Biennale of Spatial Forms in Elbląg (Biennale Form Przestrzennych w Elblągu) was a bi-annual

art exhibition An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects (in the most general sense) meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is occasionally true, it is stated to be a "permanen ...

organized by

state-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

Zakłady Mechaniczne Zamech in

Elbląg Elbląg (; ; ) is a city in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, located in the eastern edge of the Żuławy region with 127,390 inhabitants, as of December 2021. It is the capital of Elbląg County. Elbląg is one of the ol ...

(

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

) between 1965 and 1973. Described as the largest "experiment combining art and industry in Poland," the biennale had five editions, with only the first two dedicated primarily to

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and spatial forms.

History

Initiated by the artist Gerard Kwiatkowski, a founder of the EL Gallery, the premise of the biennale relied on close collaboration between local craftsmen and contemporary artists. It its attempts to bring artists and workers together and to escape the confines of

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

walls, the Elbląg Biennale has been described as an example of performed "collective labor" and compared to the activities of Polish Constructivist artists in Poland during the 1920s and 1930s. Throughout its history, the biennale showed work by numerous prominent Polish and international artists, including

Magdalena Abakanowicz Magdalena Abakanowicz (; 20 June 1930 – 20 April 2017) was a Polish sculpture, sculptor and fiber artist. Known for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium and for outdoor installations, Abakanowicz has been considered among the most influen ...

Jan Berdyszak Jan Berdyszak (15 June 1934 –18 September 2014) was a Polish people, Polish artist. From 1952 to 1958, he studied at the Sculpture Department of the State College of Fine Arts in Poznań (now Fine Arts Academy), where he eventually returned as ...

Henryk Berlewi Henryk Berlewi (Yiddish: הענריק בערלעװי; October 20, 1894 – August 2, 1967) was a Polish-French painter, graphic designer and art theorist, who is primarily remembered as an abstract artist who paved the way for optical art, but ...

, Marian Bogusz, Włodzimierz Borowski, Zbigniew Dłubak, Tihamér Gyarmathy, Oskar Hansen, Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz, Edward Krasiński, Jadwiga Maziarska,

Ewa Partum Ewa Partum (born 1945, Grodzisk Mazowiecki near Warsaw, Poland) is a poetry artist, performance artist, filmmaker, mail artist, and conceptual artist. Education Beginning in 1963, Partum studied at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Łód ...

Henryk Stażewski Henryk Stażewski (pronounced: ; 9 January 1894 – 10 June 1988) was a Polish painter, visual artist and writer. Stażewski has been described as the "father of the Polish avant-garde" and is considered a pivotal figure in the history of Cons ...

and Magdalena Więcek-Wnuk.

References

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History

References

Further reading