Imagining the Magical Freedom in Poland of the Communist Era: How Ibero-American Literature Influenced the Neo-avant-garde Artists

Acta Academia Artium Vilnensis

Authors

  • Krzysztof Siatka

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37522/aaav.105.2022.112

Keywords:

magical realism, Polish neo-avant-garde, Julio Cortázar, Jorge Luis Borges, 1970s art

Abstract

Analogies can be drawn between the contents of writings by Julio Cortázar and Jorge Luis Borges and Poland’s neo-avant-garde art of the 1960s and 70s, produced in the context of the oppressive reality of a Communist state: the literary category of ‘magical realism’ finds its counterpart in the actuality of an authoritarian regime, which is equally grotesque. The works by Maria Stangret-Kantor, Janusz Kaczorowski, Barbara Kozłowska, Ewa Partum, Zdzisław Sosnowski, Wojciech Bruszewski, or Natalia Lach-Lachowicz and the theoretical views expressed by Andrzej Lachowicz and Andrzej Kostołowski, which resulted from working with language as an artistic means, can be interpreted as expressions of one’s striving for imagined freedom – objections to the manipulation of meanings in the public sphere.

Author Biography

Krzysztof Siatka

(b. 1981, Poland) is an art historian, curator and assistant professor at the Department of Art Sciences of the Pedagogical University of Kraków. As a researcher of neo avant-garde and contemporary art he deals above all with conceptualism and its legacy as well as with the history of exhibiting. Author of the books W kierunku sztuki ukrytej. Historia Janusza Kaczorowskiego (Towards Hidden Art. The Story of Janusz Kaczorowski, 2019) and Neoawangarda w Krakowie. Lata siedemdziesiąte (The Neoavant-Garde of Kraków: 1970s, 2021). Having defended his thesis on the contributions of Kraków’s artists of the 1970s to landmark phenomena of the avant-garde he was awarded the degree of PhD from the Faculty of History of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 2017. Former director of Galeria Foto-Medium-Art (2007–2011) and curator at the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art (2011–2019).

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Published

11/01/2022

How to Cite

Siatka, K. . (2022). Imagining the Magical Freedom in Poland of the Communist Era: How Ibero-American Literature Influenced the Neo-avant-garde Artists: Acta Academia Artium Vilnensis. Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, (105), 231–259. https://doi.org/10.37522/aaav.105.2022.112