Figure 1
Figure 3 “The dreams and failures of modernist architecture, while largely constraining architects, have invigorated contemporary artists.”[1] – Eleanor Heartney.
Monika Sosnowska is but one contemporary artist whose works are influenced greatly by architecture. Born in 1972, in Poland, she grew up witnessing the fading socialist architecture of that time. Now living in Warsaw, it is obvious how much the architecture of the city has slowly formed a basis for many of her sculptural and site-specific installations.
“…[Warsaw] itself, a very chaotic city growing up very fast on the ruins of modernism, or rather, coexisting in a symbiosis with them. There are a lot of new buildings, but the past is very present as well. I often doubt whether everything is going in the right direction.”[2] - Monika Sosnowska.
Her artworks do not only highlight how these structures have been altered and adapted for future use, but have also become psychologically charged experiences for the viewers of the work. Sosnowska’s work has been seen to have a parasitical nature , ‘they borrow some of their site’s characteristics but abandon them to indulge their perversely formal nature.’[3]In her most well known installation to date is 1:1, created for the Venice Biennale in 2007, Sosnowska has re-created a the steel framework of a housing block to scale, and in a great feat of engineering has crushed the structure to fit snugly into the Polish Pavilion. The skeletal structure was modeled on Polish architecture of the 1970’s, and this convergence of architectural forms becomes ‘ a metaphor for the many lives forced to adjust to the social requirements of an antisocial architecture.’[4] This work has been recently shown at the Schaulager Gallery in Basel, in an exhibition of her work and the work of Andrea Zittel in 2008. Taken out of context this work still manages to convey the same ideas but draws a larger focus on the installation as more of a sculptural object in itself.
Sosnowska’s works also become about an individuals response to the spaces she creates, based on memories and emotions that the works themselves induce in the viewer. She utilizes illusion and disillusionment to disorientate the audience. This can be seen in works such as Corridor, 2003 and Untitled, 2004, both of which force the viewer to adapt their body in uncomfortable ways to experience the work. Yet again reinforcing the ideas of conformity, and the need to adapt to move forward.
These uneasy relationships that Sosnowska creates by playing with scale and surroundings also creates a dialogue with and places emphasis on the architecture in which they are exhibited. An example of this can be seen in her work Untitled, 2004.
[1] Eleanor Heartney, Art & Today. ( London: Phaidon, 2008) 322.
[2] Ann Temkin. “Interview between curator Ann Temkin and Monika Sosnowska”. http://www.moma.org/interactive/exhibitions/projects/project83/sosnowska_interview.pdf (accessed 30 September 2009)
[3] Kristy Bell. “ Time and Space”. Frieze Magazine, Issue 116 ( June-August 2008) http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/time_and_space (accessed 30 September 2009)
[4]Kristy Bell. “ Time and Space”. Frieze Magazine, Issue 116 ( June-August 2008) http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/time_and_space (accessed 30 September 2009)
Szczerki, Anderzej. “Why the PRL Now? Translations of Memory in Contemporary Polish Art”, Third Text 23, Issue 1 (January 2009) 85-96, http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/09528820902786719 (accessed 30 September 2009)
Heartney, Eleanor. Art & Today. London: Phaidon, 2008.
Jaquels, Alison (et.al). Vitamin 3-D : New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation. London; New York: Phaidon , 2009.
Bell, Kristy. “ Time and Space”. Frieze Magazine, Issue 116 ( June-August 2008) http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/time_and_space (accessed 30 September 2009)
Temkin, Ann. “Interview between curator Ann Temkin and Monika Sosnowska”. http://www.moma.org/interactive/exhibitions/projects/project83/sosnowska_interview.pdf (accessed 30 September 2009)
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/3117/monika-sosnowska-at-schaulager-basel.html (accessed 30 September 2009)
IMAGES:
Figure 1: Sosnowska, Monika. 1 : 1, 2007. Steel, 7 x 14 x 6m. Reproduced in Vitamin 3-D : New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation. London; New York: Phaidon , 2009. 291
Figure 2: Untitled, 2006. Steel. Reproduced from Frieze Magazine, "Time and Space" http://www.frieze.com/issure/article/time_and_space/ (accessed 30 September 2009)
Figure 3: Untitled, 2004. MDF, gloss paint. Dimensions variable. Reproduced in Vitamin 3-D : New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation. London; New York: Phaidon , 2009. 290
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