The paper undertakes considerations on the contemporary condition of rural architecture. The eponymous ‘issue with the countryside’ concerns both the widely criticised character of Polish architecture and rural areas, lambasted in literature and trade magazines, as well as a reference to two publications discussed in the text, released in 2020-2021 Kłopoty ze sztuką ludową by Ewa Klekot and Trouble in Paradise, published in connection with the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. The paper includes a summary of the main threads of discussion surrounding the architecture of the Polish countryside and the accusations levelled against it, such as the disruption of traditional spatial order by new construction, the superficial drawing on the tradition of the Polish manor house, and the superficial character of folk inspirations. Against this background, the author discussed two designs, which are distinguished by their approach to the Polish tradition of rural architecture: the Polska Zagroda (Polish Farmhouse) by bxb Studio Bogusław Barnaś, inspired by traditional Polish homestead, as well as the designs presented at the Trouble in Paradise exhibition in the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.
The category of monumental folklore, used in the article, refers to contemporary monumental spatial objects erected in the Polish province. The text presents and describes several objects from that category, classified into four groups: monumental human figures, monumental plants, monumental animals, and monumental mythical figures. An interpretation of these objects was also made, in connection with the type of contemporary provincial culture they manifest. From the conducted analysis, it can be concluded that contemporary monumental folklore objects are a manifestation of glocal culture, being at the same time ‘immersed’ in two types of culture: the local (traditional) one and the global (modern) one.
The paper explores the ambiguity and ambivalence of the terms ‘ends of the world’ and ‘peripheries’ from the perspective of spontaneous creativity as a characteristic of these locations in both geographic or symbolic terms. By pointing to instances from different places and times, as well as citing conscious, artistic references to them, the author draws attention to flows, grey areas, osmosis and dynamics: both of contractual ‚peripheries’ and of the spontaneous invention associated with them.
The text explores the issue of the uncanny in the context of rural and urban landscape. The question of the Uncanny is discussed in relation to the works of Jentsch, Freud, and Royle. The further part of the text refers to works from the domain of literature and cinema, by means of which the author analyses the thematic scope related to the Uncanny. It shows the countryside as a space in which it is easier to see (or more difficult to ignore) the presence of the unknown.
Putting works of artists with Roma roots in an ethnographic context has a long tradition. It is worth taking a closer look from a political, economic, and cultural perspective: as the use of quasi-colonial procedures. In the article, the author points out several examples of ethnographisation of Roma art and the artists – people with Romani roots – themselves.
The first aim of this paper is to try to establish the sources and currents of the ‘folk history of Poland.’ The interest in the history of the rural populace and the farm serfdom system in artistic and scholarly circles as well as in the public debate became highly evident in the second decade of the 21st century. What sparked this interest? Which threads of history became the most popular and widely discussed?
The second goal is tied to the suggestion that the thinking about the countryside of old was determined by the logic of the ‘ambivalence of the Other’, derived from Rudolf Otto’s reflections on tremendum et fascinosum. Despite the fact that it has led to the formation of ambivalent images of the people, fascinosum clichés prevailed. Did the contemporary scholars manage to go beyond the principles indicated by Otto? The paradoxical effect of the ‘folk history of Poland’, both in its artistic and scholarly dimensions, is the conviction that the former economic and social system also significantly determines the present and future shape of Polish culture.
The article presents the specificity of the functioning of peripheral hubs and the art created there. The subject of this article is an attempt to answer the question of how artistic periphery in Poland perceives the artistic centre, what connects and what divides these two worlds? The article uses the results of empirical research conducted in 2017–2019 among visual artists in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. They give an insight into how local art worlds function, whether the artists belonging to them notice the difference between their own environment and the centre, what they think about the art presented there, as well as what art they themselves practice and recommend. The difference between the periphery and the centre was discussed in reference to the tension between the Modernist search for a universal, timeless language of art and the contemporary blurring of boundaries and definitions of art as well as its involvement in various social areas.
Art Exhibition Offices (BWA) are municipal galleries established since 1949 in major Polish towns and cities, initially as branches or delegations of the Central bwa in Warsaw with its headquarters in the Zachęta Gallery, and gradually as independent institutions: municipal galleries administered since 1999 by the local governments. The article outlines the history of the creation of the network, identifies the typical, top-down proposed, elements typical for all these institutions and highlights their most interesting local modifications. It also shows the transformation of the network and the solutions applied in individual galleries in relation to historical and economic changes. The text is based on archival research conducted by the author between 2014 and 2018.
