Artists

Romania
Uto Gusztar
Performer and promotor of performance art in Transylvanii. Artist of hungarian origin. He has been very active over the years in various art festivals in Europe, Asia and North America. He performs, documents and writes. One of his most significant shows took place during the Fado Performance Meeting in Toronto (in collaboration with "Le Lieu"). He is also known as one of the organisers of ANNART Festival - an international open-air event which took lace around a volcanic lake in central Romania. ANNART is considered to be one of the most important locations for performance art in Eastern Europe. Since the beggining of his creative activities, Uto Gusztar has carefully explored the possibillities and impossibillities of human communication. During the DIFFERENCES festival he is also a curator of the romanian group of performers from Transylvania.

Krisztina Szabo
Born in 1977. She studied photography and digital photo modulation at the Ioan Andreescu University of Vistual Arts. The first action she presented, called "I'm in Love", was at the "The Trespasser" festival in 1998. Since then she has presented numerous performances and happenings (recently "Text message to God"). Apart from that, Szabo has also been using video art and photography, depending on the need and the context.

Attila Toro
Toro is interested in critical reflection of the relation between two worlds: natural and artificial, and in the way of mixing of these worlds in today's urban space and mass media. In performance art, Toro is looking for the synthesis of real and virtual, of what is subjective and objective. He wants to create situations, where artist's action and spectator's perception link together. He presented his work in such places as Fort Sztuki (Art Fort) in Cracow 2000 or during the Rencontre Internationale d'Art Performance (International Performance Art Meeting) in 2004 in Quebec.

Barnabas Vetro
Vetro is a young Romanian performace artist. He was born in 1977 (Cluj, Romania). He practiced various forms of art, but his most widely known works are installations. He prefers to expose his work in local areas. In some way he is regarded as a minimalist. He studied at the University of Fine Arts in Timisoara. He is a member of artistic group Vizeg.

Israel

Adina Bar-On
She is a pionnier of performance art in Israel. Born in 1951 in Kfar Blum kibbutz. Adina's active performance research is focused on the discourse of identification. Her work is devoted - as the artist says herself - to Ť the conflict of identification and the conflicted identifications ť. As an artist she has chosen the art of action to be able to create opposite ideas and emotions. She provokes and impresses. She can lift the spectator's state of mind from subtle empathy to rough criticism; she stimulates fast movement of thoughts. Adina has been an active performer since 1973, when she started studying at Bezalel - Academy of Fine Arts in Jerusalem. She has presented her work in all of the most important galleries and museums in Isreal, as well as abroad. Her actions are usually politically involved and deal with actual social problems. Her art is contextual. Adina travels a lot and performs all over the world, at the same time teaching visual communication. In 2001, she was awarded a prestigious American Israel Cultural Foundation Award. Ť Adina Bar - On, Performance Artist ť a critical monography about her artistic development - was published in the same year.
(See also: http://www.para-site.org.hk/events/20010720adina.htm
http://www.osp.art.pl/archiwum/adina_sacrifice.htm
http://www.osp.art.pl/archiwum/adina_vision.htm )


Idit Porat
Born in 1964. She lives in Givatayim in Israel. A curator and an art critic. Mother of two daughters. She writes critical texts on contemporary art scene. Author of a book on perfomance art of Adina Bar-On. In 2006, she run the Karov Project, interdisciplinary project introducing art to the streets, in the space of direct contact with the people. She teaches techniques of the creative process of imagination. She also explores the area of integration between body and spirit studying Chinese philosophy of medecine, psychotherapy and psychodrama. She is a head of Faculty of Photography at the Camera Obscura School of Art in Tel Aviv.

Italy

Nicola Frangione
Sound poet, performer, interdisciplinary artist. He was born in Florence in 1953. From 1972, he lives and works in Monza. Nicola Frangione employs diverse techniques: visual arts, graphic design and the art of book editing, music, sound poetry, visual poetry, video and mail art. The concerts of sound poetry of Nicola Frangione are often referred to as "the art of dramaturgy". He employs "synergic use of text", gesture as an essential form of expression. He finds a use for strictly linguistic elements and explores vocalisation. His art expands the mainstream of sound poetry of the XX century towards a new form of expression - communicative, interpersonal and contextual. He is a producer and theater animator. An autor of books such as: Ť Osservazioni critiche sulla funzione del nervo ottico nella semiotica dell'arte ť (1977), Ť The relativity of language as the enigma of art ť (1979), Ť Zen and Art ť and Ť Snapshot ť (1980), Ť Madame et Theatre" (1987). Between 1987 and 1995, he edited a magazine about cultural dynamics - "Harta". During the DIFFERENCES Festival, he will present a performance from the series Ť Rapporti orali e transversalita sonore ť (Oral rapports and audial transversality).

