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Tomasz Bajer
text by Jolanta Bielañska
Tomasz Bajer is strongly connected to the Polish conceptual art. He is also interested in a problem of identity of a person, group, thing, process. According to Erik Erikson identity crisis is the most important conflict human beings encounter when they go through eight developmental stages in life.
Tomasz Bajer has cooperated with Jolanta Bielañska since 1996.
He tries to direct human thoughts to philosophical field, in order to point that every human being need become completely responsible for their own spiritual life (Configurations). He often recalls complicated alchemical symbols, understood as a process of mystic unification of micro- and macrocosm through purification of feelings and thoughts. Artist creates complex works consisting of 7 repeating, but not identical elements - 7 for him is a symbol of eternal life, seven degrees of perfection, with seven colours of rainbow and seven planets. Seven bricks with inscription Breslau make think of "articles for export" with clearly pressed place of origin. Small peepholes show hidden fragments of old floors with precise German descriptions. This work reveals the devastation of the city by the Germans during WWII and by the Poles after year 1945.
Transmutation is a collection of seven cases, which after opening reveal imprints of ancient swords, being symbols of Sevenfold Spirit, penetrating the material world. The artist assumes, that confrontation of the public with objects being only cases for unreal swords-ideas, can arouse associations bringing them closer to the spiritual world, in which form does not exists-only pure ideas.
Kunstbomben stand for an artistic comment of paradoxical situation, in which on one hand we see an explosion of occultism, of some kind of "pop" religion, whereas on the other hand traditional esotericism is discovered, which rejects naive hope for cosmic and historic renewal without prior cataclysm. The artist rejects pure historic interpretation of this type of weapon, drawing attention to its strongly interfering and destroying character. The seven objects "Kunstbomben" show medieval magic rule (used in the transmutation process of lead [of nature] into gold [spirit]):
"VISITA INTERIORA TERRRAE RECTIFICANDO INVENIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM"
"Study the interior of the Earth, perfect it and you will find a hidden stone".
Heimweh was inspired by Jakcob Böhme, who claimed that an absolute divine unity constitutes the foundation of our world. In 1612 Böhme, sitting at the table, saw "reflection of divine ray" at the bottom of a copper jug, which in Eastern tradition is known as illumination. The table and stool of Tomasz Bajer with inscriptions imply that Opus Magnum can manifest itself also in our everyday life, in our microcosm.
Das wanderte Epitaph von Angelus Silesius (Wandering epitaph of Angelus Silesius), was dedicated to Silesius, who was born and died in Wroclaw. This Angel Wanderer, the creator and renovator of German poetry, the mystic did not have his own epitaph many years after WWII (it was taken away in the 50s).
Current and forthcoming Exhibitions:
2007
-MUTATIONS, La Republique Geniale, FRAC Alsace, France ; BWA Awangarda Gallery in Wroclaw, Poland
-Der Zeit entgegen, Feuerwache, Köln, Germany
-NONSTOP Festival Wroclaw, public space in Wroclaw, Poland
- Idividual Exhibitions, Baltycka Galeria Sztuki Wspólczesnej, Slupsk, Poland
2008
- Triennale of Young Artist, Center of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, Poland
Idividual Exhibitions:
2006 - Yapper, Entropia Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland
2003/2004 - Genius Loci, Center of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, Poland
1996 - Configurations I, City Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland
- Configurations II, Foyer Gallery, Gdansk, Poland
1995 - Iluminations, City Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland
Selected Collective Exhibitions:
2006
- 27th International Impact Art Festival, Kyoto City Museum, Japan
- Urban Potentials, Motorenhalle and Public space, Dresden, Germany
- 60th Anniversary of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, National Museum, Wroclaw, Poland
- Biennale Fish’s eye, Baltic Gallery of Art, Slupsk, Poland
- Biennale of the year 3000 in São Paulo, Brazil
- Artistamps, Artpool Art Research Center, Budapest, Hungary
2005
- International Impact Art Festival Kyoto, Japan
- Sechs Richtige nicht nur am Samstags, Europäisches Künstlerhaus Freising/München, Germany.
- The Experimenter & Art of Perception, Budapest, Hungary
- Free Beauty Shop, Prague, Czech Republic
2003/2004 - 25th Anniversary of the Ceramic Faculty of Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw,
BWA,Wroclaw, Poland
- Exhibition of pottery circle, Castle in Lubin, Poland
2002 - Nature of things, DAAP, Warszawa, Poland
2000 - Zusammen Kunst, Kunsthaus Aula, Wiesbaden, Germany
1999 - Germinations, School of Fine Art, Antwerpen, Belgium
- National Exhibition of Polish Young Painters, BWA, Wroclaw, Poland
- Conceptual Reflection in Polish Art, Center of Contemporary Art, Zamek
Ujazdowski, Warszawa, Poland
- Arsenal of Art, Days of Wroclaw? 99, City Arsenal, Wroclaw, Poland
1998 -Transfer - Xawery Dunikowski Museum, Krolikarnia, Warszawa, Poland
- Laznia, Center of Modern Art, Gdansk, Poland
- Bunker of Art, Gallery of Modern Art, Krakow, Poland
- Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany
- Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany
- Biennale Balticum - Rauman Taidemuseo, Rauma, Finland
- Laznia, Center of Modern Art, Gdansk, Poland
- Germinations, The factory, School of Fine Art., Athens,Greece
1997 - Germination? 97, Zacheta Gallery, Warszawa, Poland
1996 - Exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Braunschweig, Germany
- Generation? 96, BWA, Katowice, Poland
- 50th Anniversary of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Ossolineum Library, Wroclaw
1995 - Presentation of the young, exhibition and programme in regional TV channel ?5?
- Ceramics of the young, Wroclaw, Poland
1994 - Exhibition of sculpture, City Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland
- Ceramics of the young, Wroclaw, Poland
1991 - Exhibition of Diplomas, Bielsko-Biala, Poland
- Exhibition ?The three?, MPiK, Czestochowa, Poland
Projects and Sholarships:
2006 April workshop Urban Potentials in Dresden, Germany
2006 - European Project of Artistic Exchange Wroclaw - Strasbourg, CEAAC INTERNATIONAL
2005 - European Project of Artistic Exchange Wroclaw- Munich
- Nomination to the European College of Art, Berlin
2004 - The award in competition for young sculptors, Center of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, Poland
2003 - Sholarship of the Minister of Culture and Art
2002 - The only award in competition for young sculptors, Center of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, Poland
1997/98 - Germination? 97, 10th edition of the project for young artists from Europe,Carrara, Italy
- Transfer, project for artists from Poland and Germany, Essen, Germany
1996/97 - Sholarship of the Minister of Culture and Art
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