Beyond Corrupted Eye

This exhibition is an attempt to present the history of a gallery that for eighteen years of its operations remained a non-commercial space for presenting the work of artists from all over the world. The exhibitions and discussions initiated there and a critical discourse pursued in both theory and practice situate it among the most significant actors on the then map of artistic geography. Functioning in defiance of geopolitical divisions, the Akumulatory 2 Gallery was a place where the public was able to become familiar with art from the East and West, with artists from Eastern and Western Europe, the United States and Canada, from South America and Asia.

The gallery’s origins date back to the NET idea, formulated in 1971 by Jarosław Kozłowski and Andrzej Kostołowski, and a subsequent manifesto mailed to some three hundred and fifty artists and art critics in Poland and internationally, inviting collaboration and a free exchange of artistic facts. Despite official reprisals, the idea of an anti-institutional, non-controllable NET was continued and developed at the Akumulatory 2 Gallery in Poznań, founded by Kozłowski in 1972. Functioning until 1990, the gallery was a space where various artistic ideas and philosophies intersected, where various forms and modes of art’s functioning were presented and discussed. The gallery showed artists associated with conceptual art, minimal art, land art, mail art, concrete poetry, Fluxus, as well practices combining the visual arts with music.

From 1972 to 1990 the Akumulatory 2 Gallery presented a total of one hundred and ninety five events, from exhibitions, through performances, actions and music projects, to lectures. The gallery functioned as a quasi-institution, lacking institutional support and often changing venues. Run, and largely financed, by Jarosław Kozłowski, it was a space that was put at the disposal of the invited artists without obliging them to adhere to any predefined agenda.

The documentary material presented at the Zachęta and in the accompanying publication offers an insight into artistic practices pursued outside the official, entrenched art system, beyond the axes of the centre/periphery divisions, into a vast area of artistic strategies developed at a small, alternative gallery collaborating with artists from all over the world despite functioning in the oppressive conditions of a communist state.

The titular ‘incorruptible eye’ refers to both vision and visibility. On the one hand, to vision that refuses to surrender to ideological pressures and commercial temptations and, on the other, to a blurring of distinctions between the visible and that which is expelled from the field of vision. Visibility resisting aesthetic or political preferences is but one way of reading the history of the Akumulatory 2. The documentation collected in the exhibition and catalogue, largely published for the first time, will facilitate a much more comprehensive reading of this history.

Bożena Czubak

curators: Bożena Czubak, Jarosław Kozłowski collaboration: Natalia Brandt, Magdalena Komornicka

artists: Joanna Adamczewska , Eric Andersen, Angelo de Aquino, Lone Arendal, Imre Bak, Eduard Bal, Philippa Beale, Andrzej Bereziański, Terry Berkowitz, Tony Bevan, John Blake, Włodzimierz Borowski, János Brendel, Leszek Brogowski, Wojciech Bruszewski, Victor Burgin, Henri Chopin, Carlfriedrich Claus, COUM Transmissions, Michael Craig-Martin, Maria (Mariola) Dąbrowska, Andrzej Dłużniewski, Andrew Dutkewych, Janusz Dziubak, Jerzy Fedorowicz, Joel Fisher, Fluxus (A-Yo, George Brecht, Dick Higgins, Joe Jones, George Maciunas, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Paul Sharits, Ben Vautier, Robert Watts), Ken Friedman, Wolfgang Fuchs, Adam Garnek, Mariusz Gill, Raimund Girke, Nat Goodden, Trevor Gould, Tom J. Gramse, Izabella Gustowska, Gerard Hemsworth, Geoffrey Hendricks, Dick Higgins, Susan Hiller, John Hilliard, Douglas Huebler, Tatsuo Ikeda, Jeff Instone, Jacek Jagielski, Sven-Åke Johansson, Joan Jonas, Kirsten Justensen, Margrit Kahl, Tadeusz Kalinowski, Jerzy Kałucki, Koji Kamoji, Kanal 2, Hiroshi Kawathu, Alicja Kępińska, Robin Klassnik, Akira Komoto, Jerzy Kopeć, Andrzej Kostołowski, Jarosław Kozłowski, Mariusz Kruk, László Lakner, Rolf Langebartels, Ólafur Lárusson, Richard Long, Jerzy Ludwiński, Hanna Łuczak, George Maciunas, Zbigniew Makarewicz, Peter Mandrup (Peter Mandrup Hansen), Joan Mathews, Yutaka Matsuzawa, Danuta Mączak, Barry McCallion, Ian McKeever, Yukiyoshi Moriya, Ian Murray, Avis Newman, Helmut Nickels, Ann Noël, Wojciech Olejniczak, Susan Ormerod, Tomasz Osiński, Andrzej Partum, Sef Peeters, Bogdan Perzyński, The Play, Mikołaj Poliński, Ludmiła Popiel-Fedorowicz, Michael Porter, Piotr Postaremczak, Maria Anna Potocka, Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Jerzy Rosołowicz, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Toshinori Saito, Galerie S:t Petri, Barbara Schmidt-Heins i Gabriele Schmidt-Heins, Peter Jörg Splettstösser, Helmut Streich, Sudurgata 7, Kishio Suga, Piotr Szyhalski, Feliks Szyszko, Petr Štembera, Amikam Toren, Francesc Torres, Endre Tót, David Troostwyk, Andrzej Turowski, Jacek Tylicki, Janos Urban, Jiří Valoch, Tadeusz Walter, Franz Erhard Walther, Lawrence Weiner, Andrzej Wielgosz, Emmett Williams, Richard Wilson, Tomasz Wilmański, Dorotheé von Windheim, Krzysztof Wodiczko

