Operai dell’arte. Industria e arte nella Repubblica Popolare Polacca - Industry and art in the Polish People’s Republic

The free exhibition at the Polish Institute in Rome, organised in collaboration with the Art Centre Galeria EL in Elbląg, the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, the Archaeological and Historical Museum in Elbląg and the In Situ Foundation in Sokołowsko, uses archival documents to illustrate the dialogue between art and industry in the Polish People’s Republic.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, artists committed to giving art a social function took personal initiatives that involved workers and industrial plants on several occasions. The first example presented to the public is the Biennale of Spatial Forms in Elbląg, conceived by Gerard Kwiatkowski and organised with the support of state-owned Zamech Mechanical Works between 1965 and 1973. Kwiatkowski, an employee at the Zamech factory, convinced the authorities to organise an artistic event that involved the creation of large spatial forms in collaboration with the workers. The exhibition focuses in particular on the first of the five editions (July-August 1965), which saw the participation of Polish artists and foreign scholarship holders. In November 1965, the National Museum in Warsaw organised an exhibition of models and sketches of the works created during the first Biennale, some of which are on display in Rome.

The second example is Konstrukcja w procesie (Construction in process), created in 1981, a few months before martial law was introduced. Organised by the Łódź artistic community and led by Ryszard Waśko, with the collaboration of the Muzeum Sztuki, the Aneks Film Group and the Municipality of Łódź, the event was an important act of support for the Solidarność movement and an attempt to maintain a cultural dialogue with the West in the midst of the Cold War. The municipal transport company MPK granted the use of an industrial warehouse as the venue for the exhibition. The exhibition features Józef Robakowski’s film dedicated to these events and Zygmunt Rytka’s photographs documenting them.

Construction in progress, Lodz 1981, photo by Zygmunt Rytka, In Situ Foundation