English
Deutsch
until 27.07. | #4291ARTatBerlin | Galerie aKonzept shows from 18. May 2024 the group exhibition ART… as an indifferent reality.
Galerie aKonzept, Emmanuelle Rapin and Raphaël Levy present the first part of a series of exhibitions dedicated to GALLERY ST:PETRI ARCHIVE OF EXPERIMENTAL AND MARGINAL ART (Lund, Sweden). Founded in 1971 by Jean Sellem, for more than 10 years it was one of the centers where the most current international artistic activities converged.
The independence of Jean Sellem’s mind, his speed in organizing events (at least 25 in 1976), allowed the dissemination of ideas from artists whose experimental activities and the political context in which they lived limited visibility. Jean Sellem’s non-commercial gallery was connected to many places and cultural actors in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe. This very active network was animated by artists, some theorists and curators alike. Works and ideas, exhibitions were exchanged and organized by post. At a time when the work of art was not so much seen as a commodity, artists did not hesitate to circulate their creations. Communication and distribution took priority over the material aspect of the work. The NET manifesto, written by Andrzej Kostołowski and Jarosław Kozłowski in 1971, testifies to this: The NET defined itself as an open and non-commercial exchange system that could be developed and copied by anyone who wanted it.
The photographs by Polish, Hungarian and Czech artists presented in our exhibition were created in this constant context of exchange. Part of them formed the groundbreaking exhibition Contextual Art from 1976 at the St: PETRI Gallery. On this occasion, the text that defined its aspects, written by the artist Jan Świdziński, was published for the first time in English by Sellem.
The totality of the works reflects the variety of uses of photography at this time: documenting performances and actions, disseminating concepts, interpreting the meaning of words and objects, examining the photographic medium, exploring the veracity of perceptions, capturing the absurd or modest Beauty of the surroundings.
The restrictive political context of the time in the countries of the USSR shaped the mode of publication and distribution of the works and ideas. The photographs presented can therefore be read as reactions to the entire spectrum of undifferentiated actions from a specific context (social, cultural, political) at a specific point in time. They are suggestions, as the title of our exhibition “ART… as an indifferent reality” shows, taken from Kozłowski’s definitions in “ART… as”.
The questions raised by these artists and their suggestions, little heard in their time, continue in our current environment: awareness of the destruction of nature, of social bonds, of standardization of particularities through globalization.
Emmanuelle Rapin & Raphaël Levy
Exhibited artists
Gábor ATTALAI
Zbigniew DŁUBAK
Ferenc FICZEK
Anna KUTERA
Romuald KUTERA
Jarostaw KOZLOWSKI
Teresa MURAK
Lech MROZEK
Ewa PARTUM
Sándor PINCZEHELYI
Petr STEMBERA
Jan SWIDZINSKI
Gábor TÓTH
János URBÁN
Jií VALOCH
Ryszard WAŚKO
Krzysztof WODICZKO
Vernissage: Friday, 17. May 2024 from 5 pm
Exhibition period: Saturday, 18. May until Saturday, 27. July 2024
To the Gallery
Title image caption ART… as an indifferent reality, © 2024 Galerie aKonzept
Exhibition ART… as an indifferent reality – Galerie aKonzept | Zeitgenössische Kunst | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Galleries Berlin | ART at Berlin
