[POLISH UNOFFICIAL ART – PERFORMANCE] Galeria 80 "akademia ruchu" [Gallery 80 "Academy of Movement"].

Warsaw: Studenckie Centrum Środowisk Artystycznych "Dziekanka", ASP, [1977]. Large octavo (26 × 17.7 cm). Original staple-stitched photo-illustrated wrappers; [16] pp., including 19 photographs, introductory text, and a chronology of the group. Good or better; light wear and chipping to lower right corner and edge of front wrapper. Item #54040

A richly-illustrated catalogue of the activities of “akademia ruchu,” an experimental performance group that was a pioneer in public performance in Poland. Founded by Wojciech Krukowski in 1973, the group’s activities combined visual arts, film, and performance to comment on the most basic social situations such as riding the bus or standing in a queue, working with gestures, printed word, or conversation fragments to defamiliarize everyday life. The catalog includes a list of fifteen members of the group, critical articles by art historians Marcin Giżycki and Jolanta Rębakowska, and a chronology of the group’s activities, including numerous international performances and awards in Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Venezuela among others. The catalog also includes documentation of specific performances, of which there were over 200 in the 1970s.

A graduate of the art history department of Warsaw University, Wojciech Krukowski was a major figure in the independent culture movement. In 1975 he became one of the initiators of Dziekanka Student Art Center (Pracownia Dziekanka) which he directed until 1979. This role led to his collaboration with Solidarność, Poland’s first independent trade union. In 1980 he was authorized by Lech Wałęsa to negotiate with the Polish government about the independent status of student cultural organizations, founding the Solidarity Cultural Center at the “Cora” clothing production plant, another attempt at bringing art closer to life. The Museum of Modern art in Warsaw holds a substantial collection of video documentation of Akademia ruchu.

As of March 2024, not in KVK, OCLC.

Price: €300.00

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