[POLISH NEO-AVANT-GARDE AND CONCEPTUALISM] IV Biennale Form Przestrzennych: Zjazd Marzycieli [IV Biennale of Spatial Forms: Convention of Dreamers]. Five catalogs.

Elbląg: Galeria-EL-Elbląg, 1971. Oblong octavos (21 × 24.5 cm), created from card stock printed to rectos and versos, folded once or twice to create a pamphlet with text and photographs. Of the five, four catalogs are lightly toned, still about very good. One folder with abbrasion affecting text to front cover; else internally very good. Item #54326

Five catalogues from the 1971 Biennale of Spatial Forms held in Elbląg, Poland (1965–1973). The brochures present artist bios and reproductions of works of five of the 27 participating artists: Antoni Dzieduszycki (1937–1937), Barbara Kozłowska (1940–2008), Jarosław Kozłowski (b. 1945), Zbignew Makarewicz (b. 1940), and the artist R.K. Sokołowska (possibly working under pseudonym), of whom nothing is known. The event was initiated by Galeria EL, founded in 1961 by Gerard Kwiatkowski. Operating to this day in the building of a former church and Dominican monastery, the gallery significantly contributed to the development of conceptualism in Poland.

Conceived in the Constructivist tradition, the idea of the inaugural 1965 Biennale of Spatial Forms was to connect the artists and workers, enabling the creating of metal sculptures, or “spatial forms” at the ZAMECH Mechanical Works to be installed around the city of Elbląg. The founder of Galeria EL and the Elbląg Biennale, Gerard Kwiatkowski (1930–2015) envisioned a radical experiment inspired by the historical avant-garde. “The artist was supposed to leave his atelier and supported by engineers, technicians and laborers co-create a spatial form. In this way, the idea of the 1st Biennale appears to be an innovative experiment, considering the modern form of artistic patronage by a mechanical plant as well as the incorporation of the works of art into ordinary life” (See Elzbieta Blotnicka-Mazur, “The Image of Art Between Ideology and Modernity” in ARTisON, 2019, no. 9, p. 99). The IV Biennale in 1971 was the largest of the five, with the concept of the Biennale evolved to focus on artists whose work did not fit the traditional artistic classifications. Instead of creating sculptures, the 27 participating artists presented lectures, readings, descriptions of projects presented with models, manifestos, photographs, and video works. Because of the ephemeral nature of most of the works the 1971 Biennale was titled “Meeting of Dreamers”. A collection of ephemeral materials presented by the artists at this Biennale was published by Kwiatkowski at Galeria EL in five issues of a magazine titled Notatniku robotnika sztuki [Notebook of an Art Worker] as well as in these individual folded catalogs for each participating artist.

Rare; as of March 2024, KVK, OCLC show no copies outside Poland.

Price: €1,000.00

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