biography
Miroslaw Balka was born in 1958 in Warsaw, Poland. He lives and works in Otwock, Poland and Oliva, Spain.
Comprising installation, sculpture, video, and drawing, Balka’s work has a bare and elegiac quality that is also underlined by the careful, minimalist placement of objects, as well as the gaps and pauses between them. Often using his own body as a “template” or first point of reference, Balka’s work might incorporate personal or self-referential substances such as ash, felt, salt, hairs and soap. Balka’s work deals with both personal and collective memories, especially as they relate to his Catholic upbringing and the collective experience of Poland’s fractured history. Through this investigation of domestic memories and public catastrophes, Balka explores how subjective traumas are translated into collective histories and vice versa. His materials are simple, everyday objects and things, often powerfully resonant of rituals and hidden memories.
Miroslaw Balka was born in 1958 in Warsaw, Poland. He lives and works in Otwock, Poland and Oliva, Spain.
Comprising installation, sculpture, video, and drawing, Balka’s work has a bare and elegiac quality that is also underlined by the careful, minimalist placement of objects, as well as the gaps and pauses between them. Often using his own body as a “template” or first point of reference, Balka’s work might incorporate personal or self-referential substances such as ash, felt, salt, hairs and soap. Balka’s work deals with both personal and collective memories, especially as they relate to his Catholic upbringing and the collective experience of Poland’s fractured history. Through this investigation of domestic memories and public catastrophes, Balka explores how subjective traumas are translated into collective histories and vice versa. His materials are simple, everyday objects and things, often powerfully resonant of rituals and hidden memories.
Selected solo shows include: Red Nerve, Castello di Ama, Siena (2019); 30/5780, Galeria Labirynt 2, Lublin (2019); [(.;,:?!–...)], Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice; DIE SPUREN, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2017); CROSSOVER/S, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2017); Nerve.Construction, Muzeum Sztuki MS1, Lodz (2015); Fragment, Akademie Der Kunste, Berlin and CCA Warsaw (2011); Between Honey & Ashes, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2011); Ctrl, Monasterio San Domingo de Silos, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2010); Topography, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (2009); How It Is, Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern, London (2009); AAA + rauchsignale, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (2007); Tristes Tropiques, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2007); Lichtzwang, K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2006); Eclipse, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (2001).
Miroslaw Balka has participated in major exhibitions worldwide including: Venice Biennale (1990, 2003, 2005, 2013; representing Poland in 1993); documenta IX, Kassel (1992); Sydney Biennale (1992, 2006), The Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (1995), São Paulo Biennale (1998), Liverpool Biennial (1999), Santa Fe Biennale (2006). In 2009 he presented the special project How It Is for the Unilever Series, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London. He is the author of the Memorial to the Victims of the Estonia Ferry Disaster in Stockholm (1997), and numerous spatial works including AUSCHWITZWIELICZKA, Cracow (2010), and HEAL, University of California, San Francisco (2009). A series of conversations between Miroslaw Balka and professor Zygmunt Bauman was published in 2012. In 2015 the artist created the stage design for Paweł Mykietyn’s Magic Mountain opera. He has participated in panel discussions with many distinguished speakers including Juan Vicente Aliaga, Julian Heynen, Anda Rottenberg, Kasia Redzisz, Anja Rubik, Joseph Rykwert and Vicente Todolí.
gallery exhibitions
images
250 x 14 x 13, 2017
Granite, steel, glass, red wine
250 × 14 × 13 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
250 x 14 x 13, 2017 (detail)
Granite, steel, glass, red wine
250 × 14 × 13 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
24 x 30 x 32, 2017
Terrazzo, plastic
20 × 30 × 31 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
24 x 30 x 32, 2017 (detail)
Terrazzo, plastic
20 × 30 × 31 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
71 x 65 x 21, 2017
