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Icons, pallets, Mars melons & planets: The artistic wonderland of Alicja Kwade

Alicja Kwade, born in Katowice, Poland in 1979, has lived in Germany since 1986. From 1999 to 2005, she studied at the Berlin University of the Arts. She is one of the best known and sought-after artists of her generation who, to date, has had over 60 solo exhibitions worldwide. The concept artist and sculptor, who has been honoured with numerous awards, most recently the Hektorpreis from the Kunsthalle Mannheim, lives and works in Berlin. In 2018, she held second position in the ‘Art Compass’ ranking of the “stars of tomorrow” in the Capital business magazine, making her one of the “most promising young artists” on a list of 100 names.

Alicja Kwade, TRAFO Szczecin, 27.11.2015

Urszula Usakowska-Wolff

There is no more light here

Alicja Kwade’s exhibitions always relate to the location - that means that the space available to her is a stage and backdrop for her productions. And because she has a confident sense of space, she incorporates the architectural features, and even the history of the houses where her works are to be set. She works with the spaces in her own special way by taking on and counteracting their original purpose in equal measure. One example of this was Alicja’s first institutional solo show in Poland entitled “Nach Osten” [“Towards the East”] which was held in the TRAFO in Szczecin in 2015/2016. This modernistic power station built in 1912, which is opposite the Gothic church of St John’s and designed in the style of an industrial cathedral, is one of the most important exhibition sites for Polish and international contemporary art in the town on the Oder since it was carefully restored. For the presentation of her earlier video, sound and light installations, the artist transformed the white central hall and the surrounding galleries into a black tower with a pendulum attached at a height of 14 m, the end of which was crowned by a lightbulb. It rotated around its own axis for 24 hours, flashed intermittently, and then faded into the darkness. The brief moments of brightness created an almost supernatural suspense which electrified the visitors. And they felt it all the more because they were having to feel around in the dark in a place where light used to be produced.