Beyond Corrupted Eye
Akumulatory 2 Gallery, 1972–1990

Kuratoren: Bozena Czubak, Jaroslaw Kozlowski
Kooperation: Natalia Brandt, Magdalena Komornicka

Künstler: Joanna Adamczewska, Eric Andersen, Angelo de Aquino, Lone Arendal, Imre Bak, Eduard Bal, Philippa Beale, Andrzej Berezianski, Terry Berkowitz, Tony Bevan, John Blake, Wlodzimierz Borowski, Janos Brendel, Leszek Brogowski, Wojciech Bruszewski, Victor Burgin, Henri Chopin, Carlfriedrich Claus, COUM Transmissions , Michael Craig-Martin, Mariola Dabrowska, Andrzej Dluzniewski, Andrew Dutkewych, Janusz Dziubak, Jerzy Fedorowicz, Joel Fisher, Fluxus (Ay-O, George Brecht, Dick Higgins, Joe Jones, George Maciunas, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Paul Sharits, Ben Vautier, Robert Watts), Ken Friedman, Wolfgang Fuchs, Adam Garnek, Mariusz Gill, Raimund Girke, Nat Goodden, Trevor Gould, Tom J. Gramse, Izabella Gustowska, Gerard Hemsworth, Geoffrey Hendricks, Dick Higgins, Susan Hiller, John Hilliard, Douglas Huebler, Tatsuo Ikeda, Jeff Instone, Jacek Jagielski, Sven-Ake Johansson, Joan Jonas, Kirsten Justensen, Margrit Kahl, Tadeusz Kalinowski, Jerzy Kalucki, Koji Kamoji, Kanal 2 , Hiroshi Kawathu, Alicja Kepinska, Robin Klassnik, Akira Komoto, Jerzy Kopec, Andrzej Kostolowski, Jaroslaw Kozlowski, Mariusz Kruk, László Lakner, Rolf Langebartels, Olafur Larusson, Richard Long, Jerzy Ludwinski, Hanna Luczak, George Maciunas, Zbigniew Makarewicz, Peter Mandrup Hansen, Joan Mathews, Yutaka Matsuzawa, Danuta Maczak, Barry McCallion, Ian McKeever, Yukiyoshi Moriya, Ian Murray, Avis Newman, Helmut Nickels, Ann Noel, Wojciech Olejniczak, Susan Ormerod, Tomasz Osinski, Andrzej Partum, Sef Peeters, Bogdan Perzynski, The Play , Mikolaj Polinski, Ludmila Popiel-Fedorowicz, Michael Porter, Piotr Postaremczak, Maria Anna Potocka, Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Jerzy Rosolowicz, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Toshinori Saito, Galerie St Petri, Barbara Schmidt-Heins / Gabriele Schmidt-Heins, Peter Jörg Splettstösser, Helmut Streich, Sudurgata 7 , Kishio Suga, Piotr Szyhalski, Feliks Szyszko, Petr Stembera, Amikam Toren, Francesc Torres, Endre Tót, David Troostwyk, Andrzej Turowski, Jacek Tylicki, Janos Urban, Jiri Valoch, Tadeusz Walter, Franz Erhard Walther, Lawrence Weiner, Andrzej Wielgosz, Emmett Williams, Richard Wilson, Tomasz Wilmanski, Dorothee von Windheim, Krzysztof Wodiczko