Roberto Rossini
Performer, video artist, painter. His work is a result of psychophysical and transmedial research. He depends solely on his own experience and always accents the three crucial notions of his activity: perception - receptiveness - presence. His performances, based on the anthropological approach, are often shown in big public spaces: factory buildings, historical monuments or temples. He teaches at the Institute of Traditional Arts in Genova. He is also a co-founder of Albedo Association, focused on cultural work and active imagination.

France

Fabien Montmartin
Artist of the rythm and speach. Performer and cultural animator. His field of activity is vocal expression. He brings to attention the internal aspect of every creative activity. He is the initiator of the first Contextual Art Workshop. He was one of the creators of the international art project - EXIL. He lives in Montpellier.

Melanie Diseur
Young performer invited to the Festival by Fabien Montmartin.

Canada

Bruce Barber
One of the most important conceptual artists. Born in New Zealand. Universal artist, writer, art philosopher, curator of alternative art scene. He works in Halifax in New Scotland. He is also a professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. His oeuvres was presented globally, from Paris, Sidney, New York, to London. He is an autor of inestimable Ť Essays on Performance and Cultural Politicization ť, co-editor of the Ť Voices of Fire : Art Rage, Power, and the State ť and Ť Conceptual Art : the NSCAD Connection 1967-1973 ť. His critical texts are published mostly in Ť Littoral Art ť magazine. Bruce Burber is the head of the "Squat Project", underground art programme. Author of the theory and the concept of "communicative action".

Stéphane Boulianne
Musical experimenter and poet. Young virtuoso of improvised music. He transforms poetry into the language of sounds. He creates visualisations which combine video, music and text. He participated in the Festival de Musique de Création (Festival of Musical Creation) among such celebrities as Fred Frith or Mei Han Ensemble.

Amelie Laurence Fortin
Young artist collaborating with Canadian gallery "L'oil de Poisson" (Fish Eye). She studied at the College de l'Art Visuel in Cégep de Sainte-Foy, at the Lavale University in Quebec and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Marseille. She took part in Contextual Art Workshop ran by Richard Martel. Her work - most frequently painting, installations and graffitis - raises the question of the codes used to recognise what is Real for us.

Myriam Laplante
Canadian artist born in Bangladesh in 1954. She is indiscriminate in the choice of the material of her art. Her most recent projects are photographs of her in animal costumes, or surreal toy-like objects. Myriam performed at the Black Market festival in Germany, during Fado Festival in Toronto or at Multimedia Art Festival Ť Transart Communication ť in Slovakia. Her last individual expositions took place at the Apart Gallery in Romania where she experimented with cultural infantilism, and in Annina Nosei Gallery in New York. Her art is very theatrical, teasing and mocking, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes melancholic.

Francis O'Shaughnessy
Graduated from the Faculty of Installation and Performance Art at the University of Quebec (UQAC). Francis is a student of Richard Martel and works in the Center of Actual Art Ť Le Lieu ť. He is also one of the curators of the group of Cannadian artists. Very active in art society. Despite his young age he presented actions during several important international art festivals:TEST Performance Art Event in Boston, Festival Interactions in Piotrkow Trybunalski or at the UPI campus in Bandung, Indonesia.

Maya Pasternak
Young Cannadian artist with Polish-Jewish origins. She studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where she had her first expositions and performances, and also organised various art conferences. Recently, she invented "non-performances", a new form of performance art. Her art has always confronted spectators with a strong message.

Kathleen Ritter
Transmedial artist, writer and cultural animator from Vancouver. Member of the Ladies Afternoon Art Society, a non-profit organisation focused on beauty in contemporary world. She owes her status to the sincerity and straigthforwardness of her works and actions. Her work annexes public, ordinary space. The artist frequantly vitalises the streets with ornaments, outdoor performance or social actions to destroy the routine. Recently the actions she prepared were: "Lovely Ornaments" (Skol, Montréal), "A Lovely Makeover" (Access, Vancouver), "Absolutely Free Lint Removal" (Toronto), "Art Gallery Washroom Inspections" (Vancouver) and "Free Cell Phone Sanitation" (Vancouver). She also designs the actions and happenings for the Ladies Afternoon group. Since 2003, she has been collaborating with Artspeak Gallery, at the same time being a curator of several art manifestations (i.e. Expect Delays).

Michelle Rhéaume
From Montreal. He took part in 2004 FIX Biennale in Belfast, contemporary performance art of event.

