Konrad Smoleński

Konrad Smoleński (born 1977, lives and works in Warsaw, Poland, and Bern, Switzerland) is an installation and performance artist whose works are characterised by a forceful impact, usually created through audiovisual experiments. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and a member of the Penerstwo group, he also plays in bands as an active member of the PINKPUNK scene. His focus is on the experience of sound and image, exploring its possibilities and various ways of engaging and experiencing various media. An active member in the young garde of experimental musicians, Smoleński blends genres in creating video works and audio installations that push the boundaries of art, music, performance, engagement and spectatorship. He is known as a radical artist grounded in an edgy, post-punk aesthetic, experimenting with relationships between sound and image, sound and object, performer and audience. Sound is often the driving force of his works, with imagery serving as the framework for sonic elements that are often unexpected, even jarring. He took to the streets of the French capital in 2012 to present his BNNT “Sound Bombing” at the Paris Triennale. The electro-mechanical sounds Smoleński produced from a truck with four other performers were deliberately harsh and abrasive, aiming to incite a negative response in the audience of pedestrians and motorists. The extreme performances of “noise music” was meant to challenge the relative calm of the everyday through its unexpected, chaotic means of expression.