Round Five
FLEX, Berlin
27 March – 9 May 2015

Kasia Fudakowski’s sculpture and performances play with notions of perceived identity, specifically within the art world. Her previous work has focused on the controlling effect of laughter, which highlights awkward and unseen boundaries between those ‘in the know’ and those not. In the ‘pre-formance‘ video Local Artist (2014), on show at FLEX, she questions the relative importance of the position of the joke teller to the joke being told, or in other words, the biography of the artist in relation to the work being exhibited. By appropriating or assimilating a completely foreign culture and language, (in this case Japanese), the artist’s own biography is dragged into the light. We are forced to ask ourselves ‘when does one become a local?’ and ‘when does art become ‘local art?’. Does the answer lie in the context, the biography of the artist, or its material?

Her sculpture series Memory Mattress I-IV (2014) presents a more visceral translation of these ideas with pieces of soft discarded foam forced into uncomfortable relationships with rigid wrought iron frames. These works become bystanders to Fudakowski’s performance which will take place on the opening night of Round Five, which explores the circumstance of forced dialogue, namely between Fudakowski and Genzken but also between artist and audience.