Panel Discussion

Tuesday, December 15 at 6:00-7:30 PM EST

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Presented by Polish Cultural Institute New York in collaboration with Residency Unlimited.

The conversation will intersect practices and research investigations of a Polish artist Karol Radziszewski, RU Alum 2011, whose archival based methodology crosses multiple cultural, historical, religious, social, and gender references are focused on Central and Eastern Europe, and a Colombian artist based in New York, Carlos Motta who is a historian of untold narratives and an archivist of repressed histories committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies in South America and the USA. Their voices will reflect on queering and decolonizing histories to challenge dominant and normative discourses through artistic strategies and institutional critic.

They will be joined by Laura Raicovich who provides a unique perspective as curator, writer and interim director of Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. This panel discussion will respond to the recent events in public domain throughout Poland and the USA, and more broadly, it will reflect on how the past can be used for shaping a better future as well as how to think about history whilst actively re-writing it. 

This conversation is a result of long-term partnership and collaboration with Nathalie Angels, executive director at Residency Unlimited.

In 2015, Radziszewski founded The Queer Archives Institute, a non-profit artist-run organization dedicated to research, collection, digitalization, presentation, exhibition, analysis and artistic interpretation of queer archives, with special focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Karol recently issued a book Power of Secrets that is centered around his last show at Ujazdowski Castle of the same title. Radziszewski (b. 1980, Poland) works with film, photography, painting, installations and creates interdisciplinary projects. His archive-based methodology, crosses multiple cultural, historical, religious, social and gender references. Since 2005 he is publisher and editor-in-chief of DIK Fagazine, and has founded the Queer Archives Institute in 2015. His work has been presented in institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; New Museum, New York; VideoBrasil, Sao Paulo; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum and Museum of Art in Lodz. He has participated in several international biennales including PERFORMA 13, New York; 7th Göteborg Biennial and 4th Prague Biennial.

Motta‘s (b. 1978, Colombia) multi-disciplinary art practice documents the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation. As a historian of untold narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies. His work manifests in a variety of mediums including video, installation, sculpture, drawing, web-based projects, performance, and symposia. Motta’s recent solo exhibitions include Conatus at P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York; We The Enemy at Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo (2019), University of California Santa Cruz (2020); and groups exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston and more. Motta’s first 20-year career monograph Carlos Motta: History’s Backrooms was published by SKIRA in June 2020.

Laura Raicovich is a curator, writer, and art professional currently serving as interim director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. Her book, Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest will be published by Verso in June 2021. She is the recipient of both the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship and the inaugural Emily H. Tremaine Journalism Fellowship for Curators at Hyperallergic, and is the former President and Executive Director of the Queens Museum. She lectures internationally, has published essays in international journals, and is the author of At the Lightning Field (Coffee House Press, 2017) and co-editor of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017).

This program is initiated and funded by the Polish Cultural Institute New York and co-organized by Residency Unlimited RU. We are grateful to the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art for promoting this program.

Lead image credit: © Karol Radziszewski. Queer Archives Institute, installation detail, 2016, Videobrasil, São Paulo.

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