An exhibition of the artists of the Intermedia Department, Academy of Fine Arts, Poznań

The Old Brewery – the Malt House
ul. Półwiejska 42, Poznań, Poland
December 8-31, 2007
Open daily 12:00–19:00

Artists: Mirosław Bałka, Piotr Bosacki, Hubert Czerepok, 4! Group, Bergamot Group, Izabella Gustowska, Leszek Knaflewski, Piotr Kurka, Krzysztof Łukomski, Konrad Smoleński, Sławomir Sobczak, Andrzej Syska,  Marek Wasilewski

Curated by Paweł Leszkowicz

Designed by Raman Tratsiuk

The Empire of the Senses examines the power of the senses and the power over the senses. How else can one capture the work of the artists/educators of the Intermedia Department, Academy of Fine Arts, Poznań? Their art and teaching affect the senses of the beholder.

‘The Empire’ implies rule and control  –  this is a show of instructors of the Academy, learning establishment par excellence. The exhibition reflects (on) artistic education: its bright and dark side.

Why the Intermedia Department? The concept of intermedia was introduced in 1965 by a Fluxus artist Dick Higgins. For Higgins, ‘intermedia’ denoted artworks of mixed traditional media, e.g., at the junction of painting and music, prints and poetry, sculpture and happening. One remove from new media. The intermedia on display here not only combine different techniques of production/expression, but also embrace and celebrate new technologies.

Today’s artistic formation requires the creative knowledge of translating one medium into another and of hybridizing media only to arrive at authoring artworks based on the latest technologies of communication. That is why the Intermedia Department, inaugurated in 2001 by Izabella Gustowska, Piotr Kurka, Sławomir Sobczak, Andrzej Syska, and Marek Wasilewski, offers the following studio programs to students: Interactive, Space Transformation, Intermedia, Multimedia, Performance, Video, and Audio Art Activities.

What are the results of intermedia research? In the perception of intermedia art, the synthesis of different mediums entails the synthesis of the senses. Art is effected by and affects a variety of the senses. Art feels and makes you feel.

The exhibition explodes visuality into a multisensory plenitude. The artworks and their curatorial installation alike bring about the experience of sensual stimulation. At the exhibition’s heart is the art of the five senses and of blending them (synaesthesia).

‘In the realm of the senses’ the show is a laboratory of art’s experimenting with the senses and experimenting with sense. Entering The Empire of the Senses is entering a ‘sensopolis’: the space of a diversity of perceptions-sensations. “The aesthetic experience is preserved and understood as a space for authentic subjectivity” (Julia Kristeva).

The exhibition The Empire of the Senses demonstrates the sensuous, imaginary, and hedonist power of art: art evokes the states of irrationality, ecstasy, loss of rational control. Intensified perceptions-sensations produce an alternative to the all-powerful regime of reason and labor. Artistic education quests for the alternative ways of perception and life. The exhibition changes the way we experience ourselves.
 
- Paweł Leszkowicz

translated by Tomek kitliński