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 ritual, hidden memories and the history of Nazi occupation in Poland.
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 ritual, hidden memories and the history of Nazi occupation in Poland.
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 of Art 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, Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo (2001).
Balka has also taken part in a number of group shows, such as: All the King’s Tapestries:Homecomings 2021-1961-1921, Wawel Royal Castle, Krakow (2021); Architecture into Art: a Dialogue, Centro Botìn, Santander, Spain (2021); A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women, Muzeum Susch, Susch (2019); Travelers: Stepping into the Unknown, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, (2018); Rainbow in the dark, SALT Galata, Istanbul (2015); As you can see: Polish Art Today, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014); Ostalgia, The New Museum, New York (2011); SITE Santa Fe 6th Biennale, New Mexico (2006); the Sydney Biennale (2006); Venice Biennale (2013, 2005, 2003, 1993 and 1990); XXVI São Paulo Art Biennial, São Paulo (1998) and Documenta IX, Kassel (1992).
In 2005 his work has been included in the IX Istanbul Biennale; in 2012 he participated at the 7th Berlin Biennale; in 2014 at the Sydney Biennale and at the 31st Sao Paulo Art Biennial. In 2011 he represented Poland at the 54th Venice Biennale.
gallery exhibitions
images

61 x 59 x 31 / Sereno è, 2006/2017
Audio by Drupi, steel, loudspeaker, cable
61 × 59 × 31 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
public exhibitions
press
publications

Wir sehen dich
Verlag für moderne Kunst
Nürnberg
2010

How It Is
Tate Publishing
London
2009
video
CROSSOVER/S
2017
Solo show by Miroslaw Balka at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan
