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1

KDO JE CINDY SHERMAN?

100%

Šantová K.

ESPES

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2012

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vol. 1

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issue 1

60 – 64

EN

The report introduces the work of Cindy Sherman, a visual and conceptual artist, who has mainly worked in the field of gender and identity politics. The author of the text describes Sherman ́s best known series of photographs Untitled Film Still as well as a series of photographs taken for Vogue Paris. Sherman ́s work is compared to the work of Slovak conceptual artist Lucia Nimcova and her series of photographs called Women. Later in the text, the author describes the field of recipients, divided into men and women, and the emotions they feel and their thoughts, as they look on the work of Sherman.

2

DISCOURSIVE SPACES. CONCEPTUAL ART IN 'AKUMULATORY 2' GALLERY (Reprezentacja, podmiotowosc, nieobecnosc. Sztuka konceptualna w Galerii Akumulatory 2)

100%

Nader L.

Ikonotheka

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2007

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issue 20

99-116

EN

'Akumulatory 2' Gallery functioning in Poznan from 1973 was a pivotal space for conceptual discourse in Poland. Working through the notion of privacy influenced by the thought of Wittgenstein and deontology, it created a heterotopia - a space neither public nor private - a base for conceptual critique of representation, illusion and subjectivity. At the same time conceptual works exhibited in the Gallery intervened and transformed key notions of artistic discourse in Poland in the 70s annihilating the well-known oppositions such as private/public, autonomous/politically engaged, concept/object, mental/bodily. Conceptual art understood as a position of a discoursive subject developed in 'Akumulatory 2' transgressed the communicational schemas and highly ritualized reality of Poland in the 70s slipping away from the authoritarian scenario.

3

Sztuka jako wyraz świadomości artysty

100%

Zagrodzki J.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

119-122

EN

Considerations upon the awareness that previously had been identified as the power of God's creation, a universal mind that binds all terrestrial matters together, are the source of an ancient thought. The term conceptualism — conceptus, defining a thought, a concept, an imagination—was inherited from the Latin, but as an idea it emerged in philosophical discussions long before Socrates. The idea of conceptual perception may be found in Plato's philosophy; the definition of creative awareness was not, however, precisely defined by him. It was only Aristotle who assumed that a condition for art to exist is “a permanent disposition capable of producing something with reason”. This direction of research was undertaken by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, one of the first philosophers examining consciousness, the author of the treatise entitled “Philosophy of Art”. The power of Schelling's thought was an emphasis on using symbols in art. Confronting hidden meanings with the literality of concepts based on tangible aspects of knowledge mean that his opinions are still of interest for researchers. The concept of a self-awareness we owe to the establishments of René Descartes. His principle “I think therefore I am” did not remove and in fact even highlighted the doubts that arise during creative activity. What is contemporary art?— a discipline which attempts to understand the power of the human mind, which enables artists to use the knowledge they possess in action. It is an inborn predisposition, or perhaps it is a disposition to produce something material with a thought and therefore it is conceptual in nature. The values in art result from the essence of a message, and the methods of transmitting and receiving are, in a natural way, linked to the intellectual process and it does not matter, which form of the ‘conceptualisation’ of the world the artist chose. Art understood as a concept is often identified as utopian. Utopia, on the other hand, is most often understood as an intentional attitude that exists in one’s consciousness, an idea which cannot be realised. The question arises: what is an artwork completed as an artistic fact. This apparent antinomy between the notions of reality, utopia and concept in art results from an assumption that something is possible and other things are not and that all arguments depend on the assumed point of reference. It is often claimed in colloquial sentences that a project turned out to be utopian. But what does it mean? Can art be utopian? Has any art program ever been fully completed? Can ideas stemming from one’s artistic statement, in their full complexity, demanding a lot of harmonious circumstances, ever be realised? So called utopian or conceptual thought is the basis of all meaningful art achievements, contrary to intentions thought to be realistic, which by their very down-to-earth nature, lack fantasy and therefore have little in common with art. The emergence of an art concept is parallel to the possibilities of its realisation. Not sooner does art exist for real, then as a result a conflict between creative ideas and changing reality appears. Sometimes artistic objectives do not develop further beyond the project stage, sometimes they turn into concrete objects, events or processes. The fact that their incarnations exist, does not determine the meanings. The essence of artistic work is to sustain the idea created. If it takes the form of a registered project then it automatically turns into a tangible object, an item, a phenomenon which can be a base for further actions. So, when the artist questions the rules of the surrounding reality, it is not a conceptual utopia that emerges, but new realities.

