Zbigniew Libera

Zbigniew Libera (born 7 July 1959) is a Polish artist, Born in Pabianice, Poland. Zbigniew Libera is best known for his controversial artwork named LEGO Concentration Camp that he designed in 1996.[1] The LEGO Corporation sponsored Libera's work by providing him with the LEGO bricks, however, they later threatened to take legal action against Libera for the controversial work he created using the bricks.[2]

The Jewish Museum in New York City exhibited these sets in 2002[3] as part of a show entitled Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art. Critics accused Libera of trivialising the Holocaust in his 'LEGO Concentration Camp' artwork. Defenders argue, however, that the LEGO sets mirror the evil-minded ingenuity required to construct the concentration camps as instruments of terror. Art historical criticism, like that proposed by Ernst van Alphen, has argued that the toys seek to represent and refigure the Holocaust in a more familiar register that recovers its meaning from overbearing Holocaust education programs. Art historian Norman Kleeblatt proposes a similar reading, understanding the works as a study into the Foucauldian biopower of concentration camps.

Zbigniew Libera is also famous for his photography artworks such as his series labeled 'Pozytywy' (translates to 'Positives').[4] This series features Libera's photographs that captured humans living in war and war-torn cities.