Potoczny odbiór sztuki krytycznej w Polsce. Sztuka pretekstem do eksploracji społecznych wartości, norm, stereotypów, doświadczenia życiowego

Abstrakt

Polish art of the last decade of the 20th century – the critical art created, mainly by K. Kozyra, K. Górna, A. Żebrowska, P. Althamer, Z. Libera, G. Klaman, A. Żmijewski and others – has used the methods and the language of the contemporary visual culture. The artworks of these artists focus the interests on the cultural values instead of the aesthetic ones. These elements should have facilitated the reception of the critical movement. However, there are some obstacles. One of them is the fact that experts’ reviews and statements, on which the common participant of the artistic culture can base his approach towards critical phenomena, are not always adequate, as discussions about new ideas in art are often meta-artistic divagations about ethics and morality, whereas the meaning of the piece of art is pushed aside. Media discourse displays only extreme opinions of the audience. Nonprofessional recipient grounds his experience in the most conventional socialized everyday order of values and knowledge about reality. Contrary to experts, the common participant discovers the symbolic in the context of his own experience of body and sexuality, his own „ here and now”. Critical art influences those social structures by deconstructive activities and produces knowledge able to change them. Following Artur Żmijewski, the author claims that artistic discourse is equated with the discourses of politics, religion or science, and gives people a chance to consider mistake, absurd, fear, inconsistency, emotions as the unavoidable and authentic parts of life. Are we able to situate them on the same level as rational science? Is it possible to resign from typical and conventional modes of behavior which simplify interactions? Can we maintain the openness towards polisemic meanings and endless vigilance that is crucial when one approaches critical art? The answers to these questions would provide a good source for social diagnosis of current norms, values, social sensibility which shape our culture.