FADO is pleased to present an evening featuring visiting Polish artist Artur Tajber. The artist will perform TORONTO TABLEABLE, a new work in his ongoing WALK’MAN series. Tajber will also screen videos and talk about his extensive body of work.
My interests are focused around what can be defined as shaping the environment by an individual and collective. I think that “physical space” is a reflection of state of soul; physics and psyche influence each other. Thus my work consists mainly in carrying out observation, constructing experiences, documenting them, and finally—presenting my observations and conclusions to others.
—Artur Tajber
He has also written about the genesis and development of the WALK’MAN series:
From 1995 I have worked on a subject matter for which I coined the phrase WALK’MAN, a street action. In the autumn of 1995 I was standing on the Lagan River Bridge in Belfast. Hundreds of thousands singing birds were circling over and over again on all levels and all possible planes, drawing in the sky simple (shape-wise), but extremely complex (structurally) forms. Since then I have walked along the streets in different cities with an altered attitude… I do not perceive a street-plan as a flat sheet of paper, but as a three-dimensional form in which time is the third factor, offering other passages and modifications of connection… I have no doubt that the most frequently repeated and important activity, which engages my body and mind to a similar extent, is walking—especially walking “freely,” without aiming anywhere specific (I do not “walk towards…” but I walk, hang about).
Artur Tajber’s visit to Canada was made possible through the School of the Arts at McMaster University. Supporters of this venture include the Centre for Leadership and Learning through a Teaching and Learning Project Fund, the Senator William McMaster Chair in Globalization and the Human Condition, Hamilton Artists Inc., McMaster Museum of Art, transit gallery, and the International School of Loose Affiliations. Artur Tajber will also be conducting presentations and performance at Transit Gallery while in Hamilton.
