| Cracow Hosts Print Triennial. |
Cracow is hosting its International Print Triennial, a series of exhibitions celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. The event's creator, painter and graphic artist Witold Skulicz says that the triennial's momentum and international recognition have surpassed his expectations.
Cracow is now a leading international graphic art center, Skulicz says. Three years ago, critic Richard Noyce noted that the triennial was of fundamental importance to the graphic world and contemporary art. He added that the event thrived on the energy of artists worldwide, in addition to being "a medium that makes it possible to analyze and describe the changing nature of art."
In the early years of the event, artists like Henry Moore, Zao Wouki and Marino Marini submitted their works to the competition as a sign of solidarity with artists cut off by the Iron Curtain. The event changed as the years went by. Launched in 1966, it was held every two years before switching to a triennial format. This year's event has attracted about 4,500 submissions from across the world. Three hundred selected works were presented collectively at Bunkier Sztuki (Art Bunker). "A Self-Fulfilling Act," a digital work by Belgium's Ingrid Ledent, took the Grand Prix award. Traditional techniques such as woodcut, copperplate engraving and etching are increasingly accompanied by "new media" such as offset and computer prints. This year an animated cartoon was even submitted to the competition.
Of special note among the 30 or so shows held as part of this year's triennial is an exhibition of works by Canadian artist Davida Kidd at the International Culture Center (MCK) in Cracow (25 Rynek Główny). Kidd won the Grand Prix award at the 2003 triennial. The center regularly holds exhibitions dedicated to past winners. To date it has displayed works by Gunter Dollhopf, Toshihiro Hamano and Mersad Berber.
A total of 40 works by Kidd were displayed, including her flagship series Base Imprints and Core Dump as well as "Navigator," a work awarded a prize in Cracow three years ago. The Canadian artist combines computer photography with traditional graphic techniques. Her world is sometimes terrifying and populated by automatons with human features ("Cathy's Favorite Clone"). In a catalogue accompanying the exhibition, Skulicz writes that Kidd's figures and scenes are "full of internal tension-alarming, even ominous." He asks, "What is Davida afraid of? What is it that she sees in her dreams: a horrifying past or a horrifying future?" The message of some of her works is so ambiguous, Skulicz writes, that "one can't help asking if she finds this vision of an 'alphadigital' world amusing or perhaps terrifying."
Through Oct. 29, The Cyclist-Etchings from 1957-1971 series by Mieczysław Wejman will be on display at the International Culture Center in Cracow. Wejman is a teacher at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts as well as a painter, graphic artist and book illustrator.
Also worth seeing is an exhibition of works by Jan Panek (1918-2001) at the National Museum through Nov. 5. The artist is famous for his black-and-white woodcuts, most of them portraits or self-portraits, in which the artist's face takes different forms, from those of old men to female prostitutes.
Edyta Gajewska
(źródło: http://www.warsawvoice.pl)
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