4

Тіла текстів і тексти тіл у постмодерністській російській та українській літературі

88%

Berbeneć L.

Slavica Wratislaviensia

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2011

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vol. 153

621-632

EN

There is a number of concepts which allow literary critics to consider postmodernist texts as “bodies” or constructs made up of the organs taken from other “textual bodies” (hybridization, mimicry, “dysmorphomania,” body without organs, etc.). “Donor” texts may be well known classical writings or any other works from which a postmodernist author builds up his texts. The study is based upon the texts of Vladimir Sorokin, Vagrich Bahchanian, Les’ Podervjansky.

5

K FENOMENOLÓGII UMENIA A K JEJ APLIKÁCII NA KONCEPTUÁLNE UMENIE

88%

Lipták M.

Filozofia (Philosophy)

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2011

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vol. 66

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issue 5

497-501

EN

The paper tries to outline the basic ways of applying Husserl's phenomenology on art. The main focus is on the aesthetic object defined by Husserl's concepts of modifications of positionality and neutrality. The conception is then applied on the conceptual art (namely one of the works of art of Joseph Kosuth), which contradicts the idea of aesthetic objects. However, the paper tries to show, that the conceptual art does not cancel phenomenological approach. On the contrary, in interpreting this kind of art phenomenological approach proves very fruitful.

6

Galeria Remont. Nieznana awangarda lat siedemdziesiątych

75%

Urbańska K.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

133-139

EN

The attempts to describe a history of Polish conceptualism in a systematic way, have been until now undertaken in a very similar way. The studies have concentrated mainly on outlining a few artistic centres with connections to the trend. These studies were discussed both in publications from the eighties and nineties and in more recent ones. Only Bożena Kowalska in her book Artystyczno-spoleczna problematyka zrzeszen plastykow w Polsce w latach 1946-1976 (Artistic and social problems of artistic groups in Poland in 1946-1976) (1981) presented a broader panorama of artistic trends that emerged in the seventies. The history of Polish conceptualism mostly covers a narrow circle of galleries: the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw, Pod Mona Lisa and Permafo in Wrocław, and Akumulatory2 in Poznań; a separate place is taken by film and photographic activities. The Remont Gallery in Warsaw, which was active around the same time, was not historically analysed. Its activity has always been treated as marginal. Undoubtedly this was caused by the specific atmosphere of those times, personal relationships and (often wrong) opinions which influenced the works of critics later on. What I refer to is the stance taken by the Foksal Gallery towards more and more frequent activities of the neo avant-garde, which meant that the gallery was often accused of non-uniformity, ambiguity of motives, but also aggression and mockery of the avant-garde. The creator and founder of the Remont Gallery was Henryk Gajewski. The official date when the Gallery was opened was 1.04.1972, and the date it closed was 06.11.1979. For almost seven years it hosted prominent Polish and foreign artists; it published numerous but modest publications, organised international conferences, exhibitions and activities that crossed the official boundaries of art. The gallery, from the very beginning, had little in common with the traditional concept of an art gallery. Its programme was filled with meetings with known publicists, political, social and cultural discussions and exhibitions with modern photography. Thanks to its open formula, the projects were realised by artists coming from various milieux. In the programme it was underlined, that it was not a gallery of one group or trend. What is worth noting is the fact that it showed the works of artists recognised as the leading representatives of neo avant-garde and now often linked with different art centers. The activities of the Remont Gallery can be compared to the activities of such places as Pod Mona Lisą and Permafo, where the gallery space was used for 'new media' or actions from the border of audiovisual art. The Remont Gallery in the beginning, similarly to Permafo, showed experimental photography and photo-conceptualism (Lucjan Demindowski, Krzysztof Wojciechowski, Elzbieta Tejchman, Andrzej Jorczak, Andrzej Lachowicz, Antoni Mikolajczyk, Zygmunt Rytka and Henryk Gajewski). No other gallery in Warsaw was more dynamic and with such a diversified programme, which allows us to analyse its activity from the perspective of a variety of discourses situated on the border of conceptual, contextual art, performance, mail-art, photography, installation, body art, audio-art or happenings.

