photo Bartosz Stawiarski photo Bartosz Stawiarski photo Bartosz Stawiarski photo Bartosz Stawiarski photo Bartosz Stawiarski
The piece Lego. Concentration Camp has been acclaimed as one of the most important Polish art-works of the 1990s, and is Zbigniew Libera’s most famous creation. It comprises seven boxes of bricks, uncanny imitations of Lego products, which the artist used to build a Nazi concentration camp. The work was made entirely of pieces “borrowed” from real Lego sets: a police station, pirates, and others. The bricks were actually supplied to the artist by the firm, which is why the box is marked „This work of Zbigniew Libera has been sponsored by Lego". The Lego Group tried to sue the artist for this. The work became extremely well-known, and when the Jewish Museum in New York bought it for their collection, it inspired an important exhibition entitled Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery / Recent Art in 2002.
Year: 1996 Medium: installation of cardboard and plastic
Format: set of 7 different size boxes of LEGO bricks
Acquisition: purchase Ownership form: collection Source: Oslo Kunstomsetning KS Index: MSN: 4300-30/2011 Acquisition date: Nov 30, 2011 Financing source: Donated by Society of Friends of the Museum
See also