A Way of Life Exhibition: The Invisibility of Artistic Labour after the Period of State Socialism in Poland

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37522/aaav.118.2025.317

Keywords:

artistic labour, invisible labour, CCA Łaźnia, neoliberalism, state socialism

Abstract

The article examines the invisibility of artistic labour in neoliberal Poland after 1989. It focuses on the exhibition A Way of Life (Sposób na życie), which took place at Łaźnia Center for Contemporary Art in Gdańsk in 2002. Rather than presenting traditional works of art, the exhibition showcased the outcomes of commercial commissions created solely for profit. The article considers A Way of Life not only as a reflection of understanding artistic labour as non-work, but also as a starting point for reflecting on the cultural model lost after the fall of communism.

Author Biography

Jakub Banasiak, Faculty of Artistic Research and Curatorial Studies, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw

PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Faculty of Artistic Research and Curatorial Studies. His research focuses on the state art system during the socialist period and on art of the post-communist era of transformation. He is the author of Proteuszowe czasy: Rozpad państwowego systemu sztuki 1982–1993 [Proteus Times. The Decay of the State Art System 1982–1993] (2020), which was nominated for the Jan Długosz Award. He is a member of the editorial board of the academic journal Miejsce and editor-in-chief of Szum art magazine. He has published widely in both art criticism and academic writing and curated the exhibition Tectonic Movements at the Museum of Art in Łódź (2022), presenting his research on Polish art and art infrastructures of the 1980s and 1990s.

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Published

21/12/2025

How to Cite

Banasiak, J. (2025). A Way of Life Exhibition: The Invisibility of Artistic Labour after the Period of State Socialism in Poland . Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, (118), 183–212. https://doi.org/10.37522/aaav.118.2025.317

Issue

No. 118 (2025): The Art–Labour Relationship in Contemporary Art

Section

Articles

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.