Tectonic Movements. On the artistic symptoms of the Transition

This tectonic metaphor allows us to go beyond our narrow understanding of the Polish Transition as having been an unequivocal breakthrough that took place in 1989, transforming the political and economic landscapes. The Tectonic Movements exhibition looks at the transition as a process: the persistent clash and penetration of two systems, the destruction of the old order and the emergence of a new one. In the 1980s and 90s, the tectonic plates of the East and West pressed against each other to create a new rock formation, being the periphery of global capitalism. Before this came to pass, however, a movement was underway: ambiguous, delirious, sometimes violent, and always full of latent tension.

In 1991, Zbigniew Sajnóg declared that “Art is a sensitive barometer of the state of humankind, a preconceptual probe.” And indeed this exhibition perceives art in a similar way, as a symptom of change, a visual testimony, and an expression of our time. As an exhibition, Tectonic Movements pursues two planes of inquiry. The first concerns changes in the sphere of the spirit, whereas the second pertains to matter itself. The exhibition endeavors to encapsulate this duality through several dozen works, many of them shown here for the first time, accompanied by archives and documents of social life. From these pieces, the main trajectory of the Transition emerges: marked by a movement from hope to disappointment, from diversity to unification, and from activity to stagnation.

artists

Jacek Adamas, Paweł Althamer, Andrzej Awsiej, Rafał Bujnowski, Faustyn Chełmecki, Ewa Ciepielewska, Jerzy Czuraj, Andrzej Dudek-Dürer, Edward Dwurnik, Egon Fietke (born Andrzej Miastkowski), Jarosław Fliciński, Galeria Działań Maniakalnych (Krzysztof Skiba), Władysław Hasior, Paweł Jarodzki, Joanna Kabala, Marek Kijewski, Kijewski/Kocur (Marek Kijewski, Małgorzata Malinowska), Grzegorz Klaman, Leszek Knaflewski, Paweł „Konjo” Konnak, Paweł Kowalewski, Jarosław Kozakiewicz, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Jacek Kryszkowski, Zofia Kulik, Paweł Kwiek, Przemysław Kwiek, Zbigniew Libera, Marcin Maciejowski, Piotr Młodożeniec, Jarosław Modzelewski, Teresa Murak, Yach Paszkiewicz, Praffdata, Mariola Przyjemska, Krzysztof Raczyński, Marek Rogulski, Wilhelm Sasnal, Michał Sidorczyk, Marek Sobczyk, Jacek Staniszewski, Roman Stańczak, Kazik Staszewski, Lech Emfazy Stefański, Karol Suka (born Karol Kazimierski), Eugeniusz Szczudło, Jerzy Truszkowski, Piotr Uklański, Zbigniew Warpechowski, Wspólnota Leeeżeć, Piotr Wyrzykowski, Yo Als Jetzt, Marcelo Zammenhoff (born Piotr Wygachiewicz), Ziemia Mindel Würm, Alicja Żebrowska, Artur Żmijewski