Madjid Esfeyni
Performe. Student of Bruce Barber.

Greg Sholette
Artist from a group REPOhistory.

Australia

Anne Graham
Born in 1949 in Buxton (United Kingdom). Professor Anne Graham is a famous art theoretician and visual artist. She is the head of School of Humanities and School of Fine Arts two schools at the Australian University in New Castle. Her artistic media are geometrical installation, sculpture in public space, environment and performance. She probes the matter of artistic space and relation between space and sexuality. Author of over 16 individual expositions: in Australia, United States, Japan. Lately, she has been working in collaboration with Sherman Galleries, Sydney.
(See also: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/fine-art/staff/grahamanne/index.html).

Belarus

Wiktor Petrow
He was born in 1957. Graduated from the faculty of painting, graphics and design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Minsk. Creator and curator of the Ť Navinki ť Performance Festival which he founded in 1999 in the capital city of Belarus. Petrow is one of the major representatives of critical body art in Belarus. He is very conscious of his actions. Makes a stand against ideology and all binary separations in the world of art. He fights for freedom of thought and action. He presented his art at various artistic events in Sweden, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland. He comments on his work: ŤWe can experience time in many different ways. It may be condensed, it may be diffuse. Performance is very close to the main course of art, close to the strong energies. In no other art form is the artist working so directly with the people. Here and now, he has to exist, expose himself, show his face. He can't lie because a lie will immediately backfire. All the time, one has to follow the path of high energies.ť

Juras Barysewicz
Born in 1966. He is a performer, essayist and interpreter. Member of artistic associations: "The Second Art Front" and "Schmerzwerk". He is an autor of : Ť The Body and the Text ť, Ť Alter nemo ť, Ť The Vanguard ť.

And:

Sarna Aliaksandr
Nataliya Liskovskaya

The Netherlands


Paul Panhuysen
Born in 1934 in Borgharen. Lives and works in Rotterdam. He studied painting at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and sociology of art at the University of Utrecht. He was a rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Leeuwarden and a head of departement of education at the City Museum of Den Haag and Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven. In 1965, he founded an artistic group Ť De Bende van de Blauwe Hand ť which was closely related to the international Fluxus movement. The artists from the group created spectacular environments, happenings and Ť situations ť in which they invited the public to participate in the event. In 1968, Paul Panhuysen created "Maciunas Quartet" - a group known for its concerts during various contemporary music festivals. Panhuysen belongs to the circle of the most important european artists of sound art. The sound has always played an important role in his visual works and performances. Since 1982 he has been incorporating his "Long String Installations" into his performances which produce sounds propelled by the wind, rain or any natural force. Since the year 1982, he has presented the Ť Long String Installations ť in Boston, Washington, Dresden, Berlin, Hannover, Linz, Ferrare, Barcelone, Moscow, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe, Lyon, Rome, Prague, Mexico and also during the Ť Art Kontakt ť Festival in Lublin (Poland.) In 1989, he started to make music using creative abilities and communication skills of animals, especially birds. In 1980, with his wife Hélene, he created Het Apollohuis - international artistic movement of global influence. Between 1980 and 2001 Het Apollohuis organized numerous expositions and installations, over 470 concerts and performances as well as a great deal of conferences, symposiums and festivals.

Mirjam Berloth
She was born in 1963. Lives in Amsterdam. Her domain is installation. Recently, she has devoted herself to creating two and three dimensional panneaux. In 2004 she employed a great number of unused windows and vitrines from Dutch houses to stick graphic panels to them. She is a member of Het Apollohuis. She claims that regular city walks can bring an artist closer to local inhabitants. She utilises specific locations like old washing rooms, empty garages, local squats and invites artists from all over the world to hold expositions there. Mirjam advices young artists and helps them by giving support, recently in Streetlight projet.

Guus Koenraads
Painter, graphic designer, photographer. As most other participants of the Festival, he is an interdisciplinary artist. Born in 1949 in Eindhoven where he studied lanscape architecture and industrial design. Graduated from Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. He was also a student at the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin. He had more then 20 individual expositions and at least as many collective ones. In his painting he is lyrical, in his photography - controlled. He works with the emptiness, symmetry, strong graphical sign. Sometimes, he seems to be a modern symbolist.

Rudi Struik
Born in 1947 in Amsterdam. Lives in Canada. Presently he is working in Leiden. He was a student of Frans Zwartjeasa at the College of Art in Hague. He creates assemblages, installations, digital photographs. Almost anything can be an art for him. A piece of wood, for its spacial warmth. Metal, for being a contrary for wood. Concrete wall turns into space for a trace of paint or a huge mural. Expression doesn't know the limits. And if it does, they are definitely not set by the material. His most recent installations consist of photographs forming an environment.

Kitty Zijlmans
Professor of History of Art at the University of Leiden. Member of International Association of Art Historians. Scientific consultant focused on human science in the Institute of Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Holland. She was born in 1955 in Hague. Specialises in history of art theory and its systems, as well as contemporary art and problems of the visual culture. She is an author of numerous publications such as: Ť Die Welt im Blickfeld ť, Ť Back Frontiers : Towards a History of Art in a Global Perspective ť, Ť Imaging Women. Ideal, self-image and makeability in contemporary art ť, "Kommunication uber Kunst". She is also a co-editor of the collection of essays "The Image Society: Essays on Visual Culture".

Germany

Roland Beregere
Creator from Cologne. He explores two essential themes: time and matter. His art is conceptual and at the same time contextual. He performs mostly in Germany and Belgium. During the Festival DIFFERENCES he is going to present "Objets oubliés" (Forgotten objects).

Detlef Brezel
Born in 1963. Collaborates with EPI (Europaisches Performance Institut). Between 1999 and 2004, he actively participated in the work of Galerie 68elf. His home town is Cologne. He will perform together with Roland Beregere.

Jens Brand
Composer, audiovisual artist. He creates minimal sound compositions, musical installations, performances. Plays live as well as records. Active on all continents: in Europe, in african Botswana, in Japan and the United States. Sound constructions of Brand's assemble suggestive objects and gain signification in specific context by provoking and stimulating the work of spectator's imagination. He devotes his art to a critical examination the world of new media. Very sensible to the flow of sound information, Brand is also fascinated by the structure of sound communication. He lives and works in Dortmund.

Jürgen Fritz
Performer. Born in 1958. Member of the celebrated group the Black Market International from the beginning of its existence in 1985. Graduated from theatrology department. In 1982 - 1989, he worked with OHNE-MICH-THEATER where he directed plays based on the autobiography of Adalgis Conti, texts of George Bataille, de Sade, Apollinaire, the music of Franz Schubert. As a member of the Black Market International, he has always been a transmedial perfomer. He participated in events such as: the Congres of Aestheticians in Jablonna (Poland 1986), EXPO 2000 in Hannover, New Territories Festival in Glasgow (2005), documenta 8 in Kassel and many others. Since 1987, he has been a member of ASA European (Art Service Association). In 1989 he began performing together with Norbert Klassen, in locations such as the Museum of Art in Bern, Rote Fabrik in Zurich, the Künstlerhaus in Vienna. He often collaborates with a Polish performer Zygmunt PioTroski.

United States

Marilyn Arsen
Artist from Boston. She has been a founder of Mobius, independent interdisciplinary initiative active for over 28 years. Mobius Center organises expositions and provides support to artistic actions in Boston and the state of Massachusetts, from solo performances to big art events. Marilyn Arsen is a staff member of "Performance Area" in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, one of the most influential performance art centers in the Americas. She teaches a modern approach to the art of multimedia, music, dance and installations.

Lewis Gesner
Born in 1957. He learned to play jazz from Roswell Rudd who - as the artist says - Ť tought him how not to listen ť. After he finished the studies at the Faculty of Composition of the University of Maine, he practiced video animation (at MIT and Cambridge). He has two diplomas: visual arts and literature. He worked with Ť New Poverty ť movement in New York, a group of artists creating art from Ť poor ť, derelict matter or garbage, art made form anything you can find around you. Giving performances he examines processual aspect of art. His ouvre is the Ť Symphony of Instrumentalism ť, the stream of consciusness modulated by precise formal interventions. He presented his work in New England, New York and diverse galleries in Europe. Now, he is a member Mobius Artists Group from Boston.

Travis McCoy Fuller
Studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Tufts University. He gave performances not only in New York, Boston and Rockport, but also in Bogota and Ť MAS ť galery in Serbia. From 2004, he is a curator of TEST Performance Art Event.

Kristina Lenzi
She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she teaches at the Westminster College, University of Utah and Weber State University. She graduated from the Museum School and Tufts University in Boston. Her performance practice is anthropological because Lenzi is considers performance to be a ritual art. Creative process of the performance is for her close to meditation. She participanted in many art festivals in Boston (with performance groups Mobilize 3, TEST and The Present Tense) as well as the Performance Studies International Conference at the Brown University. She also works as a curator: during the First Night Salt Lake City in 2005 or recently preparing the biggest art festival in her mother state. During this festival (in March 2007), she is going to open a new exposition of her latest work.

