Sacrum - przekroczenie - zaangażowanie w sztuce Pawła Althamera, Zuzanny Janin, Katarzyny Kozyry, Artura Żmijewskiego
Sacrum - Transgression - Commitment in the Art of Althamer, Janin, Kozyra, and Żmijewski

Summary/Abstract: I start with an argument contesting an often encountered view on contemporary art that artists interested in the sphere of the sacred do not relate to the real world and common social problems. I also discuss the situation of art in Poland after 1989. I go on to discuss the art of the Polish contemporary artists: Paweł Althamer, Zuzanna Janin, Katarzyna Kozyra, and Artur ¯mijewski, claiming that it is justified to speak of an emerging aristic movement. I point out some common features of their work, ie. quest for variously perceived sacrum; investigation of alternative states of consciousness; interest in the body and carnality; involvement with the present, the commonplace, the social; (auto)therapeutic actions; curiosity about death; transgressive activity. I conclude with a rough interpretation of this art in the light of anthropological and sociological ideas (V. Turner and A. Giddens).

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