Janusz Bałdyga
Janusz Bałdyga was born in 1954 in Lublin, Poland. He works as a performance artist and creates installations. In 1974, he started his studies in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and graduated in the studio of prof Stefan Gierowski in 1979. Bałdyga has been active in the fields of performance art, installations, objects and drawing since the beginning of his professional journey.
While Bałdyga was still occupied with painting as his medium, an object and actions performed on it became a basic characteristic of Baldyga's artistic language. For example, Some of his paintings like a duplicated map of Poland were to be encountered later in his street performances. Since he joined the Akademia Ruchu theatre in 1979, he constantly has combined visual art and performances. Sometimes you can see his sculptural installations as a scenography of his performances in which you can see the documentation of his earlier action in those objects. He mentioned: “I don’t see any absolute border between performance as a gesture and object of the performance as an effect of the gesture”
In the eighties, he started to employ and relate to some elements of visual information: sings, colors and simple drawings. He referred to the complex network of visual information that was transparent, unified and ideologically controlled.
Later on performance art has become the main focus of Janusz Bałdyga’s artistic activity. Over many years of practice, he has developed a unique style, characterized by the downsizing of the language and means of articulation by using simple elements to create elementary structures. He says "Performance art, often combined with object, drawing or elements of installation art, constitutes the core of my artistic practice. Writing about performance art, I highlight its fundamental, yet often ignored, educational aspect. Performance is an open discipline, constantly revealing the process of its own creation, facing artists with strongly articulated self-education tasks."
Bałdyga uses solid materials such as wood or metal for creating his objects. At the same time that his constructions look very light – like they can move any second– they contain a constant tension inside. Sometimes the slight touch can agitate the inner balance and literally destroy the construction. “I think about the mistake as an important factor in creating the event” – Janusz Bałdyga says. Therefore it can be assumed that the deconstruction which causes a revaluation of the existing state of the incidents is part of the artist’s conception.
We can summarize that Bałdyga’s work is elegant and minimalist. It is being stripped of everything except the necessaries. Although his works reach a high degree of abstraction, yet it remains poignant, political and present. The space and rhythm of Janusz Bałdyga’s work lead the audience more aware of the symbolic weight of each gesture.
As the artist says himself, "I am not a commentator but the creator of a particular situation which, being located in a specific space and time, cannot be free from sociopolitical references".
Currently, Janusz Bałdyga is a professor of performance art at the University of Arts in Poznan.
Selected individual exhibitions
2017 - Ephemerides - Propaganda Gallery - Warsaw, Poland2016 - Pole Dance - Entropia Gallery - Wroclaw, Poland
2015 - Unease - UP Gallery - Berlin, Germany
2014 - "Lecture performance" - Galeria Racze - Poznan, Poland
2013 - Balance.pl - Efremova 26 Gallery - Lviv, Ukrain
2011 - Thrown Flags - AT Gallery - Poznan, Poland
2009 - Be careful glass – ODA – Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland
2008 - Marked places 08 – Centre of Contemporary Art. – Warsaw, Poland
2006 - Marked places - Wschodnia Gallery – Lodz, Poland
2003 - Ad Depositum – Otwarta Pracownia – Krakow, Poland
2001 - Ultra Vires - Excessive burden - Avantgard Gallery - Wroclaw, Poland
2000 - Open fractures - Interdruck Schipper Patitz - Lipsk, Poland
1999 - Steps and shadows - QQ Gallery - Krakow, Poland
1999 - Steps - Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle - Warsaw, Poland
1998 - Steps - Donguy Gallery - Paris, France
1998 - Steps - Manhattan Gallery- Lodz, Poland
1998 - Neue Kunst Im Hagenbucher - Heilbronn, Germany
1997 - Stillstand - E-Werk Freiburg, Germany
