Michał Chudzicki
Catalogue of non–existent works
Bruno Larek (1901–1936), a Polish painter, illustrator, creator of objects, as well as a poet. He studied mechanical engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology as well as painting at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. Larek left both schools in order to pursue his travels to Berlin and Paris. There he came into contact with the art of the Dadaists and Surrealists. He died in a fire in Warsaw at the age of 35. His specific means of expression and absurd sense of humor, induce his works into part of the Dada mainstream. Against the background of the contemporary artistic situation in Poland, Larek’s art is a kind of alternative and rebellion in the face of native culture.
Michał Chudzicki has been creating the character Bruno Larek since 2011. He brought to life an imaginary artist and created his “non-existent” works. Using fiction as a tool, Chudzicki is trying to cast doubt on the official history of art, and also to conduct an experiment investigating whether viewers need works of art, or, rather, the creators of art and their famous names. The Bruno Larek project was shown for the first time inside the Gallery at the Polish Institute in Düsseldorf, and the next installment took place at the Biała Gallery in Lublin. The demystification takes place at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.