BALTIC CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNIAL

SYBARIS

SZCZECIN, 26.10 - 25.11.2001

 

 

The Fatal Attraction of Civilisation

The art of the turn of the century was a distinctive mixture of hedonistic decadence, vital and metaphysical sybaritism, religious syncretism influenced by both Christian mysticism and pagan mysteries and esotericism, and a deep rooted longing for the brave new world of social utopia.

 

It would be difficult to deny that a hundred years later this singular hedonism seems to be emerging once again. It is not the former aristocratic and sophisticated decadence, though. The colourful world of today's art. can rather be associated with flashy and gaudy gadgets from the supermarket, commercials, and pop culture. Art galleries and other public places are full of eye-catching, showy and enjoyable products that come right from the world of limitless consumption.

Is that just a bitter criticism of consumer society ideology? Or is it just an attempt to embrace the global supermarket of ideas and goods? Is it a fascination of the superficial rejecting the depth that is supposedly responsible for all the bloody ideologies of domination? Perhaps it is the emanation of the desires of transgressing one's boundaries that had never been fulfilled and realised. Or is that an attempt to quiet down the cries of the overpowering boredom breaking into the world of the apparent satisfaction? Maybe that is why the benefactors of our civilisation who do not have to struggle for survival any more must complain about the nothingness of our culture.

Or, perhaps, and this may seem even more probable, nowadays , just like a century ago, in the early days of modernism, the era of manifold interpretations, all of the above explanations are just as valid and can be used interchangeably.

The organisers of the IV Baltic Biennial of Contemporary Art in Szczecin wish to put on display in the space of the galleries and other exhibitions in Szczecin sensual, intriguing, professional and carefully crafted art objects without limiting themselves with any restrictions of the form or genre.

It is the intention of the organisers to make this visually hyper-attractive presentation a kind of a mask under which there is a hidden ambivalent awareness of the optimistic affirmation and the existential concern and social criticism.

Lech Karwowski