Emigrant daje szansę miastu...
The Emigrant Gives the City a chance…Marek Wasilewski talks to Krzysztof Wodiczko

Summary/Abstract: Issues related to emigration are very important in the works of Krzysztof Wodiczk. The artist who lived as an emigrant in the USA thinks that the experience of being lost and searching for one’s own identity in a foreign country can emphasize the problematic character of the space in which the emigrants have to re-establish their existence. But most emigrants do not have any public say. Although democracies and constitutions proclaim equality, territorial divisions actually determine who is more equal. That is why it is easy to see that Krzysztof Wodiczko’s works are socially motivated: he speaks on behalf of those who are deprived of the right to participate in public life and he often refers to the social and political activities of Adam Mickiewicz (although he rejects his idealistic and messianic visions). By animating buildings and monuments, e.g. projecting a swastika on the embassy of South Africa in London (1983), Wodiczko tries to make people take a different view of life and to wake them from the slumber of everyday life. “The role of these projections is to make it impossible to regard the world in a simplified manner which enables uniform divisions”, says Wodiczko. They also create an interesting relationship between people and architecture, a particular type of closeness which inspires the artist’s further works. Krzysztof Wodiczko’s project, Alien Staff has been praised by organisations which help immigrants for the role it played in helping them find their place in their new country.

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