15/04/2026
gathering
{Live}
Meetinf with Paweł Kruk
-
Identity as a role, life as a script. In the next event in the Live series, Paweł Kruk will speak about his artistic practice, in which strategies of embodiment, appropriation, and imitation become tools for exploring identity, mythology, and aspiration. The event will take place on 15 April in the Workshop in CCA.
- Paweł Kruk (1976) is a conceptual artist and a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. At the beginning of his career, he realised a series of significant projects and exhibitions — his first solo exhibition was presented at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, and he also took part in the Advanced Art Course led by Marina Abramović, organised by Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como in Italy. His diploma project was included in the group exhibition The American Effect at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2003.
- Kruk has received fellowships from institutions including CCA Kitakyushu in Japan, ArtsLink, and the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York. In 2007, he undertook a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in California, and in 2010 he was a finalist of the SECA Award at SFMOMA and a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.
- Kruk’s early work centred on acts of embodiment, most notably his performances as Michael Jordan. In later projects, he expanded this strategy by adopting the personas of other cultural figures and incorporating elements of appropriation into his work. Here, imitation functions not as replication, but as a conceptual lens through which to examine mechanisms of identification and projection.
- After more than a decade in Northern California, where he combined his artistic practice with life as a father, paramedic, and firefighter, Paweł Kruk returned to Poland. The meeting will be an opportunity to reflect on this shift, on returns, and on how living outside the art circuit shapes an artistic practice.
-
-
{Live}
-
- Every week, we meet live with artists to talk about art: creative processes, works, and current experiences.
- We host both artists who have previously taken part in Ujazdowski Castle’s programme and those making their debut. In this series, we would like to focus on individual approaches and artistic practices.
- Why take part?
- The events will be recorded for archival purposes, and the recordings will be made available online through the Mediateka.
- In times of tensions and crises, thinking and talking together about contemporary art – which responds to today’s challenges in unconventional ways – helps strengthen social resilience. Art is not only the object – just as important are the process, the thinking, the emotions, and the relationships that accompany it. The meetings offer a closer look at how art is created and, most importantly, who creates it.
- Every week, we meet live with artists to talk about art: creative processes, works, and current experiences.
- The meetings are open to everyone, from people working professionally in culture and art, to those who are curious about artists and their work, or simply want to talk about art.
- We do our best to make the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art accessible to everyone – we would like to adapt the event to you and your needs. To help us do that, please contact our accessibility coordinator: dostepnosc@u-jazdowski.pl, no later than the Monday before the event.
Media partners:
