The exhibition that could be consider partially a outcome of the workshops and surely an important part of the whole project was open on 23th of Nov in F.A.I.T. gallery. Check some photos from the opening. Soon more I'll published a full documentation.
F.A.I.T Gallery, November 19–30, 2015
opening: November 19, 19:00
visual essay / “W miasto”, film by Anna Janczyszyn / mural by Martin Lukáče
To account for the reality of the 1990s in the countries of the former
Eastern Block, Jürgen Habermas coined the term the rectifying
revolution. The very terms: “revolution,” “velvet revolution,” and the
Polish notion of “transformation” still remain debatable. At the same
time, they do capture the variety of ways in which particular countries
reviewed their communist past, seeking their way outside the Iron
Curtain. The specificity of the rectifying revolution can be found in
its lack of concrete postulates or clear visions for changing reality,
which characterised major revolutionary projects such as the October
Revolution or the French Revolution. The goal of creating visions of a
better, even utopian future was reduced to the wish to reach the living
standards of the rich West, to achieve its colourful prosperity and
idealised democracy. The much desired West “flooded” the neglected East
with the blessing of VHS cassettes, fake shoes, cheap sunbeds and
businessmen in holey socks. An exotic mix of the 1990s. Post-communist
greyness tinted by the new democracies with willow-green and purple. As
the Croatian sociologist Boris Buden aptly defined it: “the misery of
catching up.”
The exhibition is a visual essay constructed on
the basis of books and other materials, addressing the specificity of
the final decade of the 20th century. It is complemented with two works
that allude to the 1990s – the “liberated” Poland after the Round Table
and the infamously divided Czechoslovakia. It is also a result of
curating workshops that took place on November 23–24 at the Arteteka of
the Voivodeship Public Library in Krakow with the participation of
Hubert Gromny, Sonia Kądziołka, Magda Klimkowicz, Karina Kottová,
Wiktoria Kozioł, Mateusz Okoński, Pavel Sterec, Zuzana Jakalova and
others. I would like to thank all of them.
concept: Piotr Sikora
support: Magda Klimkowicz
Organised as part of the Scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
fot. Magdalena Klimkowicz
