Kwiekulik

Kwiekulik - Z. Kulik

The monumental monograph devoted to the artistic duo - KwieKulik (Zofia Kulik and Przemysław Kwiek) includes an outline of the artists' activities from the 1960s to 1988 (the period of their joint practice) as well as documentation of the Studio of Activities, Documentation and Propagation (PDDiU) run by the artists. To provide a better understanding of the context of the epoch, it also comprises - KwieKulik's source materials and dictionaries: of concepts used by the artists and language characteristic of the described epoch. On their part, the authors were invited to contribute essays in an attempt to outline new interpretative perspectives for Zofia Kulik's and Przemysław Kwiek's oeuvre. The monograph not only delivers unique source materials but provides extensive coverage of the artists' activities and a thorough understanding of the context. In this regard, the book highlights an essential methodological issue: the interpretation of the artists' activities against the backdrop of the epoch. This pertains especially to engaged art, reacting to the challenges of its times, which - KwieKulik's practice undoubtedly was. From a broader perspective -- it pertains to a vast part of the artistic events in former Eastern Europe, expressing resistance, discord and protest, but also to those of a subversive or ironic nature, whose meanings were embedded in the social-political realm of the times. The understanding of political conditions of the Communist era is ever more so the domain of historians, while a broader reception blurs the meanings and diminishes the grasp of subtle allusions and references. Hence the effort of the authors of this book to further cast light on the backdrop of the artists' work by means of source materials and dictionaries.