

. His work uses reconstruction of historical artefacts and settings to examine and manipulate historical themes. He lives and works in

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings a ...

Robert Kusmirowski: Bunker
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Profile
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Early life and education

Kuśmirowski was born in 1973 in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

. He studied sculpture at the

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (MCSU) (, UMCS) is a public research university, in Lublin, Poland. It is named in honour of Marie Curie-Sklodowska. The University was founded on October 23, 1944, by the Lublin Committee during the Second W ...

in Lublin including a year's scholarship at the

University of Rennes 2 Rennes 2 University (UR2; , officially Université Rennes-II Haute-Bretagne) is a public university located in Upper Brittany, France. It is one of the four universities of the Academy of Rennes. The main campus is situated in the northwest of ...

. He graduated in 2003.

Work

In his installations Kuśmirowski showcases his ability to craft replicas for illusionistic effects of decay and ageing, often bringing together found objects with elements constructed out of wood, cardboard, paint and other materials. Kuśmirowski had become interested in replication and falsification as a child when he

forged Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compression (physics), compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die (manufacturing), die. Forging is often classif ...

bus passes and

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

s for his family. This has remained a consistent theme in his work.

Frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

Robert Kusmirowski
/ref> In 2003, he rode from Paris via Luxemburg to Leipzig on a 19th-century bicycle, dressed in period garb. He documented the tour by photographing it, and processed the prints so that they seem to be original photos from the time period. He presented the photographs in an exhibition space, along with an unusable reproduction of the bicycle and his own drawings, which were yellowed in order to simulate newspaper articles on the various stages of the tour. On 14 November 2004 Kusmirowski left Lodz and walked 1500 km on foot to Paris for the opening of the group exhibition "De ma Fenêtre, des artistes et leur territoire" - of which his action was a part - on 16 December. In ''Double V'' (2005), he created a life-size replica of a 1970s worker’s flat in Soviet-era architecture. ''Wagon'' (2006), exhibited in the 4th

Berlin Biennale The Berlin Biennale (full name: Berlin Biennale für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art) is a contemporary art exhibition, which has been held at various locations in Berlin, Germany, every two to three years since 1998. ...

, was modelled with styrofoam and cardboard after train carriages used to transport detainees to Auschwitz. At the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

in New York, Kuśmirowski constructed ''Unacabine'' (2008), a replica of the remote cabin in Montana where Polish-American terrorist Theodore Kaczynski conceived his mail bombing campaign against American universities, airlines and other companies. At the

in 2009, he transformed a gallery into a World War II-era concrete bunker – complete with flickering lights, hand-crafted nuts and bolts, and even a working draisine.

Exhibitions

Kuśmirowski had his first solo exhibition while still a student (in 2002) at the Galeria Biała in Lublin, where he constructed a

replica A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

of the old

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. He has since had solo shows, among others, at Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2005), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (2006/07), and the

, London (2009). Kuśmirowski's next exhibition was titled pain thing, at Summerhall (The Old Royal Dick Veterinary College) in Edinburgh during the Edinburgh Fringe 2012.

Recognition

In 2004 he was nominated for a ''

Paszport Polityki Paszport Polityki (Polityka's Passport) is an annual Polish cultural award presented by the weekly magazine '' Polityka'' since 1993. It is presented in six major categories: literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written wor ...

'' award.

Major works

* 2006: ''Ornamente der Anatomie (The Ornaments of Anatomy)'', Kunstverein Hannover,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. * 2006: ''Wagon'', 4th Berlin Biennale,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. * 2008: ''Unacabine'',

New Museum of Contemporary Art The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-name ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. * 2009: ''The Collector’s Massif'', Bunkier Sztuki,

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. * 2009: ''Bunker'',

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

Artist installs replica bunker
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References