Terrazzo, steel, salt rock, plastic
71 × 65 × 21 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
50 x 50 x 91 (pain relief), 2012
Concrete, 3 x Bayer aspirin pills
91 × 50 × 50 cm
50 x 50 x 91 (pain relief), 2012
Concrete, 3 x Bayer aspirin pills
91 × 50 × 50 cm
200 x 100 x 200 (wardrobe muzzle), 2012
Plastic strips, steel staples
200 × 100 × 150 cm
157 x 31 x 23 (chew me out), 2011
Wood, steel, carpet, plastic, chewing gum
157 × 31 × 23 cm
157 x 31 x 23 (chew me out), 2011 (detail)
Wood, steel, carpet, plastic, chewing gum
157 × 31 × 23 cm
107 x 42 x 38, 2010
Steel and terrazzo
107 × 42 × 38 cm
AAA/Rauchsignales + 186 x 138 x 2 + 26 x 25 x 45, 2007
Video, steel, mdf
Duration: 2' 22"
2 x (250 x 200 x 100) + Irma, 2006
Two boards and the photo of Irma Grese with skin coloured cosmetic - steel, MDF + Photo, paper
250 × 200 × 100 cm each board
61 x 59 x 31 / Sereno è, 2006/2017
Audio by Drupi, steel, loudspeaker, cable
61 × 59 × 31 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Installation view of In Bezug auf Die Zeit, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 4, Milan, 2017
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
15 x 22 x 19 (hard skull), 2006
Plastic, MDF
15 × 22 × 19 cm
15 x 16 x 5, 2006
Concrete
15 × 16 × 5 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
230 x 107 x 10 / Blue Wave, 1990
Wood, steel, concrete, salt
10 × 230 × 107 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
230 x 107 x 10 / Blue Wave, 1990 (detail)
Wood, steel, concrete, salt
10 × 230 × 107 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Papers from the Skull, 1989/2015
Paper on cardboard
37 × 24 × 7 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Niobe - 14, 2018
Charcoal, pencil on cardboard
200 × 140 cm
Photo: Luisa Mizzoni
Niobe - 14, 2018 (detail)
Charcoal, pencil on cardboard
200 × 140 cm
Photo: Luisa Mizzoni
Niobe - 14, 2018 (detail)
Charcoal, pencil on cardboard
200 × 140 cm
Photo: Luisa Mizzoni
Niobe - 14, 2018 (detail)
Charcoal, pencil on cardboard
200 × 140 cm
Photo: Luisa Mizzoni
Black Madonna Rocamadour, 2015
Ink on paper
21 × 15 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Tokyo 1940, 2015
Ink on paper
21 × 15 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Ian Curtis, 2007
Ink on paper
20,8 × 14,7 cm
Two chimmeys, 2007
Ink on paper
20,8 × 15,7 cm
Listen to me please, 2007
Ink on paper
20,8 × 14,7 cm
Ceilings, 2007
Ink on paper
20,8 × 14,7 cm
3 in 1, 2008
ink on paper
21 × 15 cm; 41 × 40 cm framed
Puppet Dance, 2008
ink on paper
21 × 15 cm; 41 × 40 cm framed
The rabbits (studies), 1993
paper, ink
14,5 × 16 cm; 49,5 × 38 × 3,2 cm framed
A Crossroads in A, 2006
Portfolio of 4 original lithographs printed on 250g velin d'arches paper - 80 ex. numbered and signed by the artist
56 × 76 cm each
SunEye, 2016
Original lithograph printed on 250g velin d'arches paper, numbered and signed by the artist
56 × 76 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
B, 2006
Original lithograph printed on 250g velin d'arches paper - 100 ex. numbered and signed by the artist
56 × 76 cm;
public exhibitions
Kunstmuseen Krefeld
Krefeld, Germany
Humans Nature Politics. Joseph Beuys in the Context of the Collection
8.10.2021 – 27.2.2022
Photo: Dirk Rose
Wawel Royal Castle
Kraków, Poland
All the King’s Tapestries: Homecomings 2021–1961–1921
18.3 – 31.10.2021
© Wawel Royal Castle, photo: Anna Stankiewicz
Centro Botin
Santander, Spain
Architecture into Art: a Dialogue
10.10.2020 – 14.3.2021
Photo: Vicente Paredes
Galeria Labirynt
Lublin, Poland
Miroslaw Balka-30/5780
28.11.2019 – 8.3.2020
Photo: Wojciech Pacewicz
Muzeum Sztuki
Łódź
Poland
Nerve. Construction
27.11.2015 – 16.3.2016
Photo: Bartosz Gorka
Muzeum Sztuki
Łódź
Poland
Nerve. Construction
27.11.2015 – 16.3.2016
Photo: Bartosz Gorka
Muzeum Sztuki
Łódź
Poland
Nerve. Construction
27.11.2015 – 16.3.2016
Photo: Bartosz Gorka
press
Le dolcezze del peccato di Miroslaw Balka al Museo del Fiore Sardo di Gavoi
ATP Diary
June 30, 2019
Miroslaw Balka
Pirelli HangarBicocca and Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, Italy
Frieze
June 29, 2017
publications
DIE SPUREN
DISTANZ VERLAG
Berlin
2018
CROSSOVER/S
Mousse Publishing
Milan
2017
NERVE. CONSTRUCTION
Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi
Lodz
2017
„[(.;,:?!–…)]”
Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice
2017
Wir sehen dich
Verlag für moderne Kunst
Nürnberg
2010
How It Is
Tate Publishing
London
2009
Reflejos condicionados
Fundación Marcelino Botín
Santander
2007
video
CROSSOVER/S
2017
Solo show by Miroslaw Balka at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan
