Zofia Kulik

Nudes on Stamps, 1979

Archival Inkject Print
74 x 80 cm

Created in 1979, this photomontage by KwieKulik was made for Commonpress No. 18, an issue of the mail-art magazine devoted to the theme “Nudes on Stamps.” KwieKulik lost their passports for several years after participating in a 1975 exhibition in Malmö. Polish authorities accused them of disrespecting the national emblem through works combining the state eagle with satirical, anti-authoritarian imagery. Using their passport photographs layered with transparent colored cellophane, the artists transformed official identity portraits into an exploration of intimacy and collaboration. In one section, a cutout in the shape of male genitals obscures Zofia Kulik’s face, while Przemysław Kwiek’s portrait appears beneath red cellophane. In another, Kulik’s face is framed by a yellow vulva-like form resembling a mandorla, surrounded by radiating black lines. Balancing provocation with wit, the work becomes both a double portrait and a metaphor for the artists’ symbiotic creative partnership.

Activities for the Head, 1978

Archival Inkjet Print
71 x 58.5 cm

This performance is the second part of Activities for the Head, a three-part protest action by KwieKulik. In the work, Zofia Kulik sat on the floor with her head emerging through a washbasin while Przemysław Kwiek performed ordinary washing rituals above her body. As the action intensified, Kwiek positioned a knife behind Kulik’s head and demanded that she speak, although she was physically unable to do so. The artists described the performance as a response to censorship and the suppression of free speech in communist Poland, drawing parallels to political repression in other countries, including Chile. Through the use of the body, vulnerability, and psychological tension, KwieKulik transformed everyday actions into a powerful political statement about control, violence, and silencing.

The Monument Without a Passport, 1978

Archival Inkjet Print (2016)
90 x 65 cm

This photograph documents the final stage of the performance The Monument without a Passport, created in response to KwieKulik being prevented from traveling to the “Behavior Workshop” festival in Arnhem after the authorities refused to issue them passports. Instead of traveling abroad, they presented this performance at the All-Polish Biennale of Young Art in Sopot. During the performance, Zofia Kulik’s head emerged through a tabletop onto which slide projections were cast, transforming her face into a living screen. At a certain moment, Przemysław Kwiek placed Kulik’s legs in plaster, immobilizing her body and turning it into a monument-like sculptural form. Kulik raised a folder titled Ideas for Arnhem, referring to the unrealized journey and the restriction of artistic mobility under communist rule. Kwiek seated himself beside Kulik on a fixed chair, and both artists remained motionless for several minutes. Through stillness, immobilization, and the transformation of the body into sculpture, KwieKulik addressed themes of censorship, political control, and the denial of freedom of movement.

Polish Duo 1, 1984

Archival Inkjet Print (2016)
90 x 65 cm

Polish Duo 1 was the first in a series of performances staged by KwieKulik at Dziekanka (Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw) between 1984 and 1986. Divided into four parts, the performance explored national identity and political symbolism through movement, repetition, and everyday actions. Using red-and-white Polish flags attached to their heads, the artists transformed national symbols into theatrical props that moved with their bodies while dancing, spinning, running, and eating together. In the final scene, a shared white-and-red flag connected the artists before collapsing to the floor, revealing two faded white-and-gray flags beneath it. Through these absurd yet carefully controlled actions, KwieKulik transformed private gestures into political metaphors. Through symbolic choreography and repetitive gestures, the artists examined the relationship between individuality, ideology, and patriotism in communist Poland.

