Krzysztof Wodiczko: The Art of Un-War
a film by Maria Niro.
Krzysztof Wodiczko: The Art of Un-War
a film by Maria Niro
An instigator for social change, renowned artist Krzysztof Wodiczko challenges our complacency towards war, xenophobia and displacement with his unique public art interventions.
The Art of Un-War , a film by Maria Niro, chronicles the life and political work of the Polish born artist Krzysztof Wodiczko a pioneer of large scale projection art. Wodiczko’s lifelong investigation of monuments, war and trauma are explored through his urban art interventions created over the past fifty years. Using art, design, and technology, Wodiczko helps those whose voices often go unheard speak up in public space.
We witness Wodiczko inviting war veterans, refugees, and the homeless to co-create with him on his projects so they can speak about their plights in public spaces. As the process unfolds, he records their testimonies. Each project reveals the participant's unscripted plights as he projects their moving images and voices onto historical statues such as Abraham Lincoln in New York City’s Union Square Park and other monuments and edifices across the world.
The evolution of Wodiczko’s art unfolds throughout the film, from his first intervention created in Warsaw, Poland in1968 in response to censorship, through his latest effort to transform Paris’ monument to war Arc De Triomphe into its complete antithesis -a temporary site for peace activism and war abolitionism. Filmed with unprecedented access, this rare glimpse into the artist’s world stands as a permanent document of his thought-provoking and inspiring work.
Filmed in the United States, France, Canada, Japan, and South Korea, The Art of Un-War is one of the most comprehensive investigations into Wodiczko’s lifelong inquiry of historical war monuments. Narrated by Wodiczko, and in conversations with artists, activists, art historians, and curators. Through colleagues and fellow artists, we come to know Wodiczko as an empathetic media artist with a deep commitment to exposing the travesties of war and its aftermath.
a film by Maria Niro
An instigator for social change, renowned artist Krzysztof Wodiczko challenges our complacency towards war, xenophobia and displacement with his unique public art interventions.
The Art of Un-War , a film by Maria Niro, chronicles the life and political work of the Polish born artist Krzysztof Wodiczko a pioneer of large scale projection art. Wodiczko’s lifelong investigation of monuments, war and trauma are explored through his urban art interventions created over the past fifty years. Using art, design, and technology, Wodiczko helps those whose voices often go unheard speak up in public space.
We witness Wodiczko inviting war veterans, refugees, and the homeless to co-create with him on his projects so they can speak about their plights in public spaces. As the process unfolds, he records their testimonies. Each project reveals the participant's unscripted plights as he projects their moving images and voices onto historical statues such as Abraham Lincoln in New York City’s Union Square Park and other monuments and edifices across the world.
The evolution of Wodiczko’s art unfolds throughout the film, from his first intervention created in Warsaw, Poland in1968 in response to censorship, through his latest effort to transform Paris’ monument to war Arc De Triomphe into its complete antithesis -a temporary site for peace activism and war abolitionism. Filmed with unprecedented access, this rare glimpse into the artist’s world stands as a permanent document of his thought-provoking and inspiring work.
Filmed in the United States, France, Canada, Japan, and South Korea, The Art of Un-War is one of the most comprehensive investigations into Wodiczko’s lifelong inquiry of historical war monuments. Narrated by Wodiczko, and in conversations with artists, activists, art historians, and curators. Through colleagues and fellow artists, we come to know Wodiczko as an empathetic media artist with a deep commitment to exposing the travesties of war and its aftermath.