Meeting with Boryslaw Czyżak and representatives of Gruppa around the book “Gruppa. Rebels of Art”

The book by Borysław Czyżak presents the historical background, the course of its formation, the turbulent period of existence and the times after the collapse of one of the most important artistic formations in Poland, which was the Warsaw Gruppa (1983—2002). This is a passionate story, created on the basis of interviews, meetings with participants of the cult team, analysis of existing documents and works, characteristics of artists, their creative personalities, mutual relations, confrontation of attitudes, opinions and truths. An attempt to understand the choices and decisions and, as a result, to find answers explaining the phenomenon of popularity of the Group, both during its activity and in subsequent years. “Rebels of Art” belongs to the group of valuable items expanding the canon of studies concerning an important chapter in the history of Polish art of the 1980s and present.

Gruppa, a formation founded in 1982 by students and graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. It was composed by: Ryszard Grzyb, Paweł Kowalewski, Jarosław Modzelewski, Włodzimierz Pawlak, Marek Sobczyk and Ryszard Woźniak. Initially, Ewa Piechocińska, Małgorzata Rittersschild, Zdzisław Kwiatkowski and Maciej Wilski collaborated with them. The background for the creation of the Gruppa was the absurdities of everyday life at the turn of the 70s and 80s of the last century, the turbulent atmosphere of the Solidarity Festival and the period of martial law. The anniversary of the introduction of martial law seemed an excellent occasion for their debut, it came with some delay. On January 14, 1983, the opening of the exhibition “Forest, Mountain, Cloud” was held in the Dean's Studio. In the following years, until 1992, the Group realized several dozen exhibitions, actions and other performances, in 1987 the artists took part in the eighth edition of the Documenta festival in Kassel. They referred to and identified with the wave of new expression popular in the West. Figurative images characterized by vivid colors, deformation and provocative content, referred to the tense socio-political situation in the country. Rebellion against the repression of martial law, opposition to stagnation and boredom of post-avant-garde art, breaking taboos, youthful affirmation of unlimited freedom, the release of emotions, absurdity and grotesque, anarchy and obscenity, filled their paintings, performative speeches, poems and theoretical texts published in the periodical “Oj bien already.” In June 1989, they painted together the fence at the Solidarność polling station on the Constitution Square in Warsaw. This action is considered to be the symbolic end of Gruppa's history. In 1992, their summary exhibition took place in Zachęta. After the breakup, all Gruppa artists carry out individual activities.

Borysław Czyżak (1965), Doctor of Physical Sciences, graduate of the Faculty of Physics of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Author and co-author of scientific works related to superconductor physics and electronics. Consultant in international strategic and organizational consulting companies, author of publications on the subject of ownership supervision. Member of the supervisory boards of high-tech companies. Passionate and collector of Polish contemporary art, author of publications on art, graduate of postgraduate studies in the field of history of modern art at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences.