Young Art from Poland–Dorothea von Stetten Art Prize 2022 Cat. Kunstmuseum Bronn

With Poland, the Dorothea von Stetten Art Prize 2022 is dedicating to an extremly polyphonic, vital, and highly reflective art scene– despite, or perhaps, precisely because of the historically often turbulent and currently once again difficult political situation. On the social foundation of a still quite rigid Catholicism (98% of the Polish population describe themselves as practicing Catholics) on the one hand, and an urban neoliberalism on the other, many of the frequently performative and installational artistic projects tend to revolve around issues of identity, nationality and religion. The contemporary young scene thereby differentiates itself from the representatives of the “ critical art” of the 1990s, such as Pawel Althamer and Artur Zmijewski, as well as from the post-Communist generation of painters, such as Wilhelm Sasnal and Rafal Bujnowski, who in the 2000s placed everyday life and its apparent banalities more clearly in the foreground of their research. The selection of the positions represented in the catalog impressively reflects the range, intensity and critical depth with which the young generation of Polish artists approaches their thematic fields.

Zuza Golinska (born 1990) deals in her art with the relationship between humans, public space and architecture. Based in Warsaw her work is strongly influenced by the way people behave and interact with the public realm. Diana Lelonek (born 1988) graduated from the department of Photography in the Faculty of Multimedia Communication at the University of Art in Poznan, and Phd at Interdisciplinary PhD Studies, University of Art in Poznan. Currently she works at the Academy of Fine Art in Warsaw. She explores relationships between humans and other species. Her projects are critical responses to the processes of over-production, unlimited growth, and our approach to the environment. She uses photography, living matter, and found objects, creating work that is interdisciplinary. Daniel Rycharski (born 1986) is a visual artist and activist. His primary activity are artistic actions in rural spaces, and he is a creator of rural street art and lives and works in Kuró wko and Krakov. In the years 2005– 09 he studied graphic art in Krakov, where holds lectures today at the Dept. of Multimedia at the art faculty of the University Krakov. In 2019 he had a show at The Museum of Modern Art Warsaw. Stephan Berg (born 1959) is a German art historian and director oft he Kunstmuseum Bonn. Among others, he realized exhibitions with works by the Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov, Julian Rosefeldt, Franz Ackermann, Erwin Wurm, Albert Oehlen, Thomas Huber, Thomas Scheibitz, Georg Herold, and Walter Swennen.