Matter of Art Ve věci umění

Piotr Sikora

Piotr Sikora (born 1986 in Krakow, Poland) is a critic and curator of contemporary art. He defended his master's degree at the Institute of Art History of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He is a member of the Polish Section of the AICA. His curatorial career began with cooperation with the ArtBoom Festival in Krakow, Poland (2009-2015). He worked as the director of the ShowOFF section of the Krakow Photomonth Festival (2013-2015) and as curator for the visual arts program at the Małopolska Garden of Arts in Krakow (2013-2014). In his exhibition projects, he often refers to the issues of identity politics, stereotypes, and prejudices related to the region of Central Europe (the dubious geopolitical region stuck between the former East and the former West). He explores the connections between pop culture, politics, and the art world. His curatorial practice focuses on developing methods of deconstructing great narratives based on the concepts of irony, exaggeration, and provocation. The above-mentioned concepts were present in the exhibitions They don't know why, but they keep doing it (2011) at Waterside Contemporary in London, United Kingdom; Czech Pope (2014) at Meet Factory in Prague, Czech Republic; Slav Squatting and Its Discontents (2018) at Meet Factory in Prague, Czech Republic, and two shows curated as a duo with Łukasz Białkowski: Intermarium (2016) at Futura in Prague, Czech Republic, and Swag & Threat (2018) at Trafo in Szczecin, Poland. As curator of the MeetFactory AiR Program in Prague, together with Lucia Kvočáková he initiated the platform The New Dictionary of Old Ideas. He is also a lecturer at the Anglo-American University in Prague. Sikora is an ardent player of bike polo and father of a son, Bořivoj. He lives and works in Prague. 

Sikora completed a curatorial residency held in 2021 in Prague in the framework of the tranzit.cz / Biennale Matter of Art project Center and Periphery: Cultural Deserts in Eastern Europe, funded by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (EEA and Norway Grants) in the program Culture. The residency resulted in the creation of a new work that was exhibited at the second edition of the In the Matter of Art Biennial in 2022 in Prague.