1996 - Horizontal result - Wschodnia gallery - Lodz, Poland
1996 - Projections - Water-tower - Bydgoszcz, Poland
1995 - Pages and projections - Galeria GI - Zielona Gora, Poland
1995 - Performance on an empty plinth - ON Gallery - Poznan, Poland
1994 - Pages - Galeria AR - Warsaw, Poland
1993 - Column projection - Galeria Laboratorium, Centre of Modern Art - Warsaw, Poland
1991 - Inclinations - Old Gallery - Lublin, Poland
1988 - 1/2 of a pyramid - Moltkerei Werkstatt - Cologne, Germany
1988 - 1/2 even performance - East Gallery - Lodz, Poland
1985 - Equilibrium - Equivalence - Kunststation, Kleinsassen,Germany
Group exhibitions
2014 - Right of way - Manhattan Gallery. Łódź, Poland2014 - Gogol Fest - Kiev, Ukrain
2014 - Stairs - Kiev, Ukrain
2014 - Photo object - Gorna Gallery. Kielce, Poland
2014 - Future of Imagination 9 - Singapore
2014 - The week of art - Dzyga. Lviv, Ukraine
2014 - Open City - Lublin, Poland
2014 - International Art Festival "Interakcje"- Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland
2013 - Dialogues - Włodzimierz Borowski - Kasyno Gallery - Podkowa Leśna, Poland
2013 - La Bas - Taidehalli Helsinki - Helsinki, Finland
2013 - Photo object - Propaganda Gallery - Warsaw, Poland
2013 - Days of performance art - Dzyga - Lviv, Ukrain
2013 - Undisclosed territory #7 - Laboratory Performance Art Plesungen - Solo, Indonesia
2013 - International Art Festival "Interakcje"- Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland
2013 - Fais ou tu es, pratiques contextuelles entre la Pologne - Le Lieu - Quebec City, Canada
2013 - Contexts 2013 - The 3rd International Sokolovsko Festival of Ephemeral Art
2013 - NIPAF - Nippon International Performance Art Festival - Tokio, Osaka, Nagano
2013 - Interactions 13 - Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland
2012 - Open City - Lublin, Poland
2011 - SCOPE Miami 2011 - Miami, USA
2011- Acción!MAD 2011 - Matadero - Madrid, Spain
2011 – Performing the Exhibition – Kunstverein Konstanz, Chateau Mercier - Sierre, Switzerland
2011 – Polish Roots – New Territories – Glasgow, Scotland
2009 – Performance Platform Lublin – OSP Lublin, Poland
2009 – Open City – Art in public space – Lublin, Poland
2009 – Performance Arsenał – Arsenał Gallery – Białystok, Poland
2008 – Polski Broch – Tel Aviv, Israel
2008 – Mediations Biennale – Poznań, Poland
2008 – UT – 21 Lillehammer
2008 - Differences//Interaction – CCA - Warsaw, Poland
2007 – El arte es accion – Centro de Arte Reina Sofia – Madrid, Spain
2007 – ArtSwap 07 – Kunsthale Bergen, Norway
2007 - ZAZ International Performance Art. Festival – Tel Aviv, Israel
2006 - EPAF - CSW Warsaw, Poland
2006 - Days of performance art. – Kiev, Ukraine
2006 - Mentality – Lodz Biennale, Poland
2006 - I P Art. – Turbine Giswil Switzerland
2005 - TIPAF – Taipei Taiwan
2005 – Interaction 7 International Art Action Festival – Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland
2004 – Recontre Internationale D’art. Performance de Quebec – Quebec City, Canada
2004 – Private Impact – Szczecin, Poland
2002 - Dialog II - eca - Edinburgh, Scotland
2001 - Collection IV – Centre of Contemporary Art - Warsaw, Poland
2001 - Navinki '01 - Minsk, Belarus
2000 - Zusammenkunst - Wiesbaden, Germany
1999 - Navinki '99 - Minsk, Belarus
1999 - Generations - Polish Art of the End/Beginning of the Century - Saint Petersburg, Russia
1998 - the 2nd International Art Encounters - Katowice, Poland
1997 - Glances - BWA Lublin, Poland
1995 - Oikos - Municipal Museum, Bydgoszcz, Poland
1995 - IMMS `95 - the Azores
1994 - Videospaces - PGS, Sopot
1994 - Oronsko Symposium - Centre of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, Poland
1993 - Intercity Art Project Vienna - Lodz, Galerie Theuretzbacher - Viena, Austria
1991 - The roads of European culture - Lodz, Bratislava, Brussels, Berlin
1990 - Points east - Third Eye Centre - Glasgow, Scotland
1990 - Construction in process - Łódź, Poland
1989 - Art as a private gesture - BWA Koszalin
1985 - Process and Construction - Munich, Germany
1984 - Intellectual Trend in Polish Art After World War II - BWA Lublin, Poland
1983 – Records – BWA Lublin, Poland
1979 - Unidentified activity - STK, Lodz and Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland
1978 – I AM Performance – Remont Gallery- Warsaw, Poland