Singapore

Juliana Yasin
She performs in Singapore, as well as in all Indonesia, Malasia and Australia. She is the only performance artist invited this year to the Biennale of Art in Jakarta. She is supported by the Museum National from Singapour. In her art Yasin incorporates the themes taken from the modern collective imagination. She doesn't hesitate to raise questions about the most serious problems of today.

New Zealand

David Cross
Born in Melbourne in 1968. He graduated from the Visual Art studies at the Monash University. He is working on his PhD thesis at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. At the same time, he is a lecturer at the Massey University in Wellington. Exhibits regularly. He participated in Perspecta 1999 exhibition in Sydney, gave performances in Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne and during the Interactions Festival 2003 in Poland. He perfoms locally in galleries, churches and universities of New Zealand. Cross also regularly writes for various art magazines in New Zealand.

Aaron Kreisler
Historian of art at the Massey University in Wellington.

Poland

Janusz Bałdyga
Born in 1954 in Lublin. He graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1979. He practises performance and drawing as well as installations and environment. He was a member of Ť Pracownia ť art group (1976 - 81), cofounder of gallery-atelier Ť Dziekanka ť (1977 - 1979) in Warsaw. He is a member of performance group Ť Akademia Ruchu ť (Academy of Movement) . He employs various forms of art, from performances and street actions, to objects and installations in gallery space.

Jerzy Beres
Performer and sculptor. One of the most important personalities of contemporary performance art. He was born in Nowy Sacz in 1930. Lives in Cracow. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in 1956. Student of a famous modernist sculptor Xawery Dunikowski. Bereœ started with using plaster and concrete. Later, in 1960 while working on the "Zwidy" (The Fantoms) and "Wyrocznia" (The Oracle), he experimented with natural materials: wood, stones, hemp ropes. In 1968 Beres performed his first artistic action: "The Prophecy". He describes his politically-ethical performances as "masses" (i.e. Romantic Mass, Political Mass, Polish Mass. His extraordinary performance "The Dialogue with Duchamp" was one of the first to seriously rethink and reevaluate conceptual traditions of contemporary art.

Oskar Dawicki
Sometimes called the Ť magician of performance ť because of a blue shining jacket he always wears. The method he employs in his acting is astonishment. He is a member of a supergroup Azorro founded in 2001. "For two years, while working as an graphic designer in advertising agency in Cracow, he kept secretely inserting his miniature self-portrait into posters, leaflets and advertising folders of heating equipment, sanitary and medical accessories producers or heavy industry suppliers. His face was reproduced tens of thousands of times but remained completely unnoticed!" (Raster Magazine)

He also conducted a spectacular investigation: Does Oskar Dawicki really exist?

Piotr Gajda
Artist and art curator. He is a founder (together with Gordian Piec) of the International Festival of the Art of Action INTERACTIONS in Piotrków Trybunalski in Poland), as well as an author of the "Translations" project, a series of art meetings for the end of millenium (1995 - 2000), and the "Crossroads" meetings of Polish and European sculptors. During the Festival INTERACTIONS, he moved the center of the world from the train station of Perpignan where it was placed by Salvador Dali to local restaurant Ť Europa ť in Piotrków Trybunalski. Gajda performs alone and with collaborators, as in recent ŤUnfinished conversationsť.

Artur Grabowski
Poet, essayist, playwright. Born in 1967. For him, performing is a way to comment on reality. He uses symbols, blends effects, plays with conventions. He published Ť Ziemny poczštek ť (Beginning in Soil ), Ť Do trzech razy sztuka ť (Three Times Count), Ť Klatka z widokiem ť (A Cage with a View). He writes for "Res Publica Nowa" and "Teatr". He also collaborated with a famous Polish literature magazine "Brulion". He is a lecturer of Poetics and Theory of Literature at the Jagielloński University in Cracow and University of Illinois in Chicago. He leads a theater company, produces workshops, directs plays.

Wacław Kuczma
Performer and contemporary art curator. Painter and cultural animator. He is the head of the BWA City Gallery in Bydgoszcz the city of his birth in 1956. He graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Gdansk. He taught painting and drawing. Over the years, he organised numerous art events, expositions, artistic symposiums in Poland and abroad. He is a co-founder of Ť Wieża Ciœnień ť association, the Association of Artistic Education in Bydgoszcz and Ť Graz ť Art Association in Regensburg. He presented his work in museums and galleries at over 50 collective and 40 individual expositions in Bydgoszcz, Piwnica pod Baranami in Cracow, Galerie in der Kofferfabrik in Nurnberg, Galerie an der Havel in Brandenburg, BWA in Słupsk, I.P. Modern Arts Pomal, Galerie 13 in New York, Miami, Bałtycka Galeria Sztuki in Ustka. He accuses the modern civilisation of being false and infantile.

