"For Kids and Adults" Exhibition 2011, photo: press materials
"Man only plays when
In the full meaning of the word he is a man and he is only completely
A man when he plays"
F. Schiller
"For Kids and Adults" exhibition features artists from Poland and Serbia, as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Ukraine, Belarus and countries of Central Europe which share a common historical and social experience. Therefore it symbolically derives from a political and social context of two post-communist countries, their previous systems, a certain remembrance of them and the passable remembrance itself but also from the transformation and redefinition of what we originate from, what we carry in ourselves and what we create.
The exhibition undertakes the subject of fun and play - that which the human community could not exist without. What is interesting is the significance of space (whether real or virtual) in its dynamics - the emergence, integration, modification and decomposition - and the defining spontaneous and structured (games) ludic transactions. Fun is still associated with the culture of leisure, in modern societies separated from productive issues and sort of moved away in to the sphere of private and frivolous matters. Social experience of the last decades however urges us to view this separation in a critical way and to see fun/play as an inspiring being in which we operate independently of social control and an individual or collective purpose giving us the desired space of freedom.
By analysing culture as a system of rules, hierarchy, behaviors, decisions, manipulation and knowledge accumulation it is possible to define fun/play as doings through which we can make transfers and operations within the system. The fun/play understood this way is created by the enviroment, composed of space (political, social and/or personal, of the community and individuals) and at the same time the aforementioned fun/play has major impact on this enviroment. Entertainment refers to the movement, view, experiments, creativity, which are the "tools" that can be used in operations of the (possible) process.
The projects and works proposed by the invited artists reveal a philosophical, aesthetic but also a formative and political dimension of fun/play, the significance of art in public spaces and its critical character. The massive update of concepts on fun and playing in various domains such as literature or architecture coincides with significant 80's and 90's liberation changes (political and social) in this part of Europe. The cricital and social potencial of the game was crucial for art referring to the Situationists (artistic groups like Orange Alternative or Luxus based on their experience) revealed its subversive edge. By loosely relating to the historical contexts of fun/play (already described by F. Schiller as a "game drive"), the exhibition reaches for its political potential of "action" and the transactional character creating a community.
The exhibition also consists of seminars, lectures and workshops for children and adults.
Artists: Nikos Arvanitis, Hubert Czerepok, Marko Crnobrnja, Marija Đorđević, Petra Feriancova, Karolina Freino and Kama Sokolnicka, Nenad Jeremić and Dušan Jevtić, Vedran Perkov, Aviv Kruglanski and Vahida Ramujkić, Joanna Rajkowska, Mića Stajčić, Katarina Šeda, Janek Simon, Pedrag Terzić, Miloš Tomić, Vova Vorotniov, Zorka Wollny and Martin Zet.
Curators: Dušica Dražić, Anna Mituś, Una Popovic (MoCAB) and Joanna Stembalska.
The "For Kids and Adults" exhibition opens at the Vanguard BWA Gallery in Wrocław on the 7th of September 2011 and runs through the 28th of Septemeber 2011. The exhibition then is on display at the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Belgrade on the 4th of November 2011 and runs through the 4th of December 2011.
Vanguard BWA Gallery
ul. Wita Stwosza 32
50-149 Wrocław
www.bwa.wroc.pl
Salon of Museum of Contemporary Arts
14 Pariska Street
Belgrade
www.msub.org.rs
Source: press materials.