MAD Presents Video Art of Anna Molska, Now thru 10/7

By: Jul. 06, 2012
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In recognition of the surreal vision and original voice of this provocative, young Polish video artist, the Museum of Arts and Design presents Anna Molska, Human Material as the next installment of its Never Dark Initiative, a perpetual-play cinema series in the MAD Theater. The series debuted in March with What is on the Outside, a survey of the work of Julika Rudelius. Anna Molska, Human Material will run from today, July 6 through October 7, 2012.

With visually arresting images and situations ranging from women singing traditional Polish songs in an abandoned Communist-era arts center; a scrawny, bare-chested young man in Bermuda shorts flagellating himself inside a foam-filled greenhouse; young men recreating Malevich’s Black Square with blocks, the 29-year-old Molska has gained critical renown for works that draw upon historical events and art history to examine cultural production in a post-communist Eastern Europe. "What's so compelling about Molska’s video work is that it articulates the social structures and situations we have inherited as a society–asking questions about the world we find ourselves in, how it shapes us, and how we can affect it," says Jake Yuzna, Manager of Public Programs, curator of the series.

Trained under Grzegorz Kowalski, known for genre-defying work that focuses on audience-artwork relationship, at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Molska highlights the place and experience of the individual within larger political systems in cinema that spans semi-documentary to absurdist fantasy. Among the works included in Human Material are "W-F*S (Work), P=W:T (Power)," which was shown at the Berlin Biennale in 2008; and "Tanagram," which was included in the New Museum’s The Generational: Younger Than Jesus. Several of the work will also screen concurrently at the Tate Modern’s exhibition Stage and Twist: Anna Molska and Ciprian Mure?.

Anna Molska, Human Material is made possible through additional support of Broadway 1602, New York.

SCREENINGS
Film screenings will be held in the Theater at MAD, at 2 Columbus Circle. All film screenings are Free with Museum Admission, Always Free for Members.

The Mourners (P?aczki) (2010)
Video, color, sound
28 min.

W=F*S (Work), P =W:T (Power) (2007-2008)
Two channel video installation, color, sound
9 min. each

Tanagram (2006/2007)
Video, color, sound
5 min.

Perspective (Perspektywa) (2006)
Video, color, sound
2 min.

The Weavers (Tkacze) (2009)
Video, color, sound
12 min.

Floor from Basel (Podloga z Bazylei) (2009)
Video, color, sound
6 min.

Minute (2007)
Video, color, sounds
1 min.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN
The Museum of Arts and Design explores the blur zone between art, design, and craft today. The Museum focuses on contemporary creativity and the ways in which artists and designers from around the world transform materials through processes ranging from the artisanal to digital. The Museum’s exhibition program explores and illuminates issues and ideas, highlights creativity and craftsmanship, and celebrates the limitless potential of materials and techniques when used by gifted and innovative artists. MAD’s Permanent Collection is global in scope and focuses on art, craft, and design from 1950 to the present day. At the center of the Museum’s mission is education. The Museum’s dynamic new facility features classrooms and studios for master classes, seminars, and workshops for students, families, and adults. Three open artist studios engage visitors in the creative processes of artists at work and enhance the exhibition programs. Lectures, films, performances, and symposia related to the Museum’s collection and topical subjects affecting the world of contemporary art, craft, and design are held in a renovated 144-seat auditorium.



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