Forms in a Space was inaugurated in the National Museum in Poznań on the 12th of July and lasted until the 13th of September. The curators, Anna Borowiec and Mateusz Bieczyński focused on the outdoor sculptures of Poznań from the 1960s and 1970s. The show was organized by the National Museum in Poznań and the Rarytas Art Foundation.

The exhibition presented real size sculptures, bozettos, and the project sketches of those sculptures. Some projects were realized in the public space. However, some exist only as projects that were never realised. At the exhibition, visitors can see works by 16 artists from Poznań.

The display is varied with archival pictures of sculptures taken by Jerzy Nowakowski and current photographs by Magdalena Andrynowska, that show the present state of the sculptures located in the Cytadela park and Rataje district.

At the show, visitors can see sketches and pictures of Anna Krzymańska's sculpture, The Peacock. This piece won a competition to be displayed in a park in 1961, and its reproduction is currently located in Karol Marcinkowski's Park.

The other important artworks shown at this exhibition are sculptures that were presented at the exposition in front of the Hotel Mercury in the years 1967-1974. The first sculpture that was created for the outdoor display was "Couple under an umbrella", designed and executed by Józef Kopczyński. Currently, people can see this piece in Poznań's Botanical Garden.

Also worth mentioning is a piece named "Seagulls" created by Jerzy Sobociński. It is a significant sculpture as it was the first artwork to be located in the Cytadela Park, an outdoor memorial and sculpture park.

In the late 60s, Poznań city started a big project in the "modern district" named Rataje. It is an iconic example of the socrealistic architecture that was supposed to be "nationalist in form and socialist in the matter". Big block building arose in the city, creating a communal, yet brutal space of living. In the 70’s, the form was ready, so there came a time to fill this neighbourhood with socialist matter. Because of that, the authorities announced two competitions, Rataje ‘73 and Rataje ‘74. Not many sculptures from this time survived, as some people disliked them so much that they destroyed them. Most of the sculptures made of metal were stolen to sell the material they were made of. The survivors are witnesses of the socialist time in Poland and show a difficult and complex relation between Poles, and the socrealistic time.

This exhibition gives an overview of the art from a particular period and city. It presents a resemblance of the old times, providing a bigger image of the Polish public art of the 60s and 70s. It is crucial to notice that, in comparison to the other countries under socialism, the Polish art scene could enjoy a bit more freedom.

At the exhibition, visitors can see abstract forms and figural sculptures showing sportsmen and women (e.g. Józef Kopczyński's The Swimmer), animals and maternity scenes. Figural sculptures, especially ones that show mothers with children, cover a flagship topic of the socrealist time. However, only Polish and Yugoslavian artists could officially show abstract art. This is why abstract sculptures are a unique example of the public pieces created during socialist times.

This exhibition can be considered as an attempt of elevating sculptures that lost their value in the eyes of the people, to the rank of the museum piece. Most of these sculptures over the years became anonymous or forgotten, even though the artists that created them were quite popular and appreciated at the time when the sculptures were created.

It seems that sculptures that used to be a part of Poznań's landscape, over time, become silent ghosts of the past era, that would be rather forgotten by most. Just a few of them still enjoy the attention of passers-by and are in a good state. Rest, literally and metaphorically, becomes a quiet forgotten past.

Bringing old projects and old pictures of sculptures and juxtaposing them with current photos in a museum space gives these pieces a new context. This new setting can be interpreted in two ways.

First, by exhibiting remnants of the forgotten sculptures in the art gallery, curators gave them a new life. They drove the attention of the residents of Poznań to these pieces. Even though these sculptures do not fulfil the aesthetical taste of the modern viewer, they're part of this city’s (art) history and deserve to be noticed. Showing them in the national museum also has an extra meaning. National galleries are, by their name, the places where national heritage is shown. The time of socialism and its art might be considered by many as uncomfortable and unpleasant, but it is still a big part of Polish national history.

Another way to read this exhibition is to consider a museum as a place that shows items from the previous era. When sculptures go (back) to the museum, they become relics of the past that still exist somewhere in the back of the communal consciousness but are no longer part of contemporary life.

Artist Cezara Moraru lives in Iasi, Romania. She has a Bachelor Degree in Visual Arts and Design from George Enesco National University of Arts Iasi and a Master Degree in Language, Literature and Hispanic Civilization from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iasi. The artist paticiped on many group exhibitions like “Jam Session” (Bonn, Germany), “Atelier35” (Victoria Gallery, Iași) and “Visiting Art History” (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iasi). The artist’s solo exhibitions include “Hypostases of the Gaze” (Iași Municipal Museum), „Subjective Substrates” (Meru Gallery) and „Identities” (Victoria Gallery).

The easel works focus on human nature that tends towards continuous dehumanization, despite the technological progress. Cezara sais that the great artists that inspires her work are Victor Brauner and Gerhard Richter. She usually expresses through abstract painting and conceptual works, but sometimes also creates figurative art, when she feels that the figurative expression is needed to render the artistic intention.

Her favorite technique, as she claims, is ink ark. This involves using ink on different types of paper to be able to make different kind of artistic structures. „I prefer ink art because I can use the directed spot, as well as the experimental spot. On text interventions the stain is directed, but it acquires a certain ink identity, so it becomes a spontaneous abstract intention. This technique allows me to create even if my free time is limited. Art is about moments and inspiration and I try to make my works out of every spare minute. If a figurative painting sometimes require weeks of work, ink art gives me the freedom to express myself in a relatively short time”, explains the artist.

The design section of ULUPUDS is an example that convinces us that design shapes the world around us. The present taste of the individual and the individual narratives of the artist focus the attention of the observer, but it also shows the unique way in which a sensation corresponds with the taste of the wider audience and emerges from the created visual identity.

 

What is noticeable is that this year's exhibition shows the propositions of interdisciplinary design, not a manifestation of strictly separate techniques, and hence separate categories of design, but proposes an interdisciplinary position related to the connection and interaction of design disciplines, but also something more interesting - interdisciplinary multimedia communication of art and design.

The first part of the exhibition is a period from Sep 24th to Oct 12th and the other from Oct 15th to Oct 30th.

(Due pandemic situation Student Cultural Center has prescribed dimensions which can not be more than 5 visitors in the gallery at the same time, with wearing masks and maintaining distances.)

What is ULUPUDS?

The Association of Fine Artists of Applied Arts and Designers of Serbia (ULUPUDS) is a unique social, non-partisan organization and a voluntary professional association that creates an environment for free action of independent artists in Serbia. Through the activities of ULUPUDS, independent artists of Serbia exercise their rights both in the field of creativity and the improvement of their social and legal status.

ULUPUDS brings together the most eminent artists (about 1500 members, of which 600 are independent artists) who are grouped in nine different sections: architecture, painting and graphics (applied painting, applied graphics, illustration, caricature, comics, conservation and restoration), textiles and contemporary clothing, scenography and costume design, design (graphic, industrial and visual communications), art photography, ceramics and glass, sculpture section and a section for theory, criticism and art history. The galleries of the Association are: SINGIDUNUM Gallery, Knez Mihailova 40 and the small SINGIDUNUM Gallery, Uzun Mirkova 12, both in Belgrade.

Annually ULUPUDS organizes over forty solo and group exhibitions both in its own and in rented gallery spaces.Traditional exhibitions of ULUPUDS are: May exhibition (review of works of all sections and professions of the Association, held in May-June), an exhibition of newly admitted members, biennial of ceramics in Belgrade, biennial international exhibition Golden Pen of Belgrade (illustration exhibition, October-November), Golden Smile (exhibition of caricatures, October-November), international exhibition of ceramics, Biennial of Ceramics, International Exhibition of Participants in the Ranko Radović Awards, etc. ULUPUDS sends works to various international events: Prague Quadrennial of Scenography and Costume Design, Biennial of Illustration in Bratislava. , and cooperates with related organizations in the field of culture from the country and abroad.In addition to the exhibition activity, ULUPUDS, through its own authoring service, provides artists with conditions for uninterrupted business. ULUPUDS cooperates with related organizations in the field of culture in the country and abroad, exchange proposals, programs, etc.

