Roman Stańczak's 'Flight' Sculpture at 2019 Venice Biennale Polish Pavilion
In 2019, Roman Stańczak unveiled his installation 'Flight' at the Polish Pavilion during the 58th International Art Exhibition—la Biennale di Venezia. The artwork features a private airplane that has been violently disassembled and reassembled, turned inside out. This piece alludes to the tragic Smoleńsk plane disaster of 2010, which resulted in the deaths of President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others, a pivotal event that deepened societal divisions in Poland and contributed to the rise of the Law and Justice party. Born in 1969, Stańczak is a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts from the early 1990s. His work often critiques Poland's neoliberal changes, with 'Flight' expressing themes of fear, despair, inequality, and spirituality, as noted by critics such as Łukasz Mojsak and Dorota Michalska.
Key facts
- Roman Stańczak created 'Flight' for the Polish Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019.
- The sculpture is a private aircraft split in half and sewn back together inside out.
- It references the 2010 Smoleńsk airplane catastrophe in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others.
- Stańczak graduated from the Kowalnia studio at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in the early 1990s.
- His early works from the 1990s distorted everyday objects to critique Poland's neoliberal transition.
- The artist's practice includes spiritual elements rooted in his Catholic upbringing, as seen in the 1994 performance 'Untitled'.
- Stańczak took a hiatus from the art scene in the mid-1990s due to burnout and personal issues, returning in 2013.
- The installation is seen as allegorical, engaging with social, political, and religious themes without singular interpretation.
Entities
Artists
- Roman Stańczak
- Paweł Althamer
- Katarzyna Kozyra
- Artur Żmijewski
- Łukasz Gorczyca
- Søren Gauger
- Maciej Głogoczowski
- Walter Benjamin
- Lech Kaczyński
- Dorota Michalska
- Łukasz Mojsak
- Łukasz Ronduda
- Weronika Wysocka
Institutions
- Polish Pavilion
- International Art Exhibition—la Biennale di Venezia
- Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts
- Kowalnia
- CSW Kronika
- Berliner Künstlerprogramm/ DAAD
- Warsaw CCA
- Sculpture Park
- ARTMargins Online
- Nero Press
- Law and Justice party
Locations
- Venice
- Italy
- Poland
- Warsaw
- Smoleńsk
- Russia
- Oxford
- Bytom
- Berlin
- Germany
- Bródno
- Rome