The Cynics Republic – plac Defilad

The Cynics Republic – Plac Defilad provides an alternative vision of the history of performance art. The exhibition aims to offer a different historical framework for performative practices. Its starting point is the hypothesis that performance art—or at least the performative stance—has existed since antiquity and was especially influenced by one school of thought, namely Cynicism.

The ancient philosophy of Cynicism, with its most famous proponent Diogenes (413–323 BC), maintained that people should live in harmony with nature, reject social categories in favour of imitating animals, shun material possessions and strive for self-sufficiency (autarky). The philosophy was transmitted not so much through concepts as through gestures. It involved public attitudes, relating to others, words in action. This exhibition seeks to bring such philosophical ideas into dialogue with the notion of performance. All the works on show can be productively considered through the instructions left to us by the Cynics.

The five-week exhibition is divided into five themes that relate to the philosophy of the Cynics.

1. Dishonour: a critical alternative to competitiveness

2. Shamelessness: anticipating a state of nature

3. Destitution: autarky, an ethics of animality

4. Ordeal: work freed from its negative, stigmatizing value

5. Disruption: an experimental method for the present

Kontakt was set up in 2004 as a non-profit art association devoted to artistic developments in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe that had not yet been adequately anchored in art history. With its name, the collection pays tribute to artist Július Koller, who started creating his series of works KONTAKT (Antihappening) in the 1960s. His search for new perspectives and alternative ways of acting has inspired Kontakt to take its 20th anniversary as a chance to raise questions about future artistic and institutional scenarios, relating to, and focusing on, the dematerialized works that make up a large share of its holdings. Therefore this exhibition will see none of Kontakt’s artworks travel to Warsaw physically. Instead, it will feature artistic concepts and ideas immortalized in films, sound works, performances and manifestos.

Kontakt will dialogue with the MSN Warsaw collection. This project will not require any tangible artworks. Works from the collections, such as concepts, ideas, and performances documented on paper or in film or photographic form, are only taken as instructions for performances and sound works on site. Thus no physical works will travel, but video and sound files will be digitally transferred.