Artist Talk with Olaf Brzeski

Artist Talk with Olaf Brzeski, on Polish Contemporary Art by Alireza Labeshka

December 17, 2015
University of Tehran, Faculty o Fine Arts

An important aspect of the popularity of Young Polish Art among Western institutions and buyers is the question to what degree this is a seasonal fad, just another “Polish season”, and to what the result of a process of normalization as Polish art moves away from the communist reality and towards active participation in the global circulation of contemporary art. Whereas fads pass quickly in the capricious art world (barring special cases like the fascination with the charmingly ‘alien’ art of the centers of power, like Russia or China), what is important for the YPA is that at least several artists of the generation have developed a lasting presence in the international art world. The Polish art community drew a lesson from rapidly growing and then equally rapidly waning interest in Polish art related to political changes (the rise of Solidarity, the martial law, the fall of communism). The YPA artists build their careers consciously, step by step, supported by the most renowned domestic and foreign institutions, carefully selecting their exhibition venues, publishing catalogs, working together with international curators and critics.

Adam Mazur, “Just what is it that makes today’s Polish art so different, so appealing?”” in Grzegorz Borkowski, Adam Mazur, Monika Branicka, ed., New Phenomena in Polish Art After 2000 (Warsaw: CCA Ujazdowski Castle publication, 2007), P12.