Klara Kopcińska
Filmmaker, editor of "tytuł roboczy" art magazine. Author of workshops on art and filmmaking. She works in postindustrial spaces, recently on the bridges of Warsaw. She practices intermedial art ( photography, typography, film, performance ) in series such as: Ť Clean up the world ť, Ť Interaktiv dla ubogich ť (Ť Interactive for the Poor ť), Ť Bank wspomnień ť (Ť Bank of souvenirs ť). She is interested in communication, verbalisation, memory, and searching for new ways of perceiving of the reality.

Przemysław Kwiek
Sculptor, author of various installations, films, interventions, Performer, man of action. Born in 1945 in Warsaw. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw at the studios of Oskar Hansen and Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz. Along with Zofia Kulik formed an action duo KwieKulik. He proposes taking a radical approach towards events of life and treating them all as art forms. The Art of Behaving Manifesto stated: "Wherever you are, you are a Behaviour artist." Regardless of the medium employed, Kwiek refers to his performances as "appearances." He is also the founder of the Association of Artists of Other Arts, the originator and organiser of "Ogólnopolski Festiwal Pojawień się i Wyglšdów" (Festival o Appearences and Apparitions") in the National Museum in Warsaw. Lives in Łomianki near Warsaw.

Zbigniew Libera
Born in 1959 in Pabianice. Self-taught intermedial artist.. Began with photography and video. Associated with "Kultura Zrzuty" and "Strych" from Lodz. His most widely reknown works are Corrective Equipment ("Universal Penis Expander" among others) and "Lego. Concentration camp."His work was shown at individual and collective exhibitions at Kunstpalast in Düsseldorfie, Bonner Kunstverein in Bonn, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna, CSW in Warsaw, and at Biennale of Art in Venice as well as many other locations.

Ryszard Ługowski
Draughtsman, panter and performer. Born in 1955. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he is now a lecturer at the Drawing Studio. Since 1990 the head of the Kuchnia Gallery, and since 2001 the XX1 Gallery in Warsaw. His work has been presented at various individual and collective exhibitions, competitions and symposiums. Participated in "Projekt Visum," a Polish-Spanish project of international meetings. Awarded first prize at "Critics about Us" or "Polish Painting Exhibition. He is also a coorganiser of Faunomania exhibition presented at Centrum RzeŸby in Orońsko, Borey Art Center in St. Petersburgu, Galerii RLBQ in Marseille. In 1998 he founded a fictitious company ERES Ltd., the actions of which he promotes.

Bartosz Łukasiewicz
Young philosopher and artist of action. Born in 1981. Graduated from the Philosophy Department of the Warsaw University. His MA thesis was devoted to the philosophical and logical consequences of the ideas of Jan Œwidziński. Writes for "Sztuka i filozofia"(Art and Philosophy) magazine. Presently works for Mazowieckie Centrum Kultury i Sztuki in Warsaw. He is an active propagator of contextualism.

Jan Mioduszewski
Artistic multinstrumentalist. Extraordinary and fantastic painter, installation artist and performer. Never obvious, avoids symbolism. Performer of actions referred to as "still performance", due to the fact that they do not involve any movement on the side of the artist, and still have an undisputed effect on the spectator. Lucturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. His projekt "Furnishing the Studio" is a voice in the discussion in the mastter of the institution of art ( die Institution Kunst wg. Herberta Marcuse). As "Fabryka Mebli" (Furniture Faktory) employs painted costumes. The most significant of his performance are "Œciana"(Wall), "RzeŸba" (Sculpture), "Part No 1, 2, 3 i 4".

Andrzej Mitan
Jazz musician, artist of action. Cultural animator and curator of numerous legendary artistic events. He was been lately messing around with "Figury Niemożliwe" (Impossible Figures) collective project which combines jazz, sound poetry and happening. Famous for his work with "Onomatopeja" group. He is a co-founder of CSW (Center of Contemporary Art) Zamek Ujazdowski in Warsaw. His first record "The Birds" is a star in music collection of MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York. He has been awarded a Superior Prize for his work from the Ministry of Culture and Cultural Heritage. He lives in Grojec.

Artur Tajber
One of the masters of Polish conxeptualism. Born in Katowice in 1953. Studied at the Faculty of Painting at Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, in prof. Adam Marczynski's studio. He has been a performer since the seventies. He had exibitions in "Walk'Man" in London, during the Festival International d'Art Vivant in Lyon or Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin. He runs a Gallery "gt" and Pryzmat Gallery. He is also a curator of the ACTION Performance Art Program in Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Cracow.

