Manual
CC Instructions for Beginners and the Advanced. version 0.6: e-exhibition.
"ManualCC. Game Instructions for Beginners and the Advanced is a Creative Commons-licensed exhibition that has collected game instructions sent in by artists, written on special invitation cards. Visitors can make works on their own according to the instructions provided by the artists. The ManualCC exhibit will be accessible twenty-four hours a day via the Center for Contemporary Arts 'Signs of the Times' web-site. On March 28th at
link*www.csw.torun.pl*http://www.csw.torun.pl**, a three-dimensional virtual gallery will be officially opened, allowing visitors to stroll through a site that has never before been made accessible to a wider public.
Manual
CC came about in the framework of a Museum Curator Studies graduate seminar at the Jagiellonian University in 2007. A group of twelve curators (Marianka Dobkowska, Magdalena Drągowska, Anna Grajewska, Ewa Kobylarczyk, Magdalena Lipska, Cecylia Malik, Noriko Nagashige, Agnieszka Pindera, Monika Rendzner, Anna Sulich, Magdalena Torbus, Marika Zamojska) created this exhibition concept devoted to games and participation, under the supervision of Sebastian Cichocki. The creators applied the Creative Commons license, which allows them to freely duplicate, disseminate, recreate and carry out the project as a whole or in fragments.
To date, Manual
CC has taken the form of exhibitions (Kronika, Bytom and the Bielska BWA Gallery in Bielsko-Biała), books, and calendar-inserts in 'Opcje' magazine. In this sixth edition of the project it will appear for the first time in virtual space. This spring will see Manual
CC make an appearance at the Berlin Biennial, and then at the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Arts in Warsaw.
Manual
CC is an open, conceptual and educational project. This is proven by the very manner of communication between/with artists, via postcards (mail-art), which was a common medium in the 1960's and 70's. This was the spirit in which Pierre Destany organized the Art Concept from Europe exhibition in 1970, which was exclusively made up of works sent in by post, or reconstructed according to mailed instructions.
Oskar Hansen's concept of Open Form (developed by his students, including
Zofia Kulik and
Przemysław Kwiek) is an important point of reference for Manual
CC, coming from the Polish art of the 1970's and based on the desire to subvert the artist's superiority over his/her audience. The artist merely creates a certain 'framework' or 'context for the work,' thus inviting the viewer to take part in the creation of the piece.
The project's roots also go back to
Jarosław Kozłowski and Andrzej Kostolowski's NET, which was meant to become an international, decentralized artistic communication community. The NET manifesto leaflet sent out by the artists stated:
'The NET is non-institutional. It is created in private homes, workshops, and other places where artistic concepts emerge. (...) The NET can be used and duplicated at will.'
This is precisely how Manual
CC will operate, once introduced to the Internet as a virtual exhibition.
The Manual
CC exhibition will be open round the clock, seven days a week, via the new Torun Center for Contemporary Arts 'Signs of the Times' web-site. On March 28th, at
www.csw.torun.pl, the three-dimensional virtual gallery will be opened for viewing; everyone will be able to see the exhibition, get acquainted with its accompanying educational program, and independently compose a catalogue, printing out favorite works and placing them in an original box, which can be created by following the instructions provided.
The soundtrack is the work of Michał Jacaszek, who has created material for this occasion based on an interpretation of the wide range of sounds we hear, paradoxically, when our ears are plugged (even using laryngological instruments in the process)."**Start: March 28th 2008, exhibition runs till: October 31st 2008 at
www.csw.torun.pl.
curator: Agnieszka Pindera
exhibition arrangement: Tomasz Budzyń
soundtrack: Michał Jacaszek
graphic identity: Marianna Dobkowska, Krzysztof Bielecki, Rafał Jara
Opening event: CoCArt Music Festival
Multimedia concerts by international groups, integrating music, images and performance art, March 28th-29th 2008 in the basement of the Center for Contemporary Arts 'Signs of the Times'.
Center for Contemporary Arts 'Signs of the Times'
ul. Waly Gen. Sikorskiego 13
Torun