Polish Media Art in an Expanded Field

Ryszard W. Kluszczyński

Abstract

Aleksandra Kaminska in the monograph Polish Media Art in an Expanded Field (2016) focuses attention on a short fragment of the history of media art in Poland, its first five years after joining the European Union (2004-2009). This choice results from the belief that, according to Kaminska, this breakthrough period in Polish art makes it possible to answer questions about phenomena and processes that the author considers to be extremely important. These questions focus in particular on the negotiation of identity, democracy, the relationship between the local and the European. Kaminska believes that the artists of that period made an effort to redefine the concept of Polishness and its relationship with the surroundings, variously defined (both the EU and the world at large). The main part of the book consists of five chapters in which the author discusses the historical and political contexts of the art of the period mentioned above, the subject of experiment and historical avant-garde tendencies in Poland, analyses the concepts of media art, the presence and importance of history and memory in artistic practices, the relationship between art and the public sphere, as well as issues of technological mediation of identity and places.