Waldemar Tatarczuk
Painter, performer, live art promotor. Head of the Performance Art Center in Lublin and curator of the prodigious EPAF European Performance Art Festival. He is leading the Friends of the Fine Arts Association in Lublin. He was born in 1964. Graduated from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. Performance has been his medium since 1987. His best known works are: "Chleb-Wino-Krew" (Bread-Wine-Blood) - 1990, "Kroki" (Steps) - 1997, "21" (2001), "Pytania" (Questions) - 2003.

Fredo Ojda
Interdisciplinary artist. He performs, creates minimalistic gardens, designs books and installations. He in a founder and head of the Gallery of Actions in Ursynow in Warsaw, a core of fully independent contemporary art and culture in Poland. He organises lectures and exhibitions which stimulate situation in art and introduce postconceptual art to the public.

Gordian Piec
Performer. Cultural worker. Together with Piotr Gajda he launched the International Festival of the Art of Action INTERACTIONS set annually Piotrkow Trybunalski.

Józef Żuk Piwkowski
Artist and cultural animator. Born in 1950 in Lódz. He stadied at the Lódz Film School and University of Lódz. He directs short experimental films, taked pictures, creates computer graphics and net art. He is a founder of "2b" Gallery and STEP Association. He organises exhibitions and leads open debates i.e. Icons of the Victory exhibition and Czuły Barbarzyńca talks. He is an editor of "tytuł roboczy" magazine. His most important works include "The Exhibition of Paintings and Triangle Constructions" at the Galerie Hedvige Erde in Paris (1988), "Record - PhotoMemory" in the Center of Contemporary Art in Warsaw (2002), "Tautologies - Photographs" in Zaoczna Gallery (2002-2003).

Maciej Sawicki
Performer. Cooperates with Foksal Gallery Foundation. When Polish conceptual painter Andrzej Dłużniewski started to paint exclusively in mind, he followed to paint these ideas on canvas. He is currently participating in Willa Warszawa project of the Raster Gallery.

Jan Swidziński
The creator of contextualism. Transmedial artist, performer and philosopher. An author of the "Art as Contextual Art" manifesto first published in Lund in 1976, where he described the idea of art as a social practice and an act of communication. He opposed against one definition of art and persiving it as a timeless structure and an autonomous reality. Born in 1923. He graduated from the Faculty of Paintinf at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He also studied dance and graphic design. The idea of Conxeptual Art was the effect of his research in formal logic and linguistic structures. His work concentrates on communication and information. He is an author of numerous publications i.e. "Art as Contextual Art", "Art, Society and Self-Conciousness", "Freedom and Limitation - The Anatomy of Postmodernism". He exhibited at the De Appel Gallery in Amsterdam, Malmö Museum, Centro Internationale Multimedia in Salerno. He was a lecturer and visiting professor at the University of Vancouver, New York University, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, Quebec University, L'Ecole Sociologique Interrogative and University of Calgary. Recently he published "L'art et son contexte" (Art and its context), a book that raises a question about art differently then other art theory books and shows an alternative to today's emtiness in reflection on art as well as to commercial artworld.

Zbigniew Warpechowski
Performer, painter, poet, writer. Born in 1938. One of the most active performance artist in the world. A member of Grupa Krakowska and The Black Market International, the performance art precursors association. He studied painting and architecture. Since 1967 he has shown more then 250 performances in 26 countries, in Europe, Middle East, USA, Canada, Japan. He particiated in Edinburgh Festival, documenta 8 in Kassel, Edge 88 in London, NIPAF in Tokyo and many others. His performances Champion of Golgota, NOTHING or Handy have changed a history of live art. He is an author of several critical texts and the archive which documents the logic and form of his performances. This year he agreed to be a curator of The Castel of Imagination Festival in Slupsk where he will open the Symposium of Poetic Realities.

Ewa Zarzycka
Performer. She created storytelling performances about art, as well as directs films and writes confessions. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw in 1978. The critics wote that her art "connects serious intelectual work with distant irony". Her major works are: "Art in Society" in Labirynt Gallery, Lublin (1980), "On habitation " in Wrocław (1984), a film "Cardinal and the Fat Lady - the Creators of Culture" (1985, , STK, ŁódŸ), "Conversations in a Library... Trouble with Eighteen year old Daughter" in Lodz (1989), "I Stop Understanding What I'm Doing" in Center of Contemporary Art in Warsaw (1991), She also performed "Ewa Z. in a capital of the prehistory of conxeptual art Wroclaw - an example of the artist confronting necessity of setting a milestone and duty to stay a vibrating procesual being" shown in Wroclaw in 1993. She lives in Lublin and occasionally in Kazimierz Dolnym.

