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This book presents and analyzes artistic interactions both within
the Soviet bloc and between the Western bloc between 1945 and 1989.
During the Cold War the exchange of artistic ideas and products
united Europe's avant-garde in a most remarkable way. Despite the
Iron Curtain and national and political borders there existed a
constant flow of artists, artworks, artistic ideas and practices.
The geographic borders of these exchanges have yet to be clearly
defined. How were networks, centers, peripheries (local, national
and international), scales, and distances constructed? How did
(neo)avant-garde tendencies relate with officially sanctioned
socialist realism? The slowly expanding, newly translated
literature on the art of Eastern Europe provides a great deal of
factual knowledge about a vast cultural space, but mostly through
the prism of stereotypes and national preoccupations. By discussing
artworks, studying the writings on art, observing artistic
evolution and artists' strategies, as well as the influence of
political authorities, art dealers and art critics, the essays in
Art beyond Borders compose a transnational history of arts in the
Soviet satellite countries in the post war period.
Since the late nineteenth century, museums have been cited as tools
of imperialism and colonialism, as strongholds of patriarchalism,
masculinism, homophobia and xenophobia, and accused both of elitism
and commercialism. But, could the museum absorb and benefit from
its critique, turning into a critical museum, into the site of
resistance rather than ritual? This book looks at the ways in which
the museum could use its collections, its cultural authority, its
auratic space and resources to give voice to the underprivileged,
and to take an active part in contemporary and at times
controversial issues. Drawing together both major museum
professionals and academics, it examines the theoretical concept of
the critical museum, and uses case studies of engaged art
institutions from different parts of the world. It reaches beyond
the usual focus on western Europe, America, and 'the World',
including voices from, as well as about, eastern European museums,
which have rarely been discussed in museum studies books so far.
Since the late nineteenth century, museums have been cited as tools
of imperialism and colonialism, as strongholds of patriarchalism,
masculinism, homophobia and xenophobia, and accused both of elitism
and commercialism. But, could the museum absorb and benefit from
its critique, turning into a critical museum, into the site of
resistance rather than ritual? This book looks at the ways in which
the museum could use its collections, its cultural authority, its
auratic space and resources to give voice to the underprivileged,
and to take an active part in contemporary and at times
controversial issues. Drawing together both major museum
professionals and academics, it examines the theoretical concept of
the critical museum, and uses case studies of engaged art
institutions from different parts of the world. It reaches beyond
the usual focus on western Europe, America, and 'the World',
including voices from, as well as about, eastern European museums,
which have rarely been discussed in museum studies books so far.
The conclusion of the Cold War in 1989 signalled the beginning of a
new era in Eastern Europe, and this widespread change was felt no
less strongly in the world of art. In Art and Democracy in
Post-Communist Europe, Piotr Piotrowski examines the art made after
1989 in Eastern Europe in light of the profound political, social,
economic and cultural transformations in the region. As well as
discussing these transformations, Piotrowski describes the changing
nature of artworks themselves - from work moulded by the cultural
imperatives of the communist state, used as a tool of political
propaganda, to autonomous work protesting against and resisting the
ruling powers. He describes the rich tradition of anarchistic
motifs and themes of protest in Eastern European art, and the
emergence of a utopian vision in more recent times. The discussion
includes themes of communist memory; the critique of nationalism;
issues of gender after 1989; and the representation of historic
trauma in contemporary museology, going on to discuss the recent
foundation of museums of contemporary art in Bucharest, Tallinn and
Warsaw. The function of art in post-communist Europe is assessed,
and above all its restrictions and hidden censorship mechanisms.
Throughout the book the author provides close readings of many
artists, some new to a Western audience, such as Ilya Kabakov and
Krzysztof Wodiczko, and Marina Abramovic's work responding to the
atrocities of the Balkans. This cogent investigation of the
artistic reorientation of the former Eastern Bloc breaks important
new ground, and fills a major gap in contemporary artistic and
political discourse.
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