Peter Zizka on Clubhouse

Bio

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 magazine architektur und wohnen and is a freelance curator for the Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt.

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