Non-narative Polish Videoart
Grzegorz Klaman: Critical Art and the Institution Beyond the Institution

The lecture will present the beginnings and development of Critical Art, which was created in Gdańsk by Grzegorz Klaman, who worked both as an artist and as an organizer of many events and gallery institutions, as well as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Documentation of critical works will be presented, including works by the artist made using human organs, which is a phenomenon on a global scale. Klaman, as an organizer, created numerous institutions that always operated independently. The lecture will present the idea and significance of institutional independence in art.

GRZEGORZ KLAMAN
Born 1959 in Nowy Targ. Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Faculty of Intermedia. His activity as an artist and organizer created the theory and practice of Critical Art in Poland. In the works series Emblematy / Emblems, 1993 and Katabasis / Cathabasis, 1993, he used preserved human organs, including intestines, a brain and a liver, as well as an eye, ear and tongue.
He founded and ran the Wyspa Gallery (1985-2002), and continued its activities as the Wyspa Art Institute together with Aneta Szyłak (2004-2016) on the premises of the former Gdańsk Shipyard. He currently continues this activity as the president of the Wyspa Progress Foundation operating on Sobieszewska Island in Gdańsk.
For the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of 'Solidarity' in the year 2000, Klaman constructed a monumental form that stood at the entrance to an exhibition titled Droga do wolności / Road to Freedom held within the Gdańsk Shipyard.

Photo: Grzegorz Klaman, Gate I, II, from: Grzegorz Klaman: Gate I and II - ToTuart