Self-publishing # 2 | exhibition
The 1990s, observed from a perspective of around a quarter of a century, have now become the subject of study and reflection on the uniqueness of the breakthrough time. They are called “no-time era”, a mythical period of transformation, an era of significant narratives of critical art and momentous confrontations with the new political and social reality. They appear as a turning point, which determined a new course for both artistic activities and thinking and writing about art.
The “Self-publishing # 2” exhibition presents a selection of art magazines published between 1989 and 2004. Most of them were issued by state cultural institutions, some by private publishing houses, and some were independent initiatives focusing on the theory and criticism of art.
Independence and openness to new artistic ideas, as well as the dependence on public institutions and funds form the image of artistic publications at the dawn of postmodern art criticism in Poland.
The periodicals presented at the exhibition are just a fragment representing the lush artistic publishing market of the Polish transformation period. It was on their pages, shaping new forms of writing about critical, feminist, and committed art, that the first attempts to formulate and define postulates of postmodern art appeared. Materials published in them proved to be the key for the era of – hitherto unknown in Poland – writings on culture, authored by outstanding humanists, art critics and theorists. The magazines have become the megaphones for new ideas and intellectual concepts.
Curators: Aleksandra Grzonkowska, Anna Ratajczak-Krajka
Graphic Design | Weronika Lipniewska
Exhibition Design | Florian Tuercke
Production | Bartosz Cybowski | Czapla Dekor
