Krzysztof Wodiczko’s community art. Analyzing “Poznan Projection”

Abstract

The article concentrates on the community issues in Krzysztof Wodiczko’s art. It analyzes one of his latest projects, “Poznan Projection” (the effect of artist’s cooperation with homeless people from “Social Emergency”), in reference to selected philosophical community theories, signed by Jacques Rancière, Jean-Luc Nancy, Julia Kristeva or Jacques Derrida. Author argues that communal character of Wodiczko’s latest works is a consequence of changes in his artistic attitude, passage “from the symbolic and critical politics to the ethical and therapeutic political” (Andrzej Turowski).

The text consists of three parts. The first part briefly presents community art as a specific field of public art. The focus is on the ethical dilemmas characteristic for this kind of artistic production. Next part is dedicated to Wodiczko’s vision of community and its articulation in “Poznan Projection”. In the last part of the article, “Poznan Projection” is being confronted with Rancière’s concept of “distribution of the sensible” and Victor Turner’s theory of communitas. Author argues that while most of Wodiczko’s works can be read as political articulation of equality (therefore foundation for a new distribution of the sensible), “Poznan Projection” failed to establish a valid relationship between the “little” community of the homeless and the “big” urban collective.