Socially-engaged art is gaining speed as the world looks to the document as a credible source of information regarding an event or circumstance. Warsaw's Centre for Contemporary Art delves deeper into the realm of the document through an extended programme of exhibitions placed within a practical and theoretical context, focused around the works of Polish and foreign artists and documentalists.
"Missing Documents. Photographs of the Polish Transformation after 1989" is the first exhibition in the series, presenting works by some of Poland's most renowned photographers across generations - Anna Beata Bohdziewicz, Chris Niedenthal, Tomasz Tomaszewski, Wojciech Wieteska - showing a country immersed in an economic, social, and cultural crisis, in the process of discovering its identity between "real-socialism and turbo-capitalism". Socially engaged photojournalism by Maria Zbąska, Łukasz Trzciński, Maciej Pisuk is presented alongside documentary typologies shot at arm's length - Wojciech Wilczyk, Konrad Pustoła - which ultimately create a panoramic portrait of Polish society at the turn of the millennium.
The group of photographers from outside of Poland - Carl de Keyzer, Allan Sekula, Mark Power, Rineke Dijkstra, Zoe Leonard give a glimpse of what the transformation looked like to the outside world, presenting it against the backdrop of global change.
According to the exhibition curators, the Polish title of the show "references a Polish 'new wave' book by Julian Kornhauser and Adam Zagajewski and signalises a move away from self-involved Parnassianism and focus on individual issues of contemporary art in favor of reality, the conditions and manner of its representation". The exhibition expands the discourse on the role of photography in contemporary culture with experts and critics in the field, as well as the state of Poland's intelligentsia today. It is accompanied by a film programme of recognised documentary works from the Polish School, along with meetings with artists and theoreticians.
Curator: Adam Mazur
Artists in the exhibition: Anna Beata Bohdziewicz, Rineke Dijkstra, Mariusz Forecki, Piotr Janowski, Carl De Keyzer, Andrzej Kramarz / Weronika Łodzińska, Witold Krassowski, Zoe Leonard, Chris Niedenthal, Maciej Pisuk, Mark Power, Wojciech Prażmowski, Konrad Pustoła, Allan Sekula, Juliusz Sokołowski, Michał Szlaga, Tomasz Tomaszewski, Łukasz Trzciński, Tomasz Wiech, Jerzy Wierzbicki, Wojciech Wieteska, Wojciech Wilczyk, Monika Zawadzki, Maria Zbąska
The exhibition opens on the 3rd of February at 6:00 pm and is on view through the 15th of April, 2012. The centre's Kino.Lab cinema is also screening a series of films as a supplement to the exhibition, running through mid-April. Featured films include "PRL De Luxe" by Edyta Wróblewska, "Pilgrimage" by Paweł Althamer and Artur Żmijewski, and "Ballad about a Goat" by Bartosz Konopka.
For more information on the exhibition and screening programme, see: csw.art.pl
Source: Press release
Numbnail credit: Chris Niedenthal, "Strike in the Gdańsk Shipyard, May 1988", 1988. Strajk w stoczni im. Lenina w Gdańsku, maj 1988" © Chris Niedenthal