Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. 264. Studia de Arte et Educatione 13. Hide-and-seek: Absence, Invisibility, and Contemporary Art Practices

Abstract

The 13th issue of the Journal of the Faculty of Art at the Pedagogical University of Krakow, “Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. Studia de Arte et Educatione,” addresses invisibility and absence in contemporary art practices in widely understood public sphere, where the latter concerns both urban and rural space, the Internet, as well as museums and galleries, public collections of contemporary art, art festivals and other events. Authors featured in this volume investigate those artistic and institutional practices that seek to achieve social efficacy and presence, yet their less conspicuous existence is not considered a failure. In this issue, we are interested in those approaches as well as individual and collective efforts that question the omnipresent quest for visibility. This attitude may be manifested in negating the market and the conception of artwork as commodity, or in a dismissal of galleries and museums. Yet, it may also be expressed in the artist’s approach – his or her state of mind – of being authentically exhausted with and distanced towards fame and recognition despite being a successful player in the world of high-budget commissions and festivals of art in public space. We are interested both in the intentionally orchestrated gestures of disappearance, as well as in the “dark matter” of art – this group of countless and anonymous “dogsbodies” of culture. In recent decades, calls for invisibility, absence or withdrawal have been also voiced by institutions involved in exhibiting art. We are interested in initiatives undertaken in this sphere, as well as attempts to withdraw from it, as exemplified by the recent Biennale de Paris, which presented an alternative to the “cyclical” festivals of art. Another important issue is the presence of works of ephemeral and dematerialised nature in public art collections. In this context, we would like to investigate institutional mechanisms that allow them to include such projects in permanent collections. We wish to highlight the commonly unnoticed work of curators and completely invisible conservation practices. In this issue, we wish to consider whether all those practices are able to provide merely a substitute for a “real,” institutionalised and commodified culture? Or, on the contrary, in the media-dominated world, where everyone is truly visible and Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame is so much more than just a phrase, can efforts to be visible and retain material permanence be seen as largely anachronistic, while the most valuable qualities are anonymity and transience? Or, perhaps, this is merely another game and another strategy to – just like Banksy – enter the artworld through the back door, through the gift shop?