7

Sztuka zamiast filozofii

75%

Jasiński B.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

97-107

EN

The aim of this text is to show the cognitive function of the art later referred to as conceptual. Conceptualism was particularly predisposed to express abstract messages which included philosophical ones. The basic question I would like to pose in this text is: can a conceptual art toolbox express in its own way that which had been formerly expressed by philosophy? How, with the usage of means suggested by conceptual art, may one build a general image of the world – comparable to that which philosophy had previously given? Perhaps a full answer to the above question leads us into the areas of art which ceased to fill the boundaries of conceptualism, or post-conceptualism and heads straightforward to action, which Grotowski called an ‘active culture’ — that is a place where art is not sufficient anymore.

8

Idea a obraz. Ikonoklastyczny aspekt konceptualizmu

75%

Gralińska–Toborek A.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

41-64

EN

Conceptualism, as the art of an idea, placed itself beyond aesthetic and sensual experience. As a rule, it did not produce art objects which could be pleasing or that would represent reality. This rejection of an image places conceptualism in a broadly understood iconoclastic movement. When we examine various historical iconoclastic movements (religious and political) we may reconstruct the most important features of iconoclastic awareness and compare them with the essential postulates of conceptualism. The result of this comparison is a striking similarity of both phenomena. To mention just a few linking features of conceptualism and iconoclasm, we may enumerate: a doubt in the adequacy of the relationship between an idea and image, a fear of an idolatrous belief in a material art object, a drive to demystify art and artists, a concentration on a word instead of an image. Iconoclastic mentality can also be characterised by analytic thinking, progressive attitude and irony. However, the question arises if iconoclasm can exist without idolatry; or if conceptualism could have developed without a material object? Even if it rejected it, then the art world (museum, critics, audiences) that shows a progressively stronger tendency to contextualise, flung conceptualism out of “art’s orbit into the ‘infinite space’ of the human condition” (to use the words of J. Kosuth).

9

Konceptualizm i sztuka interaktywna. Analiza polskich przykładow

75%

Kluszczyński R. W.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

73-78

EN

Contemporary interactive art, which is created through digital computer technologies, has its roots in the artistic trends of a new avant-garde that developed at the end of the 1950s. Conceptual art played a significant and specific role in this process along with kinetic art, action art, installation and electronic media art. It formed not only a deep logic and framework for neo avant-garde tendencies in art, but also a favourable context to develop participatory tendencies and to prepare the conceptual ground for interactive art. In this complex field of artistic genres of that time, many artworks created had features which allow us to consider them in relation to interactive art. Amongst them, we can find works of such artists as Wojciech Bruszewski and Jozef Robakowski. Their numerous installations and objects from the seventies link conceptual and analytical attitudes with interactive characteristics.

10

Czy polska sztuka konceptualna ma płeć?

