Kobas Laksa (born 1971 in Białystok) — photographer, graphic and video artist, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan. In 2003 he began composing large-scale collages, the first series of which — Urban Project: Warsaw (2003–2005) — featured a vision of the urban future assembled from distorted elements of existing architecture and cityscapes. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2008. Author of short films and music videos (for example for Abradab and Plastic). His latest project Spycifestum took place in Spycimierz. There, together with the town's habitants, Laksa piled up a carpet out of flowers with the inscription: “Save Us Lord! We are dying!”
Selected projects include:
- short film User's Note [Sceny z użycia, 1997] created with Cezariusz Andrejczuk about a drug dealer disappointed with the hedonistic life he leads. The film was awarded with a Grand Prix at the OFFCINEMA festival in Poznań in 2001;
- short film I was at the pilgrimage with my mom [Pojechałem z mamą na pielgrzymkę, 2000] about a trip to Licheń Sanctuary, the largest church in Poland;
- contribution to the short film Fikcyjne Pulpety from 1996 (which could be translated as “Fictitious meat balls”) by Wojtek Koronkiewicz. The piece was a parody of Pulp Fiction shot in the scenery of Białystok;
- short film Could I take a bath or sleep over at your place? [Czy mógłbym się u Pani wykąpać albo przespać?];
QUOTES:
“I much more prefer cheap, seemingly uninteresting objects, because you can create a new quality out of them.”
“I feel like an explorer and a tracker of the expanding urban tissue.”
KEYWORDS: collage, photography, redefinition, grotesque, gloomy, short film, music video, urban, cityscapes, co-participation
EXTERNAL:
www.kbx.pl
www.kbx.blog.pl
www.picasaweb.google.com/kobaslaksa
www.youtube.com/user/kobaslaksa
WHY ARE YOU HERE?
Kobas Laksa interprets the above question in regards to his latest project in Spycimierz.
SPYCIFESTUM 2010 / open air performance in Spycimierz / Poland
Co-participation in the life of a local community works in favour of
individual development, as long as it has something to do with
exploring places, meeting people and processing space by the means of being active. It's perfect when places and people differ, so that it's harder to
generalise in research and observations, hence it's less probable to
fall into routine. The experiences collected give me more freedom in
consecutive projects.
SPYCIFESTUM 2010 / open air performance in Spycimierz / Poland
