A visual artist, film director, editor, and cultural anthropologist. In the mid-90s, he co-created an action group called Relativo, which experimented with cinema, artistic provocation and - as he called it - 'a small direction of emotions'. Around the same time, he created a collection of Phenomenal Films.
He co-created with Jan Swidzinski the first festival In the Context of Art /Differences, and the result of this collaboration was his documentary debut (2006) entitled The Differences. He is the author of video projections in Krystian Lupa's famous theatre performances Persona. Marylin and Persona. The Body of Simone produced by Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw and showed worldwide. He edited several documentary and experimental films, including The Glass Trap, nominated for the European Film Award in 2009, or an impressive documentary dedicated to the work of Zofia Rydet - The Stone and Fish (2010).
Lubicz is the author of a book Art of Action, which is the history and hermeneutics of pioneer performative actions in Poland. He is also the author of an audiovisual publication entitled Warpechowski. The Way of the Performer published in 2014 by National Gallery. Currently Jan is preparing PhD project at the Intermedia department in the Faculty of Multimedia Communication at the University of Art in Poznan (PL)
Education
- 1999–2003Philosophical Department, Warsaw University
- 1999–2004Cultural Studies, Warsaw University (MA)
- 2000Editing course: Universitat Bielefeld / Asthetisches Zentrum, Vogelsanger Studios, Germany
- 2005Anthropology of Performance: ISTA - International School of Theater Anthropology
- 2005–2009Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Science - Doctoral Studies
- 2015–2017Waldorf Education, ISNS UW - Warsaw University, Institute of Applied Social Sciences
- 2019–nowFaculty of Multimedia Communication, University of the Arts Poznan - doctoral program
Work & teaching
- 1990–1995Ochota Theater - first directed theater performance "The Story"
- 1995–2000Relativo - experimental film group (Antoni Nykowski, Lukasz Gutt, Daniel Bauman, JLP)
- 2000Assistant Scenographer - National Opera, Warsaw
- 2002–nowArt of Action Archives, postconceptual project between art and documentation
- 2004Charles University, Prague - lecturer
- 2006–2010art theory consultant at international performance art festivals (Castel of Imagination, In the Context of Art / Differences)
- 2006–2013Independent film studio Warszawa Centralna - founder, director and producer
- 2008–2011Bellmer Society, Member of the Board/Treasurer
- 2009–2012Dramatyczny Theater, Warsaw - video artist ("Persona" series by Krystian Lupa)
- 2011CCA Tel Aviv - lecturer
- 2011Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts - lecturer
- 2011ICC Krakow - lecturer
- 2018–2020IKONA - Instytut Kultury Ośrodek Nowej Awangardy - IKONA Art Center - main project coordinator
- 2018–2020LELE Art Space - President of the Foundation for the Arts
- 2020–2024ProMediation&ProWellness Foundation - board member, meditation teacher
Selected individual exhibitions, shows, public presentations
- 1999Fenomenal Films - Galeria Bauman, Warsaw
- 2009Art of Action and Film - Participatory Space Chłodna25, Warsaw
- 2009Hans Solo – Bellmer Society, Katowice
- 2010Change Time into Space – Klinika Lalek Theater, Wolimierz
- 2010The Stone and the Fish – Bellmer Society, Katowice
- 2011Doing it. Art, magic and the paradox of the Real - Center of Contemporary Arts, Tel Aviv
- 2011Art of Action and Film, Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts, Tel Aviv
- 2011DADA Politics - International Cultural Center, Cracow
- 2014The Differences – In Situ Foundation, Laboratory of Culture, Sokołowsko
- 2014The Way of Performer, Polish National Gallery, Warsaw
- 2015D_E_M_O_N_TAGE - Cork Artists Collective, Cork
- 2015Art of Action Archives – Skibbereen Art Center, Ireland
- 2017Rytka. Sketches - Association of Free Speech, Warsaw
- 2018Personal Stone, Profile Foundation Gallery, Warsaw
Selected group exhibitions, shows, public presentations
- 2009–2015video art in theater: "Persona. Marylin" (dir. Krystian Lupa) - produced by Warsaw Dramatic Theatre. Presented: i.e. European Theater Awards Festival, La Comedie de Reims, the Grand Theatres of Tianjin and Beijing, World Cultures Festival in Hong Kong, and many others.
- 2010Work in Progress, curator: Marek Zieliński, Katowice
- 2010The Knot - Mobile Unit - Parcul Carol, curator: Kuba Szreder, Bucharest
- 2011–2017video art in theater: "Persona. Simone's Body" (dir. Krystian Lupa) - produced by Warsaw Dramatic Theatre.
- 2015Polish Actual Art. Miradas, Arte Kalea, curator: Ines Ruiz Artola, Balmaseda, Spain
- 201614. Leave Everything - Dynamics of Chaos, Berlin-Warsaw, Academia Theater
- 2017Warsaw in Construction - WWB9 "Step Forward" - curators: T. Fudala, D. Jarecka, B. Piwowarska, Studio Gallery and Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw
- 2018Nowosielski Po Śladach/Traces - BWA Olsztyn
- 2019The Lords of Time, Instytut Cybernetyki Sztuki - Institute for the Cybernetics of Art, Gdansk
- 2019Exhibition in a Suitcase, IK Projects Gallery, Lima, Peru
- 2020The 6th UP-ON International Live Art Festival, curator: Zhou Bin, ChengDu, China
Awards, recognitions
- 2007Ministry of Culture of Poland Award, for the book "The Art of Action"
- 2007Nomination to European Film Award for a film edited by Jan Lubicz - "Glass Trap"
- 2009Scholarship of Masovia Voivodship, for best scholars and artists of the year
- 2010Scholarship of Adam Mickiewicz Institute, for best presentations of Polish art abroad
- 2014Best Art Book of the Year, top 10 listed by Culture.pl, for "The Way of the Performer"