63%

Hussakowska M.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

29-40

EN

The essay was inspired by Pawel Dybel’s book The secret of the "other gender". Disputes around the sexual differences in psychoanalysis and feminism, in which he asked a question about the gender of logos. My – less ambitious – attempt was to try to describe the potential of gender in Polish conceptual art. The question is ahistorical, but there are a number of reasons to ask it. Many female artists that were very active during the time of conceptual incitation are invisible. Polish conceptualism which was formed be some artistic couples, historically has lost female faces. Some of these contributors – like Natalia LL or Ewa Partum – we can find out about in the discourse among first Polish feminist artists, but the question of women’s input into conceptualism is still open and does not attract enough interest of scholars. Maybe this is because of the fragile and delicate matter of an artistic partnership in contrast with the heroic notion of artistic individuality that is still attractive for conceptual artists. Maybe this is because of dangerous stereotypes about masculinity and femininity and male and female roles in artistic couples. There are very few scholars who are interested in examining the notion of collaboration in its very complex form. Much of the contemporary discourse on Polish conceptual art has been conveyed through exhibitions. This tactic may be seen as paying respect to the form of an exhibition – a specific, ideal medium to consider works of art not individually, but as they interact with each other. The specifics of conceptual works that were generally visually unattractive in the early seventies has changed, partly because of the most recent generation. The new face of Polish conceptualism is very conservative with regard to the lack of input by women. Unfortunately the belief popular among scholars and curators that women do not do ‘serious’ work still persist, but fortunately for those women artists who are active and visible – they found a useful label in the discourse. Placing them within the feminist movement, one should not forget their conceptual roots, and should delete the question as to whether their works were serious.

11

KwieKulik i konceptualizm w uwarunkowaniach PRL-u. Przyczynek do analizy problemu

63%

Załuski T.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

79-88

EN

Until now, the artistic practices of a duo named KwieKulik, founded between 1971-1987 by Przemysław Kwiek and Zofia Kulik, were placed outside of conceptual art. I am not presenting here a simple thesis that KwieKulik were conceptual artists, but I attempt to formulate an introductory question about the complex relationship in which they situated themselves in response to conceptualism. In one of the interviews, the artists claimed that they could never be ‘pure conceptual artists’. I wonder, however, if the activity of the duo may be framed in a category of some ‘impure conceptualism’ whose important aspect is to be found in exposing the conditions of life and work in the People's Republic of Poland . To achieve this one needs to investigate thoroughly the artists stance towards the hegemonic term of ‘conceptualism’ whilst highlighting all of their actions that had any conceptual feature and to define a specific, individual form which appeared in the network of relationships with other elements of artistic practice. In my text I explain how one should understand ‘conceptualism’ as ‘a hegemonic term’ that organises and imposes itself onto an agonistic field of innovative art practices — not only in the West, but also in Poland. In this context, undertaking the question of “KwieKulik and conceptualism” opens a new perspective for a counter-hegemonic reinterpretation of conceptualism in the People's Republic of Poland. Without rejecting the term ‘conceptualism’, one needs to look at the questions related to it through the prism of an individual case of the KwieKulik duo. It should also allow the practices of both artists to make an imprint on ‘conceptualism’. In the last part of my text, I limit myself to a series of ‘contributive’ notes which may be treated as orientation points in an appropriate analysis of the conceptual aspects of the art of KwieKulik.

12

Protokonceptualizm polski

63%

Kowalska B.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

15-19

EN

By accepting one of the definitions applied to conceptualism in the research on this genre, as art that “takes the form of objects under the condition that they have a secondary function in parallel with an idea” I draw attention to an exceptional artistic case, that I call a Polish proto-conceptualism. This phenomenon occurred in the first half of the sixties, that is before Seth Siegelaub’s exhibition in New York (1969), accepted as the beginning of conceptualism, or even before Sol LeWitt’s article in Artforum entitled “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” when the term, preceding the trend itself, was introduced into the language of art. For this reason I describe the above mentioned artistic experiments of clear conceptual characteristics, which preceded the accepted beginning of conceptualism, as protoconceptualism. I include four Polish artists in this category: Andrzej Pawlowski – an author of Cineforms (1957) that were famous in the sixties and “The concept of an energy field” (1966); Jerzy Rosolowicz – the author of the “Theory on the function of the form” (1963) and objects made of lenses and prisms that according to the artist were mere examples of his theory of neutral act; Roman Opałka with his ‘counted paintings’ (1965) that documented the idea of a fight with time; and Ryszard Winiarski inspired by the probability theory, who asked about determinism or indeterminism and treated his works not as paintings but as “Attempts of visual presentation by statistical charts”. Contrary to a typical conceptualism, (which was expressed as a record of processes, place marks, announcements, photographic documentation or mail art that was popular in Poland after 1970 and was inspired by similar activities by artists from Western Europe and the USA – the art of the described Polish proto-conceptualists was purely original and autonomous. It was precursory towards the global understanding of conceptualism and, what is very important, in their activity these artists generated an important message with which a significant concept, philosophical idea or analytic reflection was included.

