Goshka Macuga

Goshka Macuga (Polish: [ˈgɔɕka maˈtsuga]; born 1967 in Warsaw, Poland as Małgorzata Macuga) is an artist based in London. She was one of the four nominees for the 2008 Turner Prize.

Goshka Macuga was born in Poland. A graduate of Central St. Martins College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths, University of London, she makes installations which incorporate other artists’ work alongside a variety of disparate objects. She uses techniques and styles common in archiving and museum display. Macuga's work method is often referred to as cultural archaeology as well as being compared to detective work. Her appropriation-based intervention posed questions about ownership, information flow, the possibility of using this information, as well as about the freedom of interpretation when taking advantage of available sources. Macuga often uses art history as a point of reference. When she is working in a given institution, she starts by looking through its archives.

For an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 2009, Macuga incorporated a 1955 tapestry version of Picasso’s 1937 antiwar painting Guernica into a year-long installation about the 1930s-era controversy generated by the painting. After 24 years on display just outside the Security Council at the Headquarters of the United Nations, the textile was pulled down and flown to London.

While in residence at the Walker Art Center in 2010-11, Macuga produced work that would investigate the cultural and political context of the Walker Art Center itself. Culminating in the exhibition, It Broke From Within, Macuga investigated the history of the shaping of the Walker Art Center as an institution through its archives. The exhibition explored the political orientation, community theory, lumber, financial history, and serendipity of clerical errors concerning the Walker.

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