summary book of the actions cycle ‘Active Silesia’
year of publication: 2008
size: 15 × 22 cm
volume: 160 pages
edition: 1000 pieces
binding: softcover with flats
reproductions in colour
languages: Polish/English
graphic design and typesetting: Katarzyna Goczoł, Magdalena Piwkowska
publisher: BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice
ISBN 978-83-88254-52 9
Contents:
Stach Ruksza ‘Instead of introduction’
Agata Smalcerz ‘Active Silesia’
Roman Lewandowski ‘In an active, beatiful and modern way’
Marta Lisok ‘Is the spell taken off us?’
Łukasz Karkoszka ’The Shadow of Theatre Province in the Silesian Conurbation’
Małgorzata Tkacz-Janik ‘Silesia is ashamed’
Adrian Chorębała
Documentation part (works, exibitions):
Śląsk Active 1 — artists
Katarzyna Bochenek, Sławek Brzoska, Marek Glinkowski, Małgorzata Jabłońska i Piotr Szewczyk, Ksawery Kaliski, Wojtek Kucharczyk, Marek Kuś, Leszek Lewandowski, Piotr Lutyński, Krzysztof Morcinek, Anna Nałęcka, Krystyna Pasterczyk, Wjosna, Jerzy Ziomber;
Śląsk Active 2 — artists
Michał Bałdyga, Wojtek Bednarski, Katarzyna Bochenek, Tomasz Cichowski, Dziwoląg & Wiedźma, Marek Glinkowski, Janusz Musiał, Michał Kopaniszyn i Matylda Sałajewska, Ksana (Aleksandra Naparło), Iza Ołdak, Justyna Ptak, Sławomir Rumiak, Stanisław Tarasek, Wojtek Wroński;
Śląsk Active 3— artists
Ewa Axelrad, Łukasz Dziedzic, Łukasz Jastrubczak, Szymon Kobylarz, Bartosz Kozieł, Paweł Kulczyński, Marlena Pardel, Joanna Rzepka-Dziedzic, Bartłomiej Stypka, Andrzej Tobis, Joanna Wowrzeczka.
Originator of the cycle: Marek Kuś
Curators: Marek Kuś, Stach Ruksza
Cena: 10 zł (about 2,5 euro)
Visit our bookshop or order by e-mail:
ksiegarnia@bwa.katowice.pl
Śląsk active (3) — is the spell taken off us? After the last edition of the cycle of exhibitions ‘Śląsk active’ the creation of two artists deserve special attention because of the coherence of expression....
Śląsk active (2) — in an active, beautiful and modern way The exhibition ‘Śląsk active 2’ at the BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice is the second presentation of works of the younger generation of artists, who...
Śląsk active (1) — has the qualities of energizing drink of same name It’s refreshing, regenerating and throwing off apathy. The project ‘Śląsk active’ results from the need of revaluation, breaking the stereotypes of two...
The book ‘Active Silesia’ is a summary of the cycle of three exhibitions ‘Active Silesia’, which includes a wide range of photographic documentation of all the presented realisations and a set of texts on the current situation of the young Silesian culture. The book includes both critical texts on individual editions of the exhibition, interdisciplinary analyses of currently observed cultural phenomena — among other things a dictionary of Silesian current music, which describes especially the alternative sounds which are characteristic to the recent decade in Silesian music – and an outline of the state-of-the-art of the regional theatrical scene. Art historians, cultural experts and sociologists are presenting a diagnosis of the place of Silesian artists within the panorama of Polish culture. Their image, non-linear and not strictly connected to cultural institutions, denies the attempts at calling Silesia ‘a cultural desert’.
The title of the cycle of exhibitions that have been constructed from the need of overcoming the dominant stereotype of Silesian art brings to mind an association with an energetic drink. The book consists of four parts printed on four colours of paper. The white part includes critical texts in Polish and English translations. The pink, blue and yellow pages present subsequently the three editions of the exhibition. The colourful pages documenting the exhibitions views are assumed to put us off the routine of watching and place the works within the context of subsequent parts of the ‘Active Silesia’, revealing their internal dynamics. Colour divisions underline the unity of space and time of individual presentations and serve the combination of works within the expositional narration. Vivid colours are reflecting the idea of motion and changes that accompany the blossoming of artistic potential.
The criterion of all the editions of the show was the feature of being active — understood as openness to investigations and the breaking with old schemes. Hence the cover is designed in the form of portfolio in which texts and photographic documentation can be put like loose notes, curator’s notes, sketches of ideas, using the strategy of scattered tracks, which was lying behind the reconstruction of the gallery into a laboratory.
The handy format of the book underlines the temporal character of this mutating compendium of information, a register of topical and quickly changing artistic trends and personalities, which is different from the conservative approach to art. Active Silesia is a kind of dictionary of the newly uncovered evolving language, reported as it breaks, and the only key to it.
