If it happened only once it's as if it never happened

Artur Zmijewski first attracted attention with his video pieces entitled Singing Lessons , shown at Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt. In a group of deaf youths "sings" the Kyrie from a mass by Jan Maklakiewicz. The result is an atonal yet gripping document of striving for the impossible--a study of limitations and failure. Zmijewski breaks taboos in his other works as well, focusing primarily on aspects of the body. In the 1998 work An Eye for Eye, he worked with amputees missing a leg or a hand to create hybrid beings who are apparently able to walk or grasp again with the aid of "borrowed" limbs. Zmijewski will be representing Poland at the 2005 Venice Biennale. This monograph presents the artist's penetrating works created for the exhibition along with a number of informative essays.