Leszek Przyjemski: Szaleństwo jako Praktyka Krytyczna. Neoawangarda i Polityka
Leszek Przyjemski: Madness as a Critical Practice. Neo-avant-garde and Politics

Summary/Abstract: The article provides an interpretation of Leszek Przyjemski’s art in relation to the category of madness and the figure of a madman. The author indicates the link between Przyjemski’s work and madness/insaneness/mental disorder – themes broadly undertaken and portrayed by the Polish culture of the 1970s. By extracting this specific aspect of Przyjemski’s art, the author is able to present the artist’s activity as separate from the mainstream conceptual art and, what is more, to highlight the distinctive position of the artistic activity by Przyjemski and AnastazyWiśniewski (both co-authors of the Gallery Tak) within the political reality of the 1970s. In particular, the author focuses on the interpretation of hysterics – an issue investigated by the artist and depicted by him as a reaction to the neurotic reality created by the official propaganda on the one hand, and on the other, as an outcome of repression resulting from the supervisory nature of the contemporary authority. Furthermore, the article tackles the relation between Przyjemski’s art and the critical art of the 1990s.

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