Equestrian statue called Troy
Iza Rutkowska
Installation at Concentrico 06
Since ages the most common art object in public space was equestrian statue, the dignified shape of a man on a horse. It was symbolically commemorating won battles or wars, or just simply giving glory to the powerful leaders. In collective consciousness it was always the object representing a man on a horse. How can we change the meaning of the equestrian statue in 2020 when we leave it to be designed by a woman? In particular to Iza Rutkowska, the artist that is involving people in redesign spaces they live in?
The object of a horse designed by Iza Rutkowska will be setted just in front to the statue of Espartero Monument in the center of Logroño. To make a difference Rutkowska makes a symbolical change by leaving her – resembling a gigant toy – horse free without setting any particular person on the top as a conqueror. She makes that to let anybody try to mount the horse with childish joy and nativity but with the power of change similar to the mythological horse from Troya. Everybody that is using the public space try to climb Troy.
The intervention has been made to make a notice for injustice in designing and using public spaces. The free horse will be in the public space only temporary while Espatero monument will propably stay for many years more. Lets have a look on public spaces nowadays from different perspective and think about the injustice we find there everyday. Let everybody that reach Rutkowska’s horse think about injustice being on the top and make individual change going back down.
Troy is designed to be seated in front of Espertero Monument but its very universal and there is many more equestrian statues to observe with the same difference around the world.
Documentation about Espartero's Statue
Iza Rutkowska
Designer, educator and culture manager who uses artistic tools to integrate communities and introduce social change. She believes that pulling people out of their everyday routine, breaking stereotypes and continued work with a single community brings about real social changes.
Rutkowska conducts performative research. She designs interactive objects in order to catalyse the energy of a given community, and then cooperates with them for permanent transformation of spaces. She co-creates playgrounds with children, and backyards with residents. She specialises in education as a process, by getting interdisciplinary groups of students involved in field activities. Later they implement independent projects connected to the experience acquired during these activities.
Founder of the Forms and Shapes Foundation and the School of Practical Sciences. Soon, the fruit of her months-long projects will be presented at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and at one of the most interesting art institutions in Spain, Intermediae Matadero Madrid. She is the first Polish artist to collaborate with the legendary Czech company FATRA, famous for the toys designed by the world-renowned Libuše Niklová.
She was born in Kałdus, a 200-citizen village in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. At the collegiate level she took courses in journalism, social communication, Latin American cultural studies and fashion design. From 2015, she has implemented the “All Residents’ Backyard” project in Wrocław, in course of which she directed her first film, of the same title, based on her work with the community. She collaborates with municipal governments and art institutions in Poland and abroad. She conducts educational events and classes for numerous non-governmental organizations and community centers. Results of her work were presented at MAMBO Museum of Modern Art in Bologna, Burle Marx Park in São Paulo, Stromovka Park in Prague, National Gallery in Jakarta, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, the Emigration Museum in Gdynia, Copernicus Science Center, and other institutions. She also worked with the Polish Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the National Audiovisual Institute, as well as municipal governments and numerous NGOs.
In co-production with Instituto Polaco de Cultura