13

Medium czy osoba – dylematy sztuki konceptualnej na kilku przykładach

63%

Sobota A.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

63-72

EN

My intention is to describe essential artistic strategies associated with conceptualism mainly by highlighting examples of artists associated with the Wroclaw milieu, one of whose strategies included using so called new media, that in the 1960s and 1970s were photography, film and video. This strategy opened the concept of art to the influences of mass culture, everyday life, to the issues of broadening perception and manipulating information. Confrontations and contradictions between the use of new media and classic art forms were expressed by within the milieux and by the various generations of artists causing acute polemics in Poland in the mid-seventies. First I want to focus on the arguments supporting the analysis of photomechanical media, as an essential artistic problem. In Polish art, pioneers of such an awareness were Zbigniew Dlubak and Zbigniew Staniewski. Since 1970 it was expressed in the program of the Permafo group (Dlubak, Natalia LL, A. Lachowicz) and then within other artistic groups, including Foto-Medium-Art and by Jerzy Olek. They were in touch with similar tendencies in Lodz, Krakow and Warsaw. Photomedialism preferred an objective criteria of activities and an openness towards the rules of visuality and the laws of nature typical for documentary movies. On the other hand, it could not exist without pointing at the subject of the creator and its subjective conditions. So the criteria of media and personality interweaved in artistic practice, but also appeared as antagonistic. It was best seen in the work of Natalia LL, who pointed at the instrumental blindness of the photomedialists, even though she paid a lot of attention to media issues herself. The reduction of the role of art objects in conceptual art on behalf of a person and his/her life activities required a search of the personality which often reached the broadest cultural references, associated with philosophy, religion or mythology. It is well illustrated by the artistic activity of Natalia LL and Andrzej Dudek-Durer, anchored in conceptual art and constantly developing through the confrontation of corporality and mental power combined with the language and communication possibilities offered by media.

14

Obraz a idea. Estetyczno-antropologiczne paradoksy sztuki konceptualnej (implikacje ikonoklastyczne)

63%

Kazimierska–Jerzyk W.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

47-54

EN

When taking into account the iconoclastic implications of conceptualism, we may observe its close but at the same time, warped relationship with aesthetics. I developed this thought after reflecting on Arnold Berleant. Such a view allows one to support the idea of a wider understanding of the notion of conceptual art, which accepts the presence of an art object not only in the form of art documentation, but also as an object included in an aesthetic awareness. One of its main aspects is the problem of the effect (power) of images. The problem of an aesthetic awareness was developed by Joseph Kosuth through a suggestive formula of ‘art as anthropology’. I treat this as a consequence of previous ideas developed by the artist, not as a total turn away from them. As a consequence one may consider as conceptual the attitudes and projects that keep the image in its physical sense and make the creating of images problematic in such a way that the most important seem to be reflections on the notion of art (image). In the article I consider two examples of Polish artists – Jan Berdyszak and Grzegorz Sztabinski. I underline how their activities are involved in certain iconoclastic practices (typical for conceptualism) and with which means they articulate the need to overcome them.

