Exhibitions

Interrogative Design: Selected Works of Krzysztof Wodiczko

A man walks on a long low vehicle made of two long boxes with bicycle wheels and drivetrain attached, in front of a brick building.

“Vehicle,” 1971, Warsaw, Poland. Courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.

Materials for this exhibit provided by the artist, with unique edits specially produced for this project by GSD Exhibitions.

Spanning five decades, the artistic practice of Krzysztof Wodiczko has interrogated a variety of social conditions across cultures, through artistic interventions that deploy creative technologies to disrupt the public and civic spaces of our everyday urban environments. Wodiczko is well known for his public projections, in which his subject matters range broadly—from homelessness to war veterans—as he consistently engages marginalized peoples and gains their trust to use his artistic platforms for their own public speech-acts. He researches public squares, institutional buildings, and wartime monuments, delving into the various histories embedded in the design, ornamentation, and inscriptions of these pieces of civic architecture. His siting of the surfaces of these spaces and structures recasts them as a stage setting for his ephemeral events, in which unseen, unheard, and forgotten people inscribe their lived experiences back onto the materiality of the architecture. Using projected light, Wodiczko transforms the scale of the individual to the scale of the urban, as these architectural facades—literally the faces of buildings—come alive by taking on the faces and voices of those who have been dispossessed by the host society. This artistic technique of defamiliarizing our everyday built environment empowers the alienated, and this temporary, projected light of their identities shines a spotlight on the power structures of their systemic oppressors.

While Wodiczko is known for his large-scale slide and video projections onto architectural facades and monuments, this exhibition also features a set of his process drawings and objects, expanding and deepening the discourse around his artistic methods. These objects from his practice may be less visible and public than his large-scale installations, but they are equally important as provocations. In exploring Wodiczko’s practice comprehensively as a whole—projections, objects, drawings, videos, texts—we begin to have a deeper understanding of how he approaches a subject, in particular his engagement with communities whose very identities are intertwined with local sites, public spaces, monuments, and architecture. Questions that animate this exploration include: how does Wodiczko approach communities of people who are often marginalized, underrepresented, or unheard, and how does he begin to build a trusting connection with them so they contribute to and collaborate in his interventions? The exhibition title, Interrogative Design, aims to evoke the entirety of this creative process, locating a subject, researching an urban area, selecting an architectural element, navigating power structures, and cultivating trust throughout.

Interrogative Design will introduce, or reintroduce, visitors to the diverse and wide-ranging aspects of one of the most vital artistic practices of the 21st century. The exhibition will reemphasize Wodiczko’s practice as one bridging art with design, weaving social engagement with innovative technologies, mapping marginalized identities onto architecture, and reinscribing new memories onto existing monuments. By focusing on the origin of each project on view, this exhibition will become pedagogical for our audience, allowing the viewer to refocus on the precision within Wodiczko’s processes while being moved by the human stories that his disruptive gestures make public.

In addition to objects and works shown in the Druker Design Gallery, Harvard GSD’s Frances Loeb Library will feature a timeline of publications on Wodiczko’s practice, with accompanying photography of corresponding projects, including earlier slide projections in public space. The library will also feature an in-depth look into the process of the Voices of Bunker Hill Monument project, delving into the processes behind one of his local interventions.

Spring 2022 update: Druker Design Gallery will be accessible to visitors who are in compliance with the GSD’s current health and safety requirements. Please check the school’s reopening page for details on visitor guidelines and requirements. Visitor hours are from 8am – 6pm Monday through Friday.

 

Interrogative Design: Selected Works of Krzysztof Wodiczko
October 21, 2021 – April 8, 2022

In conjunction with the Harvard Art Museums exhibition:

