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CONTEXTUAL ARTEXHIBITION AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY UNIVERSITY BUILDING, 3RD FLOOR. WEEKDAYS 9:00-15:3005.02- 05.03.1976
ZBIGNIEW DJUBAK
JOZEF ROBAKOWSKI
RYSZARD WASKO
WOJCIECH BRUSZEWSKI
ROMUALD KUTERA
ANNA KUTERA
HENRYK GAJEWSKI
LECH MROZEK
JAN SWIDZINSKI
ANDRZEJ JORCZAK
Galerie S:t Petri in Lund, in collaboration with the Institute of Art History, has gathered the group around “Contextual Art” from Poland for its first major exhibition.
During the period 5 February – 5 March 1976, works by ten experimentally working artists from different parts of Poland will be shown at Universitetshuset, 3rd floor.
At the same time, one of the members will present a separate exhibition at Galerie S:t Petri from 6–18 February.
In addition to these two exhibitions, Galerie S:t Petri is organizing a conference on contextual art at Malmö Konsthall on Monday, 9 February at 6:45 p.m., including lectures, discussions, film screenings, and video presentations.
It is the first time that this group gathers for an exhibition based on a manifesto of contextual art, developed by art historian and theoretician Jan Świdziński.
According to Świdziński, the ideas of this form of art emerged at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s through conversations among various artists — mainly those who met around Galeria Recent Art in Wrocław, Remont Gallery in Warsaw, and the Workshop of Film Form in Łódź.
The artists discussed various problems within art and felt that conceptual art — “idea art” — had reached its end. According to Świdziński, something stronger had to grow out of it; it was time to move forward.
He therefore worked both theoretically and practically to formulate a new program, which we can now take part in in Lund and Malmö.
In previous years, the group organized two symposia on experimental art in Warsaw and Gdańsk. Several theoretical discussions also took place.
Using contemporary media — photography, film, video — these contextual artists shape reality.
Jan Świdziński states:
“It is the context, the situation, that determines what is art.
It is the situation that tells us what art is.”
Contextual Art