15

Konceptualizm jako konceptyzm

51%

Piotrowski K.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

109-117

EN

We know, how valuable the role of the functor ‘as’ played in conceptualism. The functor was a basic linguistic tool of conceptual art infrastructure – the minimal part of speech that allowed for the production of concepts, engaging ingenium in its primary function as ingenium comparans. The criticism of conceptualism, mainly comparison or identification of the artwork and analytic proposition revealed the fact that the tautological model of Kosuth is just one of many art concepts and remains a product of paralogical thinking. What is therefore decisive for conceptualism is an attempt to build a universal art theory: an idea, that for centuries has remained the basis for logical thinking, or the concept itself, in which paralogy cannot be eliminated. The tendency to narrow the meaning of a concept and limit art to its idea was marked in the text by Daniel Buren “Beware!” (1969-1970). How did it happen, that the formula of conceptism, used in the beginning of the decade by Henry Flynt in the text entitled “Concept Art” (1961) was replaced by conceptual art? For Flynt concept art was art whose materials were the language and concepts. According to him, a concept is a trace of an idea by Plato and means the intension of a name, but with today’s state of knowledge demanding an objective relationship between a name and its intension this meaning is incorrect. Therefore, if the relationship is subjective, then the concept as a possible opposition towards the objective idea occupies a privileged space in a language and keeps its strength. Also in Sol LeWitt’s “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” (1967) and “Sentences on Conceptual Art” (1969), in which despite the fact that the expression ‘conceptual art’ appears explicitly, the term ‘concept’ remains an alternative to the idea, that may be simple and does not need to be complex. So according to Sol LeWitt, the concept implies a general direction, and ideas are its components. To radicalise this issue, let’s ask, if conceptualism privileges the conceptual, as its literally understood name would indicate? Or on the other hand is what is called a concept, that being something ingenial and that even though it includes a moment of ideation (abstracting and transcending sensuality, that is crossing the borders of the material paradigm of art towards the idea), it is not reduced to a conceptual element, but rather expresses sensuality or its basic modus? The text is an attempt to show the tension in the art of Polish conceptists who referred in their paralogical discourse to conceptualism, especially with reference to the example of Andrzej Partum’s work.

16

Galeria jako zagadnienie artystyczne w sztuce konceptualnej

51%

Guzek Ł.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

123-131

EN

The text announces a research program on the galleries that emerged in relation to conceptual art and introduces the scope and method of research. The general aim of the research is to set apart the issue of a conceptual gallery as an independent artistic phenomenon. A conceptual gallery is examined as a general artistic formula. The methodological scheme presented in the text aims at establishing a basic chronology and creating a typology of the trend. Historically, conceptual galleries emerged and were shaped in the frame of a broadly understood conceptual tendency (a leading tendency in the seventies) because at that time, there occurred a specific formal-artistic relationship between art and gallery. Until now, the conceptual gallery trend has been examined mainly in the context of the social, political and cultural conditions in which they were functioning. The research on conceptual galleries as an artistic project and a form of conceptual art causes the vector of the research to reverse. The artistic character of particular galleries could be graded into those which housed more or less radical projects. One may imagine a scale between limit points: a gallery as a work of art and a gallery as an art container and place all galleries from the seventies on it. The beginning of the conceptual gallery movement in Poland is marked by a project by Andrzej Kostolowski and Jaroslaw Kozlowski entitled NET (1971), based on a mail-art formula. It assumed not only collecting and exhibiting the works sent (which was each institution’s aim), but also creating their own specific points in the network of institutions. Thirty five galleries participated in an exhibition which summarised an activity of the BWA Gallery in Sopot in the summer of 1981. The galleries of this type functioned in the next decade, even during martial law. In the mid-nineties the gallery movement started to integrate again, however after 2000 the commercialisation of the art market caused their disappearance.

