Tristes Tropiques (The Endless Journey) is an exhibition of 26 works by the leading Polish artist Miroslaw Balka presenting sculpture and installation works surveying the last two decades. It takes its title from the C Levi-Strauss book first published in 1955. It includes eight large-scale installations, and two new works never shown before, including a site-specific piece. Balka’s work has a bare and elegiac quality that is underlined by a careful, minimalist placement of objects, as well as the gaps and pauses between them. He deals with both personal and collective memories, especially as they relate to his Catholic upbringing and the experience of Poland’s fractured history. His materials are simple, everyday objects, but also powerfully resonant of ritual, hidden memories and the history of Nazi occupation in Poland.
Born in Otwock, Poland, in 1958, Balka studied at the Warsaw Academy. He has exhibited widely internationally and represented Poland at the Venice Biennale in 1993. Solo exhibitions include Tate Britain, London, 1995/96; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 2002; the Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, 2004; the White Columns, London, 2004, and the Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin, 2005. He lives and works in his childhood hometown of Otwock near Warsaw.
A major publication accompanies the exhibition with texts by Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA, and curator and critic Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith. To buy the publication click here
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Press Release
A Limited Edition print by Miroslaw Balka is available to buy, please follow the link to IMMA Edition: Miroslaw Balka
To buy the catalogue for this exhibition click here