1, 2: The Crazy Gallery, photos: Jakub de Barbaro 1st Convention of the Consortium for Post-Artistic Practices in the Labirynt Gallery in Lublin, 2017, photo: courtesy of Consortium for Post-Artistic Practices
In the summer of 2016, Szalona Galeria (The Crazy
cultural center visited small towns and villages in
Gallery), a project created by Jakub de Barbaro,
various regions of Poland. Many artists, designers, theo-
Agnieszka Polska and Janek Simon, began in Poland as a
reticians and filmmakers have been invited to
direct response of artists to changes in the country.
cooperate. The gallery, built of several converted
”Current government wants to turn culture into a tool
trucks, organised amongst other things an open-air
for the production of obedience, with no room for
cinema, a bookshop, contemporary art exhibitions,
criticism or the artist’s own opinion. It worries us so
lectures and concerts. The artists, however, did not
much, that’s why we decided to act!” read the descrip-
focus on the presentation of critical works. The
tion of the project on the previously mentioned
democratic dimension of art, accessibility to culture,
platform wspieram.to. For two months, the nomadic
creativity, abstraction, absurdity and art’s capability of being an alternative to everyday life had become essential to them. In the center stood the understanding of the political potential of art as a way of showing how things can be done differently. The organisers tried to choose works that would be likely to break some of the stereotypes about contemporary art, likely to be held by the audience. An example here is Sebastian Buczek, who records music on gramophone records made of beeswax, produced in his own bee hives. The Crazy Gallery was crowdfunded, partly financed by the artists themselves and supported by many local institutions. Documentation of the project, selected objects, installations and scenography were later presented at the final exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Public activities and transcending the gallery context are also the domain of the Consortium for Post-Artistic
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Practices, initiated by Sebastian Cichocki and Kuba Szreder, curators of the above-mentioned exhibition ‘Making Use: Life in Postartistic Times’. The idea of the consortium was presented during the Culture Congress, in a panel discussion dedicated to the involvement of artists in political and social matters. It is an interdisciplinary and informal alliance of art people operating under the slogans: ‘We are realists, we demand the impossible!’ and ‘Imagination is our weapon!’ The composition of the consortium is not permanent and its members are involved in the current, most pressing social and political issues, such as the migration crisis, defence of free courts, fights in defence of women’s rights, the fight for workers’ rights, anti-fascist coalitions etc. Their patron Jerzy Ludwi ń ski, wrote in 1971: “It is very likely that today we are no longer dealing with art. We have simply missed the moment when it transformed into something completely different, something we can no longer label. However, it is certain that what we do today has more capacity and possibilities.” The consortium now effectively mobilises and incorporates students of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, who have previously only passively observed the situation in the country. Furthermore, it consolidates and supports individual artistic actions. The group of students affiliated with the consortium also engages in the establishment of the position of a spokesperson for gender equality at the Academy. Members of the consortium additionally cooperate with