17

Dokumentacja a horyzontalny sposób pojmowania twórczości artystycznej

51%

Sztabiński G.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2011

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issue 5

6-15

EN

The 'horisontalism' of artistic activity and reflection on art is connected with current life and surrounding reality. Their elements flow into works of art. Artworks are not examined historically (according to the history of a medium, style or individual creative evolution) but as a reaction to the network of object arrangements and functioning discourses that surround artists. Such comprehension of art has made Sztabinski introduce the concept of a 'documental turn'. Moreover, it has been depicted by him that the idea of 'documentation' is getting extended. Therefore, 'transdocumentation' appears. The term allows us to notice the specifics of such contemporary phenomena in which documentation does not only perform an informative function but also gives feedback upon what is documented. It is possible to distinguish many artistic approaches and practices within transdocumentation. One of them is a 'mock-documentary' - an ironic documentation that refers to documentary stereotypes and the audience's trust in the reliability of documents. 'Transdocumentation' as a practice and theoretical scheme, possible when understanding art 'horizontally', reveals a great potential for artistic activities and the critical practice.

18

Foto-medium-art

51%

Olek J.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

149-156

EN

The Foto-Medium-Art Gallery has worked continuously since 1977. For twenty years it was based in Wroclaw and since 2007 in Krakow. During that time, an emphasis was placed on various issues which were reflected by the programme and the way it acted. After the analytical and new media period (in the seventies) there was a time of ‘elementary photography’ (the eighties). However, photography was not the only medium that was exhibited there. Often the expositions, installations and projections were presented according to a programme, such as a series entitled “presence among the stones”. An important initiative was Photoconferences East-West “European exchange” that has taken place since 1989. The largest one happened in 1991. It consisted of an international exhibition “New spaces of photography” and a conference “The ethos of photography”. A dozen or so years ago “Foto-Medium-Art” lost its space and it became a mobile gallery, organising exhibitions and meetings in various friendly places. Finally F-M-A settled in Krakow and at this time important questions arouse: how to find a place for the programme developed over the years in the changing cultural climate especially in times when the most widely used media has changed (digital media replaced analogue)? Is any form of continuation possible, when the former economy of means of the art form of photography has been replaced by developed multimedia and multi-layered image structures? It seems that after the media and elementary periods, F.M.A. has entered an era that is in the process of shaping. In an era, that started after ‘neos’ and ‘posts’, when linear narrations are replaced with mosaic structures of databases, structures consisting of elements that are independent of one another, it is time to reformulate the programme.

19

Działania konceptualne w łódzkim środowisku plastycznym na przykładzie Grupy Konkret

51%

Jabłońska K.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

157-162

EN

The Konkret Group emerged in the spring of 1970. The group exhibited three times in Łódź, and one of their exhibitions was also shown in Sieradz. The group consisted of Aleksander Halat, Romana Halat, Ryszard Hunger, Andrzej Jocz, Zbigniew Kosinski, Andrzej Nawrot, Henryk Strumillo, later accompanied by Konrad Frejdlich and Antoni Szram. Among the group members there were artists who expressed themselves in painting, sculpture and graphics, and also ones who were associated with the creative use of text and language. The group did not have a formal program. The group members agreed, that at this specific time and place one needed to turn to concrete art, that is to concentrate on the form, not forgetting, however, about its social aspect. They perceived a way to develop art by new artistic means, using the achievements of technology and science. They did not support enclosing oneself within one discipline, they rather wanted to show the convergence of the ideas of visual art and other artistic disciplines, such as poetry. The activity of the Konkret Group may be placed on the border of conceptualism and Dadaism, however, the resignation from creating a tangible artwork that happened not sooner than in the last exhibition of the group would favour the previous. Paradoxically, the lack of presence of a recognised artwork in the exhibition of 1972 was caused by the impossibility to realise a specific concrete form. On the other hand, the form that the artists wanted to show was a form of communication, therefore it dealt with a concept, not an object. The other argument to support the conceptual character of the group was the introduction of documentation to the exhibition and the elevating of this aspect to the importance of an artwork, equal to painting. On the other hand – the Dada character of the group’s activities can be seen in the fact that in their ventures they were critical towards the artistic milieu and used ready mades. This group of young artists was open to the novelty factor in art and at the same time, the newest of artistic phenomena and tendencies became for them useful tools amongst others to deepen the essence of art.

