Konger is a Polish performance art group from Kraków, Poland, established in 1983 by a group of professional artists in protest against the imposition of Martial law in Poland. The artists boycotted all state galleries and took up performance art instead, an obsolete medium in the eyes of the official art critics. The Group was founded by Wladyslaw Kazmierczak, Artur Tajber, Marian Figiel and Marcin Krzyżanowski. Others included Kazimierz Madej and

Peter Grzybowski Peter Grzybowski (16 June 1954 in Kraków, Poland – 29 August 2013) was a Polish multimedia and performance artist and a painter. He studied at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (ASP), graduating in 1982. He first ...

. The activity was documented by Barbara Maroń. The artists performed individual art actions at a time when Polish performance art was experiencing political repressions. The performance in Zakład nad Fosą was transmitted live through video equipment and monitors outside the gallery. The performances of Konger Group triggered strong criticism from the Polish authorities and resulted in a ban on performing in public for Artur Tajber, issued by the local committee of the Polish United Workers' Party.

Selected performances

*28.03.1984 Krzysztofory Gallery, Kraków ( Wladyslaw Kazmierczak, Marian Figiel, Marcin Krzyżanowski, Artur Tajber. *1984 (April) Zakład nad Fosą Gallery ( Wladyslaw Kazmierczak, Marian Figiel, Kazimierz Madej,

, Artur Tajber) – "The Week of Zakład nad Fosą Festival", Wrocław. *1985 BWA Gallery in Zielona Góra, the 1st

Biennale Biennale (), Italian for "biennial" or "every other year", is any event that happens every two years. It is most commonly used within the art world to describe large-scale international contemporary art exhibitions. As such the term was popularis ...

of New Art. *1990 BWA Gallery in Kraków (as a part of DOTYK (TOUCH) exhibition – the iconography of Polish independent art). The artists stopped performing as a group in 1990 but remain active individually.

Selected performances

Footnotes

Further reading