ART… as an indifferent reality
18.05-27.07.2024
Opening : Fr. 17 Mai, 17 Uhr

courtesy of ART@Berlin | www.artatberlin.com

The gallery aKonzept, Emmanuelle Rapin and Raphaël Levy present the first part of a series of exhibitions dedicated to the GALERIE ST: PETRI ARCHIVE OF EXPERIMENTAL AND MARGINAL ART (Lund, Sweden). Founded in 1971 by Jean Sellem, it was for over 10 years one of the epicenters towards which the most current international artistic activities converged.

Jean Sellem’s independent spirit, his quickness in organizing events (at least 25 in 1976), allowed for the dissemination of ideas from artists whose experimental activities, the political context in which they lived, constrained visibility. Jean Sellem’s non-commercial gallery was connected to numerous cultural venues and actors in Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe. This very active network was driven by artists, some theorists, and curators at the same time. Artworks and ideas, exhibitions were exchanged and organized through the mail. At a time when artwork was not as strongly considered a commodity, artists did not hesitate to circulate their creations. Communication and dissemination took precedence over the material aspect of the artwork. This is evidenced by the NET manifesto written by Andrzej Kostołowski and Jarosław Kozłowski in 1971: the NET was defined as an open and non-commercial exchange system, to be developed and copied by anyone who wished.

The photographs of Polish, Hungarian, and Czech artists presented in our exhibition were born in this context of ongoing exchange. Some of them formed the emblematic exhibition Contextual Art in 1976 at the St: PETRI gallery. On this occasion, the text defining its aspects, written by the artist Jan Świdziński, was published in English for the first time by Sellem editions.

The collection of works reflects the diverse uses of photography at that time: documenting performances and actions, disseminating concepts, investing in the meaning of words and objects, questioning the photographic medium, exploring the truthfulness of perceptions, capturing the absurdity or modest beauty of the environment.

The restrictive political context of the time in the USSR countries shaped the appearance and dissemination of works and ideas.

The presented photographs can thus be read as reactions to a set of undifferentiated actions arising from a certain context (social, cultural, political) at a certain moment. They are proposals, as is the title of our exhibition „ART… as an indifferent reality“ borrowed from the definitions put forth by Kozłowski in ART… as.
The questions raised by these artists and their proposals, which were little heard in their time, continue in our current environment: awareness of the destruction of nature, social ties, standardization of peculiarities through globalization

Emmanuelle Rapin & Raphaël Levy

Ausgestellte Künstler

Gábor ATTALAI
Zbigniew DŁUBAK
Ferenc FICZEK
Anna KUTERA
Romuald KUTERA
Jarostaw KOZLOWSKI
Teresa MURAK
Lech MROZEK
Ewa PARTUM
Sándor PINCZEHELYI
Petr STEMBERA
Jan SWIDZINSKI
Gábor TÓTH
János URBÁN
Jií VALOCH
Ryszard WAŚKO
Krzysztof WODICZKO