Via Carpatia, the project of a transitional highway network is not only the element of infrastructure connecting the North (Lithuania) and the South (Greece) of the European Union, but also the inspiration for an exceptional cultural initiative. The name BIENNALE VIA CARPATIA refers to this strategic connection that aims to consolidate the region. Without a doubt, the plans for Via Carpatia, which focus primarily on the trade and political aspects, elicit reflection on the cultural identity of the area spanning countries such as Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, as well as the neighbouring non-EU nations of Ukraine and the Balkans.
The question about a common denominator between all these diverse countries acquires a special meaning. Taking into account the trials of their inhabitants and prevailing geopolitical challenges, it is more important than ever to explore the potential for closer collaboration. The status of Central Europe within the EU is being constantly re-evaluated. On the one hand, there is this clear need to become part of the Western world and separate oneself from Russia and everything that lies behind the Eastern border. At the same time, one recognizes a certain distinctiveness that spawns resistance to adopting solutions proposed by the West and constant internal cultural frictions that divide the citizens of these regions.
In the era of globalisation, it becomes quintessential to build societies and seek the common element to strengthen a united front. Despite cultural or political differences and challenges of the past, there is a need to consolidate. Do only the Eastern EU countries have something in common? Could we uncover the ties that bind these varied societies through an understanding of history and a shared vision of the future? These are particularly significant questions that should be raised in the context of BIENNALE VIA CARPATIA dedicated to the visual art practice of the artists from the regions of the planned international route.
The second edition of BIENNALE VIA CARPATIA takes place in the Gaelic town of Stary Sącz in the south of Poland. The post-competition show of this extraordinary event can be viewed until March at the IMO Gallery, a recently founded spot and part of the The Ada Sari Cultural and Art Centre run by Wojciech Knapik, the director, who attempts to bring the international context into the local scene. The gallery has been managed for some time now by the art historian and critic Agnieszka Tes, the creative director and curator of the Biennale.
BIENNALE VIA CARPATIA seeks to bring closer the work of visual artists from countries adjacent to the area of the planned international route. It is a competition that received submissions from 668 artists under 45, from 12 different countries in total. Notably, Biennale’s organisers direct their attention towards the peripheries, and so all selected artists live outside the borders of their home countries. The submissions were evaluated by the jury consisting of the curator Agnieszka Tes, Andrzej Szarek and Sławomir Brzoska (two experienced artists from Poland), Ábel Kónya (a Hungarian artist and curator), as well as Justyna Stasiek-Harabin (a well-known blogger and art historian). Each edition’s main theme is based on the specific work of one of the Nobel laureates from Poland – this year it is the poem by Czesław Miłosz “A Song on the End of the World.”
The eponymous ambiguity of Miłosz’s poem, which might also manifest itself on a more personal and individual scale, triggered a variety of associations among young artists, revealing their fears – both universal and rooted in local contexts, fragments of their countries’ history, distinct cultural motifs.
The image of art, which emerges from the exhibit, coincides with the current mainstream trend in art, namely the return to painting, including figurative painting based on representation that at times is characterised by a new kind of sensibility, inspired by digital media and online messengers. Although submissions were dominated by oil paintings, the final exhibit offers a multimedia and varied approach.
A part of the jury is known for their preference for a more conservative vision of art that emphasises craftsmanship. Social, activist, or political messages are either attached to little to no importance or expressed through allusions, ambiguities and symbols. Therefore the pieces that explore artistic strategies, try to negate the definition of a work of art, and explore a new role of the artist in the face of a changing world and institution-based system are difficult to come by in this exhibit.
Nonetheless, the show lacks neither diversity nor surprises. The Grand Prix winner, Zuzanna Śmigielska, presented a couple of monochromatic boards combining painting with image projection. “Uncharted People” and “Ukulele” portray the everyday behaviours of ordinary people or document the atmosphere of a given place, like a beach in Gdynia. With the use of her technique, the artist sets static poses into motion, stillness juxtaposed against movement. The figures seem to simultaneously move and stay still, which evokes the feeling of loss and endurance of certain habits and behaviours at the same time. Those people might not be there already and yet they are always present, returning somehow. Maintained in a grey colour palette, the pieces by the Biennale winner are displayed next to the uniquely arranged room that features works created in a similar vein registering the past and small rituals through the power of memory.