Participants of the Open Debate

Paul Ardenne, PhD
French philosopher. Art critic and sociologist. He is a lecturer at the Faculty of Art History and Aesthetics and head of international debate program at the University of Amien. He is a contributor to influential art magazines: "Art press", "L'Oil", "Archistorm". He is also a curator. His most important books are: "Art, l'âge contemporain" (Art Today, 1997), "L'Art dans son moment politique" (Art and Its Political Moment, 2000), "L'image corps: Figures de l'humain dans l'art du XXe siecle" (Image of the Body: A Human Figure in XXth Century). His intelectual spectrum is enormously wide. Ardenne's last book, "Un art contextuel: Création artistique en milieu urbain, en situation, d'intervention, de participation" (Contextual Art: artistic creation in urban space, situation, intervention and participation) was concidered a revelation.

Grzegorz Borkowski

Grzegorz Dziamski, Professor
Professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. He was born in 1955. Art historian, specialist in live art. One of the first Polish theoreticians of performance art. He is an author of essays and compendias of contemporary art i.e. "Essays on New Art" (1984), Performance. The Collection of Texts (1984), Avangarde After Avangarde (1995), From Avangarde to Postmodernism (1996).

Łukasz Guzek, PhD
Historian and art critic from Cracow. He is a head of Internet portal about art "spam.art.pl", containing "Swidzinski Studies" website, consecrated to the idea contextualism and its author (www.spam.art.pl/_new/swidzinski/index.htm). Lukasz Guzek graduated form the Jagielloński University. He wrote a PhD dissertation on the art of installation shown through the cathegories of space and presence. Between 1988-99 he was incharge of QQ Gallery. Guzek is a co-founder and vice-president of Fort Sztuki (Art Fort) Association.

Iwona Lorenc, Professor
Professor in the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw. She is an editor-in-chief of "Sztuka i filozofia" (Art and Philosophy) magazine. She is an expert in phenomenology, conemporary art theories and hermeneutics of art. Professor Lorenz is interested in philosophical background of the theory of artistic creation as well as in a role of the rythme in art and relations between cognition and represantation. She is an author of "Why Art? Introduction to the Philosophy of Art", "Logos and a myth of aestetics ", "Cognition and Image: Essays on the Philosophy of Represantation.

Kazimierz Piotrowski, PhD
Historian, critic and art philosopher of art. Born in 1964. He wrote his PhD thesis under supervision of prof. Stefan Morawski. He teaches Philosophy and History of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz. He was a curator of contextual and provoking exhibitions as Kurator takich kontekstualnych wystaw, jak "Irreligion", "Inc. Art is facing the situation of places of public expression by business corporations", "Neuropa". He is an author of numerous articles on contemporary art, dissertation on Leon Chwistek, editor of "Thoughtforms Radiation: From Aestetics to Anaetstetics". He publishes his texts in all most important Polish art magazines.

Jan Przyłuski
Antropologist and intermedial artist. Born in 1979. He is working on his PhD thesis at the Institute of Art at the Polish Academy of Science. He studies poststructal philosophy (especially Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of difference), the work of Marcel Duchamp and the history of performance art. His main themes are the notion of movement and the paradoxes. He works alone and with Relativo Group together creating video, provocations and directing emotions. He writes about live art. He is a founder of Warszawa Centralna Film Studios.

Łukasz Ronduda, dr
Curator of Polish Experimental Film Archive in the Museum of Contemporary Art Zamek Ujazdowski in Warsaw. He was born in 1976. He graduated from the University of Lodz where he achieved a PhD title. He is a lecturer at the School of Social Psychology and at the Unversity of Warsaw. He writes about subversive strategies of creation. Among the exhibitions he prepared are: "Marysia Lewandowska and Neil Cummings", "The Enthousiasts of Film Clubs" in CCA in Warsaw (2004), Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (2005), Kunst-Werke (2005), The Workshop of the Film Form in New York (2004). He also leads film programmes: "Polish Women artists films from the 70s and 80s" in Tate Modern or Robakowski/Sharits, Anthology Film Archives in New York.

Michał Woliński
Editor-in-chief of "Piktogram" magazine as well as "Futu" magazine and other graphic design magazines. Independent critic and art curator. He has been writing for "Fluid" magazine, where he was also a photoeditor. Michal Wolinski is a leading art event animator and a commentator of the artworld.