Marcin Dudek
Represented by Harlan Levey Projects
Born in 1979 – Poland
Lives and works between Brussels, Belgium and Krakow, Poland
Art as a strategy for living; Marcin Dudek’s practice builds from autobiographical experience
and expands to explore the broader phenomenon that shaped it. These include the rituals of
subculture, DIY economy and crowd dynamics – how one gets pulled into many and what
control is lost as a mass gains momentum. Often working with found, salvaged or repurposed
materials, Dudek constructs objects, installations, painting and performance, touching upon
questions of power and aggression in the context of sport and cultural spectacle. His
paintings offer insight into his overall approach, which incorporates a rather obsessive work
ethic, meticulously slicing and manipulating medical tape, rubbing images into the cloth and
building up a painting through collage. The level of detail and craft is manic and neurotic,
meditative and thoughtful, as violence becomes an energetic aesthetic reflecting a lived
experience.