Ameryka, 1972

Archival Inkjet Print (2016), 17 photos
115 x 168 cm

Ameryka was a quarterly magazine that, according to the masthead, presented ‘the leading ideas and opinions about social, political, economic, and cultural issues’. The magazine was published in Polish by the US Information Agency in Washington and distributed in Poland by the American Embassy. Ameryka could probably be read in International Press and Book Clubs (MPiK), but neither Kulik nor Kwiek can remember. Browsing through the magazine, KwieKulik were struck by the images of happy people and the effectiveness of problem solving as shown. Ameryka therefore represented an ideal of reality. The artists wanted to create their own image in that semblance of the American dream. Firstly, in December 1972, during a walk with Dobromierz, they posed for photographs showing them as happy, smiling parents. Here the artists mocked the aesthetics of Ameryka, but at the same time they were creating an image typical of all propaganda in that the goal was to idealize its ‘own’ reality, something that also mythologized it and evoked envy among the citizens of other political systems, then known as the ‘enemy’. Over the next couple of years, KwieKulik were to take several more photo-graphs belonging to the series Ameryka. One was taken in the ‘Galeria’, or rather in Repassage (March 1973), when, after the election was lost by KwieKulik, the new management presented documentation of the activities of Sigma and the ‘Galeria’ from the period between 1971–72. Contesting such practice of appropriating the work of other artists, KwieKulik staged the action We Shit on It. As if by accident, the action was linked with the series Ameryka. The artists were to continue this series almost until the end of their collaboration (one of the photos is from 1985). The project has never been terminated.

Open Form - Game on an Actress´Face , 1971

Archival Pigment Print
120 x 144 cm

With the video Open Form, Kulik experienced a release from traditional art objects. 'Game on an Actress’ Face' is a perfect example of the processional, collective Visual Game in which each successive take shows a ‘move’ made by another artist. Every move required the next participant to relate to existing facts (their predecessor’s move), develop their own ‘statement’, and remember that their move creates a context for the next player’s move. The artists communicated (played) using both visual forms as well as various kinds of actions (Activities). The game’s experience involved the awareness that the other players’ ‘statements’ determine one’s actions, and that one’s own move influences the subsequent ones, for instance, by limiting or expanding their possible choices. That entailed learning the responsibility related to acting in the public sphere modeled after the inter-subjective communication sphere existing between the artists participating in the game. ‘The players’ who gathered around the actress stayed out of shot. The scene featured Ewa Lemańska, who gained huge popularity in the early 1970s as Maryna, the fiancée of the main character of the TV series Janosik.

Acitivies with Dobromierz, 1972-74

Silver Gelatine Print (2007), 48 photos 30 x 36 cm each, paper frame
300 x 270 cm

Shortly after their son Maksymilian Dobromierz was born, KwieKulik started to ‘use their own child in their art’. Activities with Dobromierz is a piece in which the artists took nearly 900 photographs (color slides and black-and-white negatives) in which their son appears alongside various household objects in the apartment and during walks.
In this work, the artists tried to practically apply the knowledge from scientific seminars they were attending at the time. They believed that almost the same operations that mathematicians, logicians, sculptors (that is, themselves) do, could also be done by means of various forms of visual aids and with the help of registered images (slides).
Activities with Dobromierz attempted to relate mathematics and logic operations (which use the intangible characters, e.g. x, y, z), to similar artistic operations but using material forms (objects, textures, colors), including the already existing particular condition of life. In addition, they combined Activities with Dobromierz with the linguistic typology of spatial prepositions (derived from the theory of A. Weinsberg), which was later developed in the work with The Unknown X. According to KwieKulik, Activities with Dobromierz proved that the limited number of spatial relationships between objects (ten basic relations) can produce an infinite number of Aesthetic Time-Effects.
In 2008, Kulik prepared a three channel digital projection of Activities with Dobromierz.

Banana and Pome-grenade, 1986

Archival Inkjet Print, 10 photos
57 x 40 cm

The Banana and the Pomegranate was conceived by KwieKulik as an enigmatic political theatre of objects and forms. In the performance, Zofia Kulik and Przemysław Kwiek sat motionless on chairs with buckets covering their heads, while a curtain decorated with stars and moons opened to reveal a sequence of carefully arranged scenes. With each unveiling, new objects appeared in the artists’ hands or placed on the buckets, creating a chain of poetic and political associations.
Using everyday materials, national emblems, religious symbols, mirrors, bread, bottles, and personal photographs, KwieKulik explored themes of identity, censorship, surveillance, and the objectification of the individual under political power. The artists referred to the work as “reistic theatre,” inspired by the philosophy of Tadeusz Kotarbiński, who argued that only material things truly exist. By concealing their faces beneath buckets, the artists denied personal subjectivity and transformed themselves into objects among objects.
The static sequence of scenes resembled living photographs, emphasizing social inertia and the passive condition of individuals within oppressive systems. Through fragile materials and symbolic imagery, KwieKulik questioned the permanence of political ideologies, religious authority, and collective identity.