The main space of the exhibition focuses mainly on paintings arranged according to the thematic, at times also geographic correlation. On higher floors, there are rooms filled mostly with installations. The dominating motif is the subject of loneliness in the face of acts of war, technological advancement, or other processes outside our control. A great example could be the artworks by Karolina Futyma portraying the female loneliness expressed by naked bodies deformed through the sort of glitch. Next to them, one can view the hyperrealist depiction of a female head with grey hair that hides some kind of story (Ivanka Stanojevic – a special mention) that is presented close to an equally hyperrealist figure of a middle-aged woman illuminated with the smartphone, awaiting or escaping something (Ivan Milenkovic “Smartphone Light” – second place). Another artist, Paulina Poczęta (special mention) unveils an eye-catching installation reminiscent of a rosary and organic mosaic, which represents the memory of her grandmother. The subject of loss, grief and memory of loved ones is one of the recurring motifs of this exhibition. In some cases, the loss is obfuscated, submerged under the mood (Miłosz Nowakowski, Lina Beate Norkute), in others it is related to war and its recollection (artists from Romania, Serbia and Ukraine), or care for nature (intriguing video “Liber Novus” by Michał Sosna that combines corporeality and nature with the aesthetic of grave statues and allusions to psychoanalysis). The last subject is addressed in the activist installation/intervention titled “Fossil Fuel is Your Jewel” by Sara Piotrowska and Maciej Szczęśniak, which still projects the elegiac poetics of sorts.
Expressed less directly, the critical aspect is present in the works related to the domination of digital technologies and mass industrialisation, also in the sphere of art, which according to Włodzimierz Maciejczyk (first place) is put up for sale like the pieces of raw meat that he paints. The message of one of the paintings is augmented by the artist’s decision to place it in a gold frame. Fear of technology’s appropriation of the human element is evident from the sculpture by Karina Štrause (third place), which presents the archetypal motif of the cyberpunk body overpowered by wires made of felted wool. Luckily, not everyone is entirely pessimistic about the development of technology and the digital world. The team from IMO Gallery awarded a special mention to Stefan Venbroek who looks for his own place in between painting and animation, the traditional and digital, and ultimately in between Poland and the Netherlands, in his unique way.
Whereas Yulia Shybirkina uses digital tools to document the war in Ukraine. Her moving “Daybook” is not only an account of events but also the mosaic of inner turmoil of a frightened young girl who wishes to somehow preserve the elements of her own inner world. The piece reminds viewers of an online punk zine. It is a fascinating illustration of the fact that new technologies offer multiple high-quality, also aesthetic solutions or tools for self-expression that we can reach for at no or little cost, even in the most dire situations.
Notably, the exhibition also includes abstraction, which usually conveys the depth of human experience, occasionally through mediums other than painting. In “Après Nous”, Paulius Šliaupa (special mention) uses the form of an ambient video to evoke a sense of the deep, intense human experience of nature despite the absence of any human figures. At times, abstraction assumes staggering forms, like in the case of “Purgatorium” by Martyna Łuszczyńska, other times it is expressed on a more intimate scale by fusing the mirages of the digital world with photographic observation epitomised by the paintings by Laura Niculescu, who received a special mention.
Biennale presents a variety of subjects and forms, while the motifs of fear, sense of loss and typical attachment to tradition appear time and time again. Central Europe continues to search for its place among the great powers, while at the same time, sometimes searching for a, somewhat uncertain, new form of community, perhaps rooted in history. The old wounds still do not seem to be healed, and those who have left are not quite mourned. We are running out of time (as reminded by the sound of the steady ticking of the clock that accompanies a tour of the exhibition), and new threats keep looming on the horizon.
We are placed somewhere in the grand “in-between.” All we can do is promptly express our fear and tiny delights. The next edition of the biennale in Stary Sącz is scheduled for 2025, when the next sections of the aforementioned route will be open and the vision of closer integration will come to fruition. The question if it will affect art remains. Keeping with the references to Czesław Miłosz, may the roads of “Via Carpatia” lead us not to the “End of the World”, but to the common and peaceful European “Native Realm”.
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.
