Monthly Archive: April 2001

In 1989, the same year that British artists were responding to Thatcherite Britain by organizing art shows in warehouses, their Polish counterparts were trying to come to terms with a newly emerging political and social order that influenced and reshaped the Polish art scene.

The year 1989 marked Poland’s great economic crisis and, subsequently, the dramatic political transformation that took place in its aftermath. This, however, had been eased by the success of the “solidarity” movement and eventually led to the first free parliamentary elections in Poland. The end of the Communist era and the formation of the first freely … Read more

Let me begin my essay by telling a short anecdote: “Once upon a time, somewhere close to the North Pole, one baby polar bear asked his mother:
-Mommy, are you sure that I am a real polar bear?
-Yes, she answered.
-And all our family members are real polar bears as well?
-Absolutely, said she. Your father, me, your grandmothers and grandfathers, and all our relatives are real polar bears. But why do you ask?
-You know, he said, I trust you, of course. But why then do I feel so terribly cold?”

I would like to use this simple … Read more

With new cafes, galleries, theatres, and cinemas springing up all over Prague, it seems this city is justified to once again call itself a metropolis of culture. There is such a wide range of places to choose from that every evening presents the challenge of just deciding where to go, a far cry from days not so long ago. Yet just imagine a single place that can offer everything culture and the arts demand; a place where people from every nationality can get together and find something they have in common. This is not a utopia, but the Universal Space … Read more