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Biography

Krzysztof Wodiczko is an internationally renowned artist known for large-scale projections on monuments and institutional facades that explore the relationships between communities, history, and public space. The artist has dealt extensively with trauma and healing in his projections, honoring people’s stories of pain, loss, and perseverance. Over many years, the projections have evolved from still slides to live and recorded videos utilizing individual’s faces, voices, and narratives. Wodiczko is also known for interactive instruments and vehicles that empower marginalized individuals and communities and give light to societal injustices. 

On public buildings and monuments in more than 40 cities worldwide, Wodiczko has executed over 90 site-specific projections. He has created projections on the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (1988/2018); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York (1989); Kraków’s City Hall Tower, Poland (1996); Boston’s Bunker Hill Monument, Massachusetts (1998); Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2005); Goethe-Schiller Monument, Weimar, Germany (2016); and Admiral Farragut Monument in Madison Square Park, New York City (2020). Recent survey exhibitions include Krzysztof Wodiczko: Instruments, Monuments, Projections, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea (2017); Krzysztof Wodiczko, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) for Liverpool Biennial, England (2016); and Krzysztof Wodiczko: On Behalf of the Public Domain, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland (2015). Wodiczko’s instruments, vehicles, and documentation of his

projections can be found in over 20 museum and public collections worldwide including the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto, Japan; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC. 

Wodiczko lectures at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is a professor emeritus of Art, Design and the Public Domain; the Faculty of Media Art of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Poland; and the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Amongst many recognitions and awards, Wodiczko has won the Hiroshima Art Prize (1998), the György Kepes Fellowship Prize (2004), the Katarzyna Kobro Prize (2006) and the Gloria Artis Medal (2009) granted by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Wodiczko has authored ten books amongst notable contributions to academic and artistic publications; his writings have also been translated to Polish, French, Spanish, and Korean. A feature length documentary on Wodiczko’s practice, The Art of Un-War directed by Maria Niro, premiered in 2022.

Born in 1943 in Warsaw, Poland, Wodiczko lives and works in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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