27.11.2008, at 6 p.m.

 

Curator: Daniel Muzyczuk

 

The key question to understand the role and the characteristic of public art is the way we define the public space. In theory and in the critics of contemporary art, often wrongly however, our attention is turned to spatial aspect of art in public spaces. We hear of open spaces, of going out of museums, of discovering new spaces for art. But in this respect we may overlook the issue of the space being public, which can be understood as a group of people using the place, as well as, a specific way of using it. Public space is a dynamic bundle of social, political and cultural practices. Artist deciding to create public art takes the risk of working inside of this fluidic universe. He stimulates, questions, criticizes and experiments with old and new forms of human cohabitation in space, influences its shape. Instead of creating artifacts, artist, using beuysovian figure, co-creates new forms of people's gathering, and art releases its public potential.

 

Kuba Szreder - graduated in sociology at Uniwersytet Jagieloński. For years, he's been working as a curator and a creator of interdisciplinary projects, bordering art, thought, social critics and political activity. He is widely experienced in creating projects in public spaces, he was the curator of the conference: “Opening space. Localization of public art” held in Warsaw in autumn 2007. As an author and an editor he cooperates with "Obieg" and "Ha!art" publishing house in Cracow which has published his book " Futurism of Industrial Cities".