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.[1]
Parallel, in the early 1990s, Zizka and Olaf Rahlwes explored the interface between art and design with their MEMORYconceptual 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,[2][3] 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,[4] 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 HutuTutsi 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.
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.[6]
Curated exhibitions
celebrations of 25 years German reunification, typographic Installation of Peter Zizka on the St. Paul's Church, Frankfurt
»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.[8]
»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 [13]
Bibliography
This article contains a list that has not been properly sorted. Specifically, it does not follow the Manual of Style for lists of works (often, though not always, due to being in reverse-chronological order). See MOS:LISTSORT for more information. Please improve this article if you can.(November 2016)
Memory 30 – a book, Walther König: Frankfurt
ROGUE, Konstantin Adamopoulos: MEMORY, a sign of intelligence
Page Designmagazin 10/95 a perfect triangle, Page Verlag
Egokollektiv. Peter Zizka«, edited by Anna Duque y González and Matthias Wagner K, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln 2018, ISBN978-3-96098-364-4.
