Bartolomeo Koczenasz
Visual artist, graduate in philosophy from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and co-founder of the Wiewiórka Contemporary Art Center in Kraków. In 2017, together with a group of friends — including Cecylia Malik and Gosia Małochleb — he co-founded the CSW Wiewiórka association (Center for Contemporary Art Squirrel), which has been operating in the Skład Solny (Salt Storage) complex in Kraków since 2019.
From 2016 to 2018 he ran Art House in Kraków. Since 2010, he has co-organized exhibitions, residency programs, and socially engaged art projects, including the Water Critical Mass and Domek na Jesionie (Wrocław European Capital of Culture). In 2018, he floated the sculpture Moon — A Gift from the People of Kraków to Pomerania down the Vistula River from Kraków to Gdańsk. During the first COVID-19 lockdown, he initiated a series of 13 individual exhibitions by artists working in the Skład Solny studios, presented in its window.
He creates collages and photographic installations and produces large-scale works in urban space, including the mural Barcelona in Kraków (ArtBoom Festival), as well as series of site-specific collages dedicated to particular places, such as Prague’s Žižkov district, Szpitalna Street in Kraków, and the Market Square in Jarosław.
Individual exhibitions and projects:
2018 Notes from the moon, screenings in Kraków and Gdańsk (movie)
2018 Beyond the past and the present; Lindenau, Lindenow Festival, Leipzig (public space exhibition)
2018 Moon, gift from Krakowians to Pomerianians, thru Poland (sculpture)
2018 I woke up suddenly in Barcelona, Piękny Pies, Kraków (exhibition)
2018 House in particular, Kraków Art House/Krakers Gallery Weekend (exhibition)
2017/2018 Moon, Kraków Art House (sculpture)
2017 Skier, Finnish Hall, Berkeley (residency: Trust for Mutual Understanding)
2017 Beyond the past and the present; Zizkov, Nevan Contempo, Prague (exhibition)
2016 Frames of the Times; Kazimierz, JCC Kraków (exhibition)
2015 Frames of times, Wisła in Kraków, Polish Society of Aesthetics (exhibition)
2015 Map of City interventions, Kraków Photo Fringe (exhibition)
2014 Teleporter, Kraków Photo Fringe (exhibition)
2013 Three Perspectives, ArtBoom Festiwal, Kraków (installation)
2012 Photo booth RGB, Galeria Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery in Kraków (installation and exhibition)
2012 Barcelona, ArtBoom Festiwal, Kraków (mural)
2012 21 Jewish Krakowians building a 21st Century Jewish community in Kraków, Galicia Jewish Museum, Kraków (exhibition)
2011 Foto booth, 22nd Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków (installation)
2011 Indo Kid, Consulate General of Germany in Kraków (exhibition)
2011 One smile, JCC Kraków (exhibition)
2010 Smiling house, World Smile Day in Kraków (exhibition)
Selected group exhibitions and projects:
2018 New Perspectives: Leipzig meets Cracow, Archiv Massiv Spinnerei, Leipzig
2018 Common ground, Interim/Lindenow Festival, Leipzig
2018 Moon trip from Kraków to Gdańsk, Kraków City Hall (exhibition)
2018 Prophecies, cautions, signs, Kraków Art House (exhibition)
2017 Dialogues with avant garde, Doctor’s House in Zakopane
2017 Street art that does not exhist, Kraków Artistic Meetings 2017 – CONFIGURATIONS. Painting Sculpture Drawing (exhibition)
2017 Vistuliada, Kraków Art House, Wodna Masa Krytyczna
2017 Once upon the time, there were trees, Kraków Art House/Krakers Gallery Weekend (exhibition)
2017 America, utopia achieved, Kraków Art House (exhibition)
2016 Pink Potop – Kraków Art House (exhibition)
2015 New point of view, The Cracow Theatrical Reminiscences festival (installation)
2015 New point of view, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw (installation)
2015 Niedzielni’s raft and the Arab horse, Kraków (happening)
2015 4th Water Critical Mass, Kraków (happening)
2015 InsideOUT, Centrum Kongresowe ICE Kraków (exhibition)
2015 Threads out of parking (Nici z parkingu), Kraków (happening)
2014 -2015 Modraszek Collective (Common Blue butterfly), Kraków, (series of happenings)
2014Dreamland (Raj), Galeria Bunkier Sztuki w Krakowie (series of performances)
2014 3rd Water Critical Mass, Kraków (happening)
2014 Greed of the city (Chciwość miasta), Małopolska Garden of Arts in Kraków (exhibition and happening)
2013 Snippets of Identity, Museum of Municipal Engineering in Kraków (exhibition)
2012 Lomografia Maj Dear, Fotofestiwal in Łódź (exhibition)
2012 Ulica Józefa, Kraków Photomonth Festival (exhibition and happening)
2011 Pasting in metro, Pottporus Street Urban Art Festival, Bohum, Herne (exhibition)
2011 Homeless Gallery (Galeria Bezdomna), Kraków (exhibition)
2009 Human rights within the lens, Amnesty International, Warszawa, Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań (exhibition)