DAMn magazine # 29 / Polish art

The Poles attract

Fantasy at the essence of Polish art
three astute curators put their heads together to concoct a seminal exhibition of highly savoury artworks emanating from Poland since the beginning of the 19th century. through combining a thoughtful selection of modern and contemporary pieces in a discerning manner, the message of a spirited and fantastical culture soon emerges, rectifying the dim and jaded views accumulated outside the country over time, which clearly lacked just this kind of information. With this show in the European capital, the message being unveiled is beautifully apparent and certain to infuse our collective sensibilities with delightful insight.

text aNNa JENKiNsoN images Bozar dream - spontaneous combustion, 2008 by olaf Brzeski (main image) Resin and soot, c. 175 cm high Czarna Gallery, Warsaw chleb krakowski (KraKow bread), 2006 by Janek simon (right) Bread, mechanical and electronic components Courtesy of the artist fifty-fifty, 2006 by Maciej Kurak (below right) Installation including Fiat 126p car and sewing machine, variable dimensions

A new exhibition of modern and contemporary art from Poland, the largest of its kind since the collapse of communism in 1989, sets out to explore this countrys national identity and put Polish historical and cultural traditions in context. By juxtaposing contemporary works from the post-1989 period with masterpieces from the late 19th and 20th centuries, the show highlights several chapters of Polish art history and examines the relationships between these periods. The exhibition gives a new interpretation to many of the artworks, Andrzej Szczerski, one of the curators and an assistant professor in art history at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, told DAMn in an interview. It contextualises the subject of national identity and asks questions about Polish culture today. It questions the clichs developed in the 1990s. Being held this summer at the Bozar in Brussels, the exhibition coincides with Polands EU Presidency. Until 1989 Poland was largely cut off from the West, and the outside view of the country that subsequently developed was predominantly one of sadness and gloom. Despite the emergence of democracy and freedom of speech since then, those images have proven hard to shake off. As another of the curators, the Royal College of Arts David Crowley, said in a radio inter-

view, Theres a kind of mythology that Polish culture is very bleak and the association that people have with Poland, from the communist period, is of a very grey country... [This exhibition] will produce a different picture than the clichd picture of grey Poland.
a view to the absurd

cezary Bodzianowski luna, 2005 by cezary Bodzianowski (right, top image) Performance/video, photo by Monika Chojnicka. Courtesy of the Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw and Galleria ZERO, Milan

Early on, as Crowley, Szczerski and their curator colleague Zofia Machnicka began to discuss how to structure the exhibition, they hit upon the idea of fantasy as a central theme. Fantasy is a key theme that has been overlooked in the past, and yet it is a major principle of what has happened, Szczerski said. The Power of Fantasy: Modern and Contemporary Art From Poland, to give the exhibition its full title, explores the ways in which fantasy in Polish culture has provided a means of challenging reality. Pre-1989, fantasy and the world of illusions was a way to circumvent censorship. It was also an act of rebellion, as it was an unwanted feature in the arena, according to Szczerski. Since the collapse of communism, fantasy has been a way to comment on a society in transition and on the social principles being negotiated in this new, free world. Fantasy is also a way to safeguard the principle of individualism, a reaction against the imposed ideology of collectivism, Szczerski added.

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DAMn magazine # 29 / Polish art

d.o.M., 2004 by robert Kusmirowski Foksal Gallery Foundation

Under this overarching theme, the exhibition is organised thematically into different chapters, with key sub-themes including: absurdity in everyday life; history and memory; the image of the hero; madness and absurdity; surreal landscapes; the militant imagination; and the art of saying no.
artists with stories to tell

Kantor, who lived through Nazi-occupation in Krakow and held to his belief that artists should be able to continue to create, whatever the circumstances. Work by Kantor, including Everything Hangs on a Thread (1973), a series of empty canvases combined with various objects, will be displayed in the same room as creations by Miroslaw Balka, who showed a large work last year in the Turbine Hall at Londons Tate Modern. Balka uses everyday materials to create works that resonate with memory on a personal level and touch upon the human condition. Artists like Miroslaw Balka address universal and cross-cultural themes, speaking nevertheless from a Polish perspective. Balkas elegiac sculptures, for instance, draw meaning from his reflections on the Holocaust and his experiences of Roman Catholicism, but they do not depend on them, the curators write. The exhibitions re-contextualising of Polish art highlights the way in which key themes of the 20th century have continued to be explored in post-1989 artworks. It is striking that these long-lasting traditions continue, Szczerski said, adding It is also striking how differently they are interpreted. The Bozar exhibition spotlights how Poland is continuing to re-evaluate its history and explore its national identity. #
The Power of Fantasy, Modern and Contemporary Art from Poland, until 18 September 2011 in Bozar, Brussels

One of the contemporary artists whose work is included in the show is Zbigniew Libera. In his photographic installation The Exodus of People from the City (2010), Libera captures a suburban scene of devastation, with adults and children fleeing the city on foot and leaving behind the detritus of a modern consumerist society. The reason for the exodus isnt clear, but as Crowley writes in the exhibition catalogue, Liberas image evokes a tragic and familiar Polish experience: displacement. In this work, as in others, Libera explores the reinterpretation of history. His work will be exhibited alongside that of Jacek Malczewski, whose Vicious Circle (1895-1897), is considered one of the most iconic paintings in Polish art history. The work depicts an artist sitting atop a ladder surrounded by figures, including the defeated soldiers of 19th century national uprisings. The identification of history with a single figure, even if understood in allegorical terms, as in Malczewskis painting, opened a way to the personalisation of history, Szczerski writes in the accompanying catalogue. The work inspired subsequent generations of artists, among them Tadeusz

www.bozar.be

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