The starting point for the project called Delusive Orders is the context in which the two institutions that have undertaken it function and perform: namely, Muzeum Sztuki [Museum of Art] in Lodz and Abteiberg Museum in Moenchengladgach. In the case of the museum from lodz this context is its tradition of the constructivist avant-garde and its postwar continuations, while in the case of the Moenchengladgach museum – minimalism and conceptualism of the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition – being an encounter of two museum collections with the works of contemporary artists – is not meant to remind us of those artistic phenomena of the past; instead it focuses on the possibilities of their reworking and bringing them up to date. It presents art which more or less openly alludes to the forms and codes worked out along with avant-garde and neo-avant-garde strategies; however, it alludes to them not in order to perform a kind of a nostalgic celebration, but to recycle them perversely and use them to some very contemporary means indeed.
The basic reference point here are the works of two artists whose lives are a part of the history of both aforementioned museums – Edward Krasiński (1925-2004) and Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976). Their attitudes – both Krasiński’s allusions to constructivism, full of pataphysical cheekiness, and the surrealistic and ironic play that Broodthaers continues with the aesthetics of minimalism and conceptualism – seem to enter into an intriguing dialogue with today’s artistic practices. In order to show how broad and varied the field of this dialogue is, contemporary artists of different ages and origins have been invited to take part in the Delusive Orders project, artists of different bearings and backgrounds. Their selection was not determined by formal affinities but only by the openness and readiness to confront avant-garde (and neo-avant-garde) concepts of their predecessors – along with the history of those two museum institutions, of which they are a part.
The exhibition which opens on December 13th at Muzeum Sztuki [Museum of Art] in Łódź is the first part of the project. The second one will take place at the Abteiberg Museum in Mönchengladbach on March 2nd, 2008. Included in the project are also events at Instytut Awangardy [The Avant-Garde Institute] in Warsaw – a quasi-museum institution, founded in the context of Edward Krasiński’s study, complete with a unique installation by the artist.
Organizers: Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Abteiberg Museum, Mönchengladbach
In collaboration with: Instytut Awangardy, Warsaw
The project is a part of the “European Partnership” series, initiated and supported by the Goethe-Institute and Kunststiftung NRW.
Curators: Susanne Titz, Jarosław Suchan, Andrzej Przywara
IMAGE
Edward Krasiński,
J'ai perdu la fin!, 1969
Foto: Eustachy Kossakowski
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