20

Dokumentowanie sztuki jako nowa praktyka artystyczna

51%

Dziamski G.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja

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2012

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issue 6

21-27

EN

The most tangible feature of Polish conceptual art at the beginning of the seventies was the rejection of the old language of art (painting, sculpture) in order to reach out for a new medium of the visualisation of ideas. Andrzej Lachowicz saw in this process a transition from manual art to mental art. It was a departure from autographic art, in which artists produced their own individual sign, to allographic art, in which they perform operations on signs. Mechanical registration media (photography, film) made this transition easier and lead to ‘depicturalisation’, or in other words, overthrowing painting as the main medium of visual art and, at the same time, introduced a new art language — the language of semiology. Photography made it possible to talk about art through the language of signs, not through the former language of emotions, experiences and aesthetic values. That new language, that was used more or less aptly by artists of the 70s as: Zbigniew Dlubak, Jan Swidzinski, Jaroslaw Kozlowski, Andrzej Lachowicz, Jozef Robakowski and Ryszard Wasko, turned out to be a significant feature highlighting Polish conceptual art. Photography and sign mutually supported each other in the battle with the old ideas of art. A negative point of reference for the new art language became phenomenology. Phenomenologists take signs as reality, wrote Jan Swidzinski. This mistake was avoided by structuralism, which operates through a neutral and arbitral (systematic) concept of a sign. A sign has an operational character, it is used to explore reality, it also allows for the reformulation of questions posed for art. Instead of wondering about the ways in which art reflects reality, we may ask a different question: how reality is understood by art, what actions are needed to be executed for the process of understanding to take place and, finally, what limits the process? Conceptual art did not devise such a new art formula and one may doubt whether it was its aim. It changed, however, the language which we use to talk about art. It drew artists' attention to the processes of sign-posting, to how art functions in the world of signs. The artists may freely use all available signs, they may transform old signs into new ones (secondary signs), they may give them new meanings through manipulation of the context and discover more or less overt mechanisms of encoding signs that are the discourses hidden behind them. Those discoveries became a permanent contribution of conceptual art to contemporary art practice: thanks to them contemporary art appears to be different than art from before a conceptual turn. Its most important consequence, however, is replacing artworks with art documentation.

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KDO JE CINDY SHERMAN?

DISCOURSIVE SPACES. CONCEPTUAL ART IN 'AKUMULATORY 2' GALLERY (Reprezentacja, podmiotowosc, nieobecnosc. Sztuka konceptualna w Galerii Akumulatory 2)

Sztuka jako wyraz świadomości artysty

Тіла текстів і тексти тіл у постмодерністській російській та українській літературі

K FENOMENOLÓGII UMENIA A K JEJ APLIKÁCII NA KONCEPTUÁLNE UMENIE

Galeria Remont. Nieznana awangarda lat siedemdziesiątych

Sztuka zamiast filozofii

Idea a obraz. Ikonoklastyczny aspekt konceptualizmu

Konceptualizm i sztuka interaktywna. Analiza polskich przykładow

Czy polska sztuka konceptualna ma płeć?

KwieKulik i konceptualizm w uwarunkowaniach PRL-u. Przyczynek do analizy problemu

Protokonceptualizm polski

Medium czy osoba – dylematy sztuki konceptualnej na kilku przykładach

Obraz a idea. Estetyczno-antropologiczne paradoksy sztuki konceptualnej (implikacje ikonoklastyczne)

Konceptualizm jako konceptyzm

Galeria jako zagadnienie artystyczne w sztuce konceptualnej

Dokumentacja a horyzontalny sposób pojmowania twórczości artystycznej

Foto-medium-art

Działania konceptualne w łódzkim środowisku plastycznym na przykładzie Grupy Konkret

Dokumentowanie sztuki jako nowa praktyka artystyczna