From "naive" to outsider
What is outsider art today?
The first meeting accompanying the “Why We Have Wars” exhibition, examining what outsider art used to be and what it is now.
Defining creative work that emerges outside the main art stream has been a problem since avant-garde artists developed an interest in it, which was about a hundred years ago. This is why we have so many names for it: primitive, naive, amateur, raw, unprofessional art, art brut or outsider art. Regardless of its name, this kind of art stays on the sidelines of the interests of art historians and contemporary art institutions, only finding its place in institutions devoted to art brut (like the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, which houses the collections and ideas of Jean Dubuffet) or in ethnographic museums.
What meaning does the Polish tradition of “art deemed naive” have, called so by its greatest advocate, prof. Aleksander Jackowski? What is outsider art today and is it correct to call it that? What is a suitable place for it to be shown? And what should be its place in the landscape of contemporary culture? Marek Beylin will discuss this with our guests: Małgorzata Szaefer - curator of art brut exhibitions and director of “tak” gallery in Poznań, Ewa Klekot - anthropologist, and artist Jacek Markiewicz.