Krzysztof Wodiczko: Portrait 
October 14, 2021–April 17, 2022

These exhibitions, organized jointly by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Harvard Art Museums, are made possible by the Graham Gund Exhibition Fund, Galerie Lelong & Co., and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Photograph of a statue of a figure outdoors, in front of a tall building.
The Admiral Farragut Monument Projection, “Monument”, Madison Square Park, 2020, New York, New York. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
A monument of Abraham Lincoln at night with city buildings in the background. A person’s face and hands are projected onto the face and hands of the Lincoln statue.
The Abraham Lincoln Monument Projection, “War Veteran Project”, 2012, New York, New York. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
The facade of a building at night. Along the top half is projected the image of four people’s legs and feet, giving the appearance that they are sitting on the roof of the building with their legs hanging over the side.
The Kunstmuseum Basel Projection, “Sans-Papiers”, 2006, Basel, Switzerland. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
Photo of a busy street in New York City with yellow cabs driving by and people on the sidewalks. In the foreground, a person pushes one of Wodiczko’s Homeless Vehicles, a metal and wire cart that can carry belongings and unfold to create a sleeping area.
Homeless Vehicle, 1988-89, New York, New York. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
A dark empty room with bare white walls and a plain door. On the walls are three projections of different windows with views of New York City buildings. A pair of binoculars sits on one of the window sills.
“The Real Estate Projection, 1987, New York, New York” at Hal Bromm Gallery. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
A stone clock tower in the middle of a crowded town square at night. On the face of the tower is a projected image of two hands peeling a potato with a knife.
The City Hall Tower Projection, 1996, Kraków, Poland. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
The medieval-era city hall building in Mechelen, Belgium at night, with a projection of a person’s eyes on the tower.
The New Mechelenians, 2012, Mechelen, Belgium. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
A busy pedestrian area between city buildings. Two people stand facing each other, each holding a unique version of the Alien Staff which they hold upright to face the other person.
Krzysztof Wodiczko, “Photo of Alien Staff,” n.d. Courtesy of the artist.
Side view of a mannequin displaying the Dis-Armor, an apparatus made of metal and electronics worn over the torso and head.
Krzysztof Wodiczko, “Dis-Armor 2,” 2001. Laptop computer, 3 LCD screens, speaker with amplifier, microphone, augmented speech-recognition software, three video cameras, electric motor, batteries, internal and external aluminum components. Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.
The facade of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial at night, a stone ruin of a city building on the edge of a river. Two hands are projected on a stone wall above the surface of the water and reflected in the water below.
Hiroshima Projection, 1999, Hiroshima, Japan. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
Photographic image of the facade of the Central Library at night, with three large arched doorways in the center. On either side of the arched doorways are video projections of human hands gesturing.
The Central Library Projection, 2004, St. Louis, Missouri. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
A crowd of people standing outside a spherical building at night. A person’s face is projected onto the round facade of the building.
El Centro Cultural Projection (Part II), 2001, Tijuana, Mexico. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
Three images of the Bunker Hill Monument at night, each showing a projection of a different person on the facade.
Bunker Hill Monument Projection, 1998, Charlestown, Massachusetts. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
Black and white photo of a polygonal-shaped vehicle built on three bicycle wheels, with an inverted cone shape on top made of metal with a clear window on the front.
Poliscar, 1991, New York, New York. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
An outdoor park area at dusk, with trees and a medieval structure in the background. Three drones carrying video screens of human eyes hover in the air.
Loro (Them), 2019, Milan, Italy. Image courtesy of Krzysztof Wodiczko.
The lobby of Gund Hall with the Interrogative Design exhibit, including wall murals, display cases, and projection screens.
A view of the exhibit in the Druker Design Gallery at Gund Hall.
The lobby of Gund Hall with the Interrogative Design exhibit, including wall murals, display cases, projection screens, and Wodiczko’s “Poliscar” vehicle and “Alien Staff”.
A view of the exhibit in the Druker Design Gallery at Gund Hall.
The lobby of Gund Hall with the Interrogative Design exhibit, including wall murals, display cases, and projection screens.
A view of the exhibit in the Druker Design Gallery at Gund Hall.
The lobby of Gund Hall with the Interrogative Design exhibit, including wall murals, display cases, projection screens, and Wodiczko’s “Poliscar” vehicle.
A view of the exhibit in the Druker Design Gallery at Gund Hall.
The lobby of Gund Hall with the Interrogative Design exhibit, including wall murals, display cases, and projection screens.
A view of the exhibit in the Druker Design Gallery at Gund Hall.
The Interrogative Design exhibit in Gund Hall, with a display case of Wodiczko’s sketches in front of a wall mural and projection screen.
A view of the exhibit in the Druker Design Gallery at Gund Hall.
Part of the Interrogative Design exhibit in Gund Hall, with a wall mural sketch of Wodiczko’s “Vehicle” and a monitor showing a video of “Vehicle” in use.
A view of the exhibit in the Druker Design Gallery at Gund Hall.

 

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