Kozyra

Katarzyna Kozyra
Blood Ties, 1995
colour photograph

Working within the traditional understanding of body art, Katarzyna Kozyra perceives the artist's body as a medium and object of art. She deals with the significance that the body has for an individual's identity. Her works are both lyrical and critical, dealing with the relationship between personal freedom, individual biography and communication in society. She places particular emphasis on the female body and how it has been perceived by art and folk culture. Kozyra addresses the spectator with dramatic scenes of her own personal pain which are metaphors for the suffering of mankind.

The first version of the Blood Ties photograph was presented in 1995 in response to the war in Bosnia. Four years later, the Blood Ties 2 photograph was created. Its message was similar: a commentary on the events in Kosovo. A reproach on the tragedy there, involving major religions , and the destiny of women victimised by such conflicts. Blood Ties 2 was supposed to be displayed in 1999 on 400 billboards in the major towns of Poland. Only a few were displayed and even those had to be removed a few days later because of the severe public response. They were said to denigrate religious symbols - the Christian cross and Moslem crescent. But rather than being iconoclastic or scandalous, the work was intended as an antiwar statement.

Adela Železnik

(from the catalogue The Art of Eastern Europe. A Selection of Works for the International and National Collections of Moderna galerija Ljubljana, Innsbruck, 2001)