Peter Zizka

Peter Zizka (born 16 December 1961) is a German designer and conceptual artist.

Life
Zizka is the younger son of the social politician Walburga Zizka (Christian Democratic Union of Germany) and Cyril Zizka, of Czech descendant. Initially trained as an art restorer, Peter Zizka went to study graphics, design, and visual communication at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach in 1983. At the same time, he attended the Städelschule in Frankfurt and studied under Bruce McLean, among others.

In 1989, together with Achim Heine and Michael Lenz, Zizka founded the design company Heine/Lenz/Zizka.

Parallel, in the early 1990s, Zizka and Olaf Rahlwes explored the interface between art and design with their MEMORY conceptual art exhibitions.

After leaving MEMORY, Zizka worked on design projects that were socially relevant. In his work, Zizka adopts a less agitative position than that of a communication guerrilla or an adbuster such as Banksy. The most well known of his work from this series is The Virtual Minefield,  the first floor-based installation spanning art and design. Zizka won the gold award from the European Art Directors Club for The Virtual Minefield. It was shown at the Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Foreign Office in Berlin and the Hygiene Museum Dresden among others.

In 2008, Zizka won the design competition for the Kiel Week corporate design, following the likes of Wim Crouwel (1998), Fons Hickmann (2002), and Klaus Hesse (2006).

2010 he starts an art Project in Burundi to render weapons of the Hutu Tutsi conflict harmless in real terms and at the same time initiate a process, by means of aesthetisation, which is relevant to society to open up a discussion on the issue of small arms tangible on a broad communication level.

2011 he received the fellowship of the Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo.

Zizka writes about design for the Swiss Bilanz magazine and is a freelance curator for the Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt.

Peter Zizka works and lives in Frankfurt am Main und Berlin. His brother, Georg Zizka, is the Head of Botany and Molecular Evolution of the Senckenberg Institute in Frankfurt.

Curated exhibitions
2016


 * »Stefan Sagmeister: The Happy Show«, Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt. This exhibition was originally organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and curated by Claudia Gould.
 * »New Everything! A Century of New Typography and New Graphic Design in Frankfurt am Main«, together with Prof. Dr. Klaus Klemp, Prof. em. Friedrich Friedl and Matthias Wagner K, Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt.

Selected solo and group exhibitions
2016
 * »Under Arms. Fire & Forget 2«, curated by Ellen Blumstein, Dr. Daniel Tyradellis und Matthias Wagner K, Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt

2015


 * »Secret Compartments«, Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt
 * »Favourites. Favourite pieces from the private collections of Beckers and Landau«, Galerie Braubachstrasse9, Frankfurt

2013


 * »Symbiosis - 1,5 Tonnen globale Verwicklung«, Kunsthalle E-werk, Freiburg
 * »For a mine-free world«, United Nations, Main Gallery, New York
 * »Open View«, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden

2012


 * »Night of the Villa Massimo«, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
 * »Abwehr. Überlebensstrategien in Natur, Wirtschaft, Politik und Alltag«, Stiftung Charles und Agnes Vögele, Zürich-Pfäffikon

2011


 * »Symbiosis – 1.5 Tons of Global Entanglement«, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe
 * »Festa del‘ estate«, German Academy Rome Villa Massimo, Rome

2009


 * »War and Medicine«, German Hygiene Museum, Dresden

2005


 * »De soldaat die nooit slaapt«, Kunsthal, Rotterdam
 * »The virtual Minefield«, Stadthalle (Freiburg im Breisgau), Freiburg
 * »The virtual Minefield«, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Frankfurt
 * Lew Kopelew Forum, Cologne

2004


 * »The virtual Minefield«, Auswärtiges Amt, Lichthof, Berlin

1997


 * »Memory« with Olaf Rahlwes, Kunst Halle St. Gallen, St. Gallen

Further exhibitions of the »Memory«-Group from 1985-1994 include Fisherman’s Studios, London, Kunstraum Konstantin Adamopulos, Frankfurt, Galerie AK, Hans Sworowski, Frankfurt, Galerie Lukas & Hoffmann, Berlin, Galerie Single 74, Amsterdam, Galerie Vorsetzen, Hamburg und Galerie Schneider, Konstanz.

Works

 * MEMORY 1-24
 * Der Frankfurter Bankstuhlgang (performance)
 * Bois de Boulogne (fotoinstallation)
 * The Virtual Minefield (installation)
 * IPRAY (2006)
 * Outliner (2008, installation)
 * Symbiosis/Burundi (2010/11, installation) constructed from weapons which have been rendered unusable