Chloe Lewis & Andrew Taggart
The Unfinished Reconstruction of Ujazdowski Castle
It could be said that the unfinished reconstruction of Ujazdowski Castle began as far back as the twelfth century, when the castle first appeared on the landscape of today's Warsaw. Subsequently taking on such forms as fortress, summer home, hunting mansion, hospital, military barracks, school, and contemporary art centre, the castle has been revamped, expanded, knocked down, seized, burned, bombed, abandoned and restored through countless incidents of modification, destruction, and reinvention over the last eight hundred years.
For artists-in-residence Lewis & Taggart, The Unfinished Reconstruction of Ujazdowski Castle began shortly after their arrival to Warsaw in the spring of 2012. Upon discovering several thousand abandoned postcards depicting the castle in the late 1980's, they set to work transforming the image into an extensive collection of sculptures, collages and assemblages. Repeatedly dissected, reconfigured, layered upon one another and combined with material gathered from the castle grounds and the city of Warsaw, the postcards reemerged as a poetic topography; an alternate vision of their place of origin.
A selection of 151 works from the project was presented within The Museum of the Castle and Military Hospital at Ujazdów in the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. Juxtaposed against the backdrop of the castle's historical archive, The Unfinished Reconstruction of Ujazdowski Castle seeks to embed itself in an unfinished history fueled by the spirit of constant transformation.
An accompanying publication will be launched over the course of the intervention at the Museum of the Castle and Miitary Hospital in Ujazdów.
Andrew Taggart and Chloe Lewis are a Canadian artist duo based in Bergen Norway, where they received a collaborative MFA in 2010. Shaped in response to the context and circumstances of production, their projects typically manifest as sculptural collections, artist books and site-specific installations. Their work has most recently been exhibited at The Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Finland; Rogaland Contemporary Art Centre, Norway; and The Factory for Art and Design, Denmark.
The Unfinished Reconstruction of Ujazdowski Castle by Chloe Lewis & Andrew Taggart completed in frames of residency programme at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.
More: www.lewisandtaggart.com
