The Book at the Museum: Performative Wrocław, 1957–1989

How did performative practices develop in postwar Wrocław, and what place do they occupy in the history of Polish contemporary art? The latest publication by the Center for Culture and Art in Wrocław attempts to answer these questions by reconstructing and reinterpreting the complex artistic processes of the years 1957–1989.

The book “Performative Wrocław 1957–1989” arose from the need to organize the history of the local artistic community of the second half of the 20th century, viewed through the prism of performativity in its broadest sense. Its aim is both to reconstruct artistic events, practices, and initiatives, and to analyze the cultural and social processes that shaped Wrocław as one of the key centers of ephemeral and neo-avant-garde art in Poland.

 

The publication consists of three parts: a chronology reconstructing the field of events and institutions of “performative Wrocław,” a collection of critical studies analyzing selected issues, and a section based on the accounts of participants in artistic life, introducing the perspective of experience and memory—crucial for research on ephemeral art.

 

 

Authors of the texts: Agnieszka Chodysz-Foryś, Marika Kuźmicz, Piotr Lisowski, Zofia Reznik, Wiktoria Szczupacka, Paweł Szroniak.
Participants in the conversations: Ewa Benesz, Michał Bieganowski, Andrzej Dudek-Dürer, Michał Jędrzejewski, Krystyna Kawczak, Halina Litwiniec, Zbigniew Makarewicz, Wojciech Stefanik, Piotr Wieczorek, Igor Wójcik