PARTY AT THE ARTISTS' CLUB / scenograpy, costume party / solo show / 2019
Centre of Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland, 27 Mar – 5 May 2019, curator: Marcin Polak, photo: Maciej Landsberg / party documentation / scenograpy documentation
Party at the Artists’ Club, an exhibition by Marta Krześlak in the Project Room, takes the form of party decorations based on the motif of a coral reef on the bottom of the ocean. The point of departure for this exhibition was the artist’s encounter with the work of visual artists working in the communist Poland.
Marta Krześlak and curator Marcin Polak invited Maciej Jasiński, author of stage designs for televised galas and numerous festivals in the communist Poland, including the Kołobrzeg Festival of Soldiers’ Song, as well as Bogdan Mozer, who designed sets for the cult movie from the 1980s, The Academy of Mr. Kleks. As part of the preparations for the show, artist and curator talked to a number of visual artists who were active during the Polish People’s Republic era as well as to researchers interested in the subject. This research will be summarized and the exhibition complemented by a discussion, during which they will try to define the roles of visual artists in the communist Poland and today, and to decide whether such a distinction makes sense at all. The meeting will also be a chance to discuss the conditions of the professional work of visual artists in the Polish People’s Republic and to compare them with those faced by their counterparts today.
The opening of the exhibition will take the form of an eponymous party in the scenery designed and hand-made by Marta Krześlak in collaboration with the invited visual artists. Admission to the party is free and and festivities will last until three in the morning. Aquatic outfits are obligatory.