The “Ars Loci – Obraz aktualny”(Ars Loci – the Current Image), exhibition organized at the Workshops of Culture, is the first such an enormous exhibition presenting works of 41 artists connected with Lublin. The artists represent the older generation, young graduates of art studies, experienced authors who have already had numerous exhibitions, as well as artists whose work does not belong to the mainstream. The diversity of the exhibition concerns also the employed media –from classical paintings and drawings, through graphics, sculptures and installations, including videos and animations. The exhibition is divided into four main sections that discuss different issues and approached from a different angle. The first section of the exhibition focuses on painting - still popular among artists despite some heralds announcing the its demise. The paintings are mainly abstract. Each artist perceives his/her medium in a different way and focuses on a different area (philosophy, existence, destruction and exploration of painting’s limits). The abstract color spaces, ornaments ranging from classical floors to graphic fractals, different textures and signs occupying the verge of reality are only some aspects of paintings and presented means of expression. The second section is oriented towards critical potential of works dealing with the modernist heritage, mass culture, gender issues, faith, totalitarianisms and ecology. It is an attempt to take a closer look at the reality and presented problems. The next part includes works that focus on spirituality, mysticism, existence, nature, and the idea of place. These are mainly photographs, installations, sculptures – fragments of the world used to represent what is hidden beneath reality. The fourth section is connected with the contemporary culture codes, often drawings and graphics analyzed by semioticians. The contemporary signs are defined by different media, new technologies, animations and videos. Some artists attempt to express themselves through esthetics of dream resembling surrealist paintings. The exhibition is extremely diverse and it can be explored not according to the sections but through getting to know the works of artists connected with a certain place.
Ars Loci refers to the place of art that can be referred to a given cultural space and connected with a real or physical territory. What is art? Is it distinguished by something? What is the local color that defined by genius loci? Is it a reflection of macrocosm in microcosm? Is this all about mental not physical contamination with a given place that is rooted in the artist regardless of his/her location in space. These questions are addressed by the Ars Loci exhibition that will be shown at the Workshops of Culture from June 1, 2012 and it will present current local art. Then, from June 15, it will be available at the Lubelskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych and it will focus on Lublin collections of contemporary art.
Opening hours: tuesday-sunday, 12:00-18:00