The 3rd INTERNATIONAL ART Festival
THE STRUCTURES OF CONNECTIONS
Artistic Tapestry - Transformations
13th – 30th May 2010
The Festival is a regular artistic event, organized every third year by ZPAP The Association of Polish Artists and Designers, Krakow District, with the co-operation of the National Museum in Krakow and The Association of Fine Arts Friends – Art Palace in Krakow. The General Consulate of Austria has been taking part in our project since the beginning by opening the Gallery, at Cybulski Street, to us. Other private galleries and institutions have been giving us a hand, too. The Festival has an open character and all professional artists and artistic group can take part in it. Beyond the competition we present glamorous Polish and international artists, recommended by the Board of Artistic Programmes and established by the Representative of ZPAP, the Association in Krakow. The board consists of critics, art historians and visual artists.
In this upcoming festival the participation of over one hundred artists from Eastern and Western Europe and other countries around the World is anticipated. The previous two events in 2004 and 2007 consisted of firstly five and later eight expositions. Because of the great interest amongst both artists and public, and the extended form of the event, the organizers have prepared nine exhibition places in the centre of Krakow.
These are the proposed galleries:
1/ ZPAP Pryzmat Gallery- 3 Lobzowska Street
2/ Upper and Lower Palace of Art. in Krakow, The Association of Fine Arts Friends 3 - Szczepański
Square
3/Turlej’s Foundation Gallery- 1 Saint Jan Street
4/ Piano Nobile Gallery – Main Square
5/ Grotta Nobile Gallery –Main Square
6/ The Gallery of General Consulate of Austria - 9 Cybulski Street, 1st floor
7/ the Gallery of “Dziennik Polski” Newspaper – Wielopole Street
8/ The cellar of Nordic House, the Consulate of Switzerland and Denmark- 5 Saint Anna Stret
Main purposes:
The main purpose of the organizers is to establish a center of promotion and popularization of
interdisciplinary culture, based on the great tradition of the Polish School of Fiber Art. The
organizers will present to the public modern Fiber Art, widely known all over the
world as an interdisciplinary art. The organizers’ aim of the 3rd International Art Festival, The
Structures of Connections is a wide presentation of a phenomena called Fiber Art, whose
origins come from the disciplines of traditional tapestry. During the last forty years, this art
has gained esteem thanks to the artistic development of people, such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Antoni Starczewski, Wojciech Sadley, Ewa Pachucka – Jaroszyńska, Jolanta Owidzka, Jan Kucz and others, who have brought a priceless and permanent input to
international cultural inheritance. The main idea of the festival will be fulfilled by inviting
famous Polish and international artists, who will be given an opportunity to discuss trends and achievements in modern art.The additional aims of the festival are:
the promotion of Polish contemporary art,
the review of Polish artists’ achievements,
the review of international artists, invited to the event and participating in the
competition,
the popularization of new events and artistic values,
the confrontation of Polish art with the international art background,
introducing new phenomena in interdisciplinary art to the public and visitors,
underlining the need of contemporary art festivals by promoting the festival on the
radio, on television and in the press.
The unusual qualities of soft materials has been inspiring generations of artists, who have been looking for unique ways of expression, using different areas of artistic creativity. The last two festivals “The Structures of Connections” were met with much appreciation from artists and the public. They were also presented on Polish television and in the press. The programmes were shown not only in Krakow, but also across the country. The greatest artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Wojciech Sadley , Jolanta Owidzka , Jan Kucz
were exhibited, as well as many young, talented artists.
During the festival the exhibition places are visited by numerous youth and student groups and also by people who come to Krakow specially to visit the shows. Art galleries in general are visited more often by visitors and Krakowian citizens during the event. However, the number of visitors is rather difficult to estimate, because of the free entrance to the exhibitions. It is estimated that more than ten thousand people visit the event. Moreover, the time of the festival (the second half of May) makes the cultural offerings of Krakow more attractive and becomes a specific attraction to the whole country.
A number of groups from America (the Friends of Fiber Art), Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belorussia and Germany have announced their intention of attending the event.
The predicted results of task:
the popularization of high level Polish and international contemporary art,
the popularization of Fiber Art and young artists,
introducing this art to a larger audience,
creating special circumstances to establish the Festival of Artistic Tapestry as a permanent cultural event in Krakow, appearing cyclically,
exchanging experience among artists from Poland and abroad, attending the festival,
establishing the Centre of Promotion of Fiber Art in Krakow, based on artistic works donated by participating festival artists,
Popularization of the hundredth anniversary of ZPAP The Association of Polish Artists and Designers by organizing the festival.
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