"Pawel Althamer and Other Artists" (Pawel Althamer et Les Artistes) was exhibited from September 13 to November 27 in the Contemporary Art Space Room 315 on the south side of the Centre Pompidou. This is a unique exhibition, both a solo show by Pawel Althamer and a group exhibition. It features an exhibition proposal by Pawel Althamer, Poland's most representative contemporary artist, who invited a group of young artists (all born between 1972 and 1981 and graduates of various art academies) to collaborate. They presented a highly narrative "shadow puppet" video featuring these young artists as actors, questioning his own identity as an artist under conceptual and performance art frameworks.
Born in Poland in 1967, Pawel Althamer often questions art and the conditions constituting art within the art system. His overall creation rests on three main aspects: first, the relationship between works and the art system; second, proposing concepts to groups and associations; and finally, assembling family members to participate in his work. For example, in 2000, he invited residents of a high-rise apartment building in Warsaw to turn on their lights according to a plan one night, forming the number "2000" with the illuminated apartments. He also invited homeless people to act as art critics judging one of his exhibitions. More dramatically, during his solo exhibition at the Wrnog gallery in New York, he first asked Polish immigrants to thoroughly destroy the gallery space, then restored it piece by piece to its original state during the exhibition (this was his solo show), deeply questioning the art system's space. In 2003, he performed a similar act, transforming the pristine Neugerriemschneider gallery in Berlin into a dirty and messy space reminiscent of its appearance before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Pawel Althamer's creations often feature unexpected methods of "substitution," such as turning museum spaces into waiting rooms, asking his young daughter to supervise his exhibitions, or providing a radio for the exhibition guard to make his work lighter (these are all included in his exhibitions). These artistic behaviors and practices carry a sense of magic and provocation, leaving viewers bewildered.
(This group of young artists includes: Céline Ahond, Wiad Antar, Liliana Basarab, Veaceslav Druta, Adriana Garcia Galan, Kapwani Kiwanga, Elise Mougin, Vincet Olinet, Emilie Pitoiset, Koki Tanaka, Adam Vackar, and other artists.)