If you want to find out more, visit their official website:

http://www.ulupuds.org.rs

Date: September 24th - October 12th 2020

Location: Student Cultural Center, 48 Kralja Milana Street, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

The interactive installation called "Disappearing Wall" was located on the Plac Wolności (Freedom Square) in Poznań, Poland. It was presented to the public on the 24th of August and remained there until the 27th of August.

This installation has already appeared in other countries in the European Union, but Poznań was the first Polish city to host it. The idea to create this "disappearing wall" was born in the Goethe Institute.

The wall, situated on one of the most significant places in Poznań, was built with a wooden frame and the "bricks" were also made of wood. It was five metres wide and two metrestall. Six thousandbricks had quotes by famous writers, politicians, musicians and so on. All of them are words that people from all over Europe sent to the Goethe Institute to create this installation. The quotes are in three languages: original, Polish, and German. 

People who appeared in the square were allowed to pick a brick and take it with them home.

In Poznań, it took less than one day to make the wall disappear completely. Just the frame remained, with a see-through window, where the bricks were situated.

The wall wasn't separating anything. It was easy to pass by, and it wasn't very high. That points to the artificiality of the divisions of society, fake borders that divide not only nations but also social groups, families, or individuals. Those borders can be removed with the work of all people.

This installation can be interpreted as a metaphor of a collective effort to remove borders, break down walls. Instead of building the wall, people in a collective effort can remove bricks. They learn about the cultures of othersin the same way. A favourite line from a John Lennon song, a verse from a Goethe book, or a quote from a Virginia Woolf novel - they are not only uplifting words but also symbols of other cultures that we can learn from. A quote from Greta Thunberg also found a place on one of the bricks, reminding us that climate changes require collective actions.

The place this installation was situated is meaningful. Freedom Square is a symbolical place for the Polish fight for freedom from 1918. Here, the people of Poznańalso celebrated after World War II was over. Nowadays it is a place of meetings, Christmas fairs, concerts, but people also gatherhere to protest against the abuse of power and social injustices, in Poland and other countries.

As the installation was founded by the German Goethe Institute, the association with the Berlin Wall is obvious. The wall that for years was separating East and West was removed with the effort of individuals, over social and economic division, brick after brick.

However, in the Polish context, it created another meaning. It is also associated with the song "Walls" that became an anthem of the Polish movement "Solidarność" and is a hymn of the end of communism in Poland.

The wall disappeared very fast. It is a demonstration of disappearing borders between nations, but also between societies. Nowadays, as Poland is divided by complicated political situations, intolerance and LGBT+-phobia, this installation seems to be a significant lesson.

It is not a critical comment for the situation, but rather hopeful proof that tells us there is still a chance for a united society, that can see above divisions, that can raise above traditional narration and deconstruct it, returning a space of freedom to public places.

Nowadays the song "Walls" is sung by Belarusians during their fight for independence. It reminds us all that walls are often invisible, created as a cultural, social or economic construct and it is only with our powerthat we can remove them, brick by brick.

The presence of a frame after removing the bricks from the wall is also worth considering. It can be interpreted as a lasting possibility for a wall to appear in a public space again. It's a visual reminder that freedom is not given (or won) once and forever. Social alertness, consciousness about a current event and constant verifying of the social position of ourselves, but also others are crucial to not miss alarming signals. Freedom is a fluid state, and keeping it requires a never-ending effort by all of us.

This installation shows how important the collectiveis.It can build and break. And the walls that we are all creating don't have to be border walls, or the walls that "protect us" from the Other. The process of building can be used to build houses on ruins, to create a solid society, that has a lot in common, with many cultural differences.

 Pictures: Joanna Kasprowicz