Marcin Dudek

To this end, Dudek often references events that took place at football stadiums and personal histories of football fans and hooligans to later deconstruct such reworked memories within the gallery space. The space intended for the exhibition of artistic objects and actions becomes a place where the artist’s personal experiences clash with universal questions of crowd (mob) psychology and theories regarding architecture and the society of spectacle. Dudek often uses avant-garde means of expression, such as visual representation of abstraction and performance, and creates situations that transform objects into so-called “anti-readymades.” These transformations take place during his performances or in the artist’s atelier, where the shape and function of objects are altered, contradicting their original “ready-made” character. In their artistic form, Dudek’s objects touch upon important questions regarding control, the hierarchy of power, and mechanisms ruling the release of violence and aggression as seen from sociological, historical, and psychological standpoints. After all, the latter belong to the atmosphere and local character of the football stand seen by Dudek as both a contractual space and a significant point of departure for experimental actions within the field of art.

After leaving Poland aged 21, he studied at the University Mozarteum, Salzburg and at Central Saint Martins, London, graduating in 2005 and 2007 respectively. His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Salzburger Kunstverein (AT), the Arad Art Museum (RO), Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Krakow (PL),  the Goethe-Institut Ukraine, and The Warehouse Dallas (US). His installation “The Cathedral of Human Labor” (2013) is on permanent view at the Verbeke Foundation in Belgium. In 2018, he presented a large installation at Manifesta 12 Palermo, which was followed by a solo exhibition at the Wrocław Contemporary Museum. Current and upcoming exhibitions include the “Psychic Wounds” at The Warehouse Dallas (US) curated by Gavin Delahunty and a group exhibition at 180 The Strand/ Vinyl Factory, curated by OOF, London (UK).

Dudek lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.