Curator K. Stanislawski, "Polish and Lithuanian contemporary art is powerful and interesting" 0

Neringa Krikščiūnaitė
www.kamane.lt, 2016-03-31

In brief: If you ever had an idea to get acquainted with contemporary Polish art, at least a little bit, there is a great opportunity for that - Torun Center for Contemporary Art Signs of Time are exhibiting its art collection abroad for the first time. And for that, they chose Kaunas, Lithuania.

Exhibition Sings of Time is presented in two spaces. The majority of works are exhibited at the Mykolas Žilinksas Art Gallery and a smaller part at the Meno parkas gallery. There are quite a few artworks and their topics range from relationship between female body and a car to Hermann Nitsch's actions and reflections of the art synthesis. We are talking about this exhibition with its curator Krzysztof Stanislawski.

I wanted to know what the main objective in organizing this exhibition was. If the author wanted to show the contemporary Polish art or strengthen the relationship of Lithuanian and Polish artists. The curator says that it was both, "Over the last 10-14 years Polish contemporary art exhibitions in Lithuania were organized only several times. The same situation applies to Poland. This situation is not satisfactory, because we know very little about the contemporary art processes in the neighboring countries. I think we have to work together and share ideas, especially in the field of culture."

Exhibition features a number of artists. I wondered why specifically these artists were selected. Krzysztof Stanislawski says that all the artists and their works were selected from the Torun Centre for Contemporary Arts collection, but it was not an easy job, because there are hundreds of artworks. "In my opinion, only a few dozen of the many works are worthy of attention and exactly those works I tried to select for this exhibition. Without any political, critical, philosophical or pseudo philosophical idea. I simple selected high-quality, attractive and important works of art."

I asked the curator to compare the Polish and Lithuanian contemporary art situation; whether he thinks there are any similarities or differences. Krzysztof Stanislawski answers, "Both countries have an interesting and powerful contemporary art. I am convinced that the majority of young and older artists have a great potential and talent. The problem is that although our art is at a European level, nobody is aware of that. Some artists - like Wilhelm Sasnal or Miroslaw Balka - have a considerable success in the art world, but what about others? Nothing. Our countries are unable to ensure good career opportunities for the artists."


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