gallery of action


  This publication attempts to remind readers of the exhibition titled Struna (String). Mounted fifteen years ago, it survives through remaining photographic documentation.

   As a project, Struna was initiated by Fredo Ojda.  Ojda approached exceptional art theoretician and critic Jerzy Ludwiński about compiling a list of artists who would present works constituting their personal responses to the artistic stance of Jerzy Rosołowicz, who had passed away in 1982.  The exhibition assembled in this manner was presented at the Galeria Działań (Actions Gallery) in Warsaw from May 18th to May 30th of 1988.  It was symbolized by an image that was included in the invitation directed to artists and on display as part of the exhibition.  The image, a photograph staged by Rosołowicz, depicts the artist “playing” a violin without strings.

   This publication includes photographs of the works of all the artists who participated in the exhibit and a section of the brochure published at that time.  The brochure included a text by Jerzy Ludwiński titled Mimikra Neutrdromu (The Mimicry of the Neutradrome) dating from 1968 and supplemented with a Post Scriptum written twenty years later, a text by Zbigniew Makarewicz titled Krople światła (Drops of Light), as well as English translations of both texts produced by Joanna Holzman.

 

   This reminder after fifteen years of both the exhibition titled Struna and the idea of neutral art – devised by Jerzy Rosołowicz and embodied by the show – might elicit the question: “Is now the right time to focus attention on an attitude that so radically avoids all antagonisms?”

   We must admit that in a world full of conflicts, the atmosphere was not right for reflection and art free of any forms of persuasion – neither then, when Struna was originally mounted, nor before that time.  This does not mean that this persuasion-free stance is superfluous nor that we need to postpone taking on such a stance until a distant, undefined future.

 

G.B.

April 2003



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