Kobas Laksa [PL]

Kobas Laksa was born in Białystok and studied graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. Currently he lives and works in Warsaw. He has been exhibited mainly throughout Poland, he received the Golden Lion for the best national pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennial 2008.
His work is dedicated to still and moving images. His artistic focus is conceptual photography as well as photo manipulation and collage. He displays his works in installations, performances and stage design. He also works as a director and scriptwriter in short films and music videos.
In series Urban Projects Warsaw and The Afterlife of Buildings he broaches the issue of the global process of urbanization and its impact on urban development. In his portrait series he emphasizes the animal like qualities of humans. His photos engender ambiguous imageries which follow apocalyptic logics and in their details they form absurd allegories educing atmosphere of disaster.

www.kbx.pl

NARRACJE 2011 Work: Rollercoaster Warsaw

The work of Kobas Laksa shows a utopian vision of an abandoned city of the future, in which the main subject is the rollercoaster violently entering the city tissue. Entertaining gadgets prevail in the public space. The border between the usefulness, functionality and making time pleasant fades away. The urban assumptions dominate in the entertainment architecture. Happiness is the privilege, on which the society insists - and which it receives - is a grotesque form of an amusement park.
The title rollercoaster was photographed on a jetty in Brighton, where entertainment is a basis of the citie's development.
Warsaw was chosen not incidentally to compose this project. City, which struggles with identity as the result of tragic historical events, is also a region of constant architectural trials and building independence. The rapid city development, growing number of inhabitants and lack of prospective solutions, even now, cause that the architecture isn't art. Rubbish and free market are the only reliable sources on which the expanding urban landscapes can resemble the apocalyptic visions of the science-fiction authors.
The project was prepared as a spherical panorama, based on the virtual trip characteristic for Google Earth.

The project is available on the web on:
www.kobas.republika.pl/2010/panorama_kobas.swf

Location: Gdansk City Gallery 1 (GGM1), ul. Piwna 27