Construction in Process

Konstrukcja w procesie (Construction in Process) was an art festival, described as an international art event. Its first edition was held in 1981 in Łódź and the last in 2000 in Bydgoszcz.

The Construction in Process was an international art festival, which, depending on the time and place, had a different face each time. The first Construction in Process took place in Łódź, with the support of the Solidarity movement. The initiator and organiser of Konstrukcja w Procesie was the Polish artist Ryszard Waśko, a participant in the Film Form Workshop at the PWSFiT in Łódź, who in 1980 took part in the international art exhibition of the 1970s Pier + Ocean at the Hayward Gallery in London. This exhibition gave rise to the idea of presenting Western art of the 1970s in Poland, where apart from the circulation of independent author galleries, there was little dialogue between artists and society. In this situation, the organisation of the first Konstrukcja w Procesie was for Ryszard Waśko a kind of social duty, a desire to bring art closer to the people. By organising Konstrukcja w Procesie, Ryszard Waśko introduced Western art into the public space of Lodz - a space subject to censorship and excluded from artistic activities. In 1981, in a situation of economic and political crisis, Ryszard Waśko invited artists from abroad to Lodz, who came at their own expense, to create art in the factory spaces of the city.

From 1981 to 2000, Konstrukcja w Procesie was organised by an association called the International Artists' Museum, which was founded by Ryszard Waśko and Maria Waśko. Construction in Process took place in multiple places, including where important political and cultural transformations were taking place, in Łódź (1981, 1990, 1993), Munich (1985), Israel (1994), Melbourne (1998) and Bydgoszcz (2000). In 1993, after the political changes in Poland and Eastern Europe, Lodz became the headquarters for a venture called My Home is Your Home. More than 100 artists, critics and poets (including Allen Ginsberg) came to Lodz to participate. In 1995, an art event called 'Co-existence' took place in the Negev desert in Israel, uniting Israeli and Palestinian artists in support of peace in the Middle East. In 1998, an art event called The Bridge was organised in Melbourne with Aboriginal and Asian artists. In 2001, the Creators project was realised in Venice, with the participation of more than 100 artists and poets. (Source)

Video

• Konstrukcja w procesie, 1982, Jozef Robakowski

• Konstrukcja w procesie 1981-2000 / Spotkanie i pokaz filmu

Catalogues

• Construction in Process: Oct. 26 - Nov. 15, 1981, 37 PKWN Street, Lodz, Poland, New York: Thousand Secretaries Press, 1982. Catalogue of the first event (1981). [1]

• “Muzeum Artystów”: międzynarodowa prowizoryczna wspólnota artystyczna, Łódź / „The Artists` Museum”: international provisional artist`s community, Łódź, ed. Komitet Wykonawczy Muzeum Artystów, Łódź: Muzeum Artystów, 1996. (Polish)/(English)

• Konstrukcja w Procesie 1981 - wspólnota, która nadeszła? / Construction in Process: The Community That Came?, eds. Anna Saciuk-Gąsowska and Aleksandra Jach, Łódź: Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, 2012, 219 pp. Publisher. Issuu. Excerpt. Article. (Polish)/(English)

• Galeria Wschodnia. Dokumenty 1984–2017 / Documents 1984–2017, eds. Daniel Muzyczuk, Tomasz Zatuski and Anna Wiśniewska-Grabarczyk, trans. Katarzyna Gucio, Maciej Świerkocki, and Elżbieta Wysakowska-Walters, Łodz: Galeria Wschodnia, Fundacja In Search Of..., and Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, 2019, 916 pp. Bibliography. Chronology. Photographs. Figures. Tables. Maps. Publisher. Excerpt. Reviews: Zboralska (ArtMargins), Bryzgel (Slavic R), Banasiak (Szum). (Polish)/(English)

• Konstrukcja w procesie / Construction in Process, Warsaw: Fundacja Profile, 2020. Publisher. (Polish)/(English)

Literature

• "Konstrukcja w procesie", Solidarność Ziemi Łódzkiej 23, 1981, pp 1-2. (Polish)

• Aleksandra Jach, "Konstrukcja w procesie– wspólnota, która nadeszła?", in Odrzucone dziedzictwo. O sztuce polskiej lat 80., ed. Karol Sienkiewicz, Warsaw: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2011. (Polish)
  • "Construction in Process – A Community That Came?", ed. Karol Sienkiewicz, in Rejected Heritage: Polish Art of the 1980s, Warsaw: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2011.

• Maciej Cholewiński, "Konstrukcja w procesie & Muzeum artystów", Sztuka i Dokumentacja 4, 2011, pp 101-111.

• Julia Sowinska-Heim, "The Urban Space in Łódź as an Archive. Material Traces of Construction in Process", Sztuka i Dokumentacja 12, 2015, pp 53-65. [2] (English)

• Monika Fabijańska, Wywiad z nieobecnym, czyli nowojorskie rozmowy o Ryszardzie Waśce / New York Conversations About Ryszard Waśko, Szum, Jun 2017. With Francis J. Greenburger, Robert C. Morgan, Lilly Wei, Maria Waśko, Ryszard Waśko. (Polish)/(English)

See also

• Galeria Wschodnia

Links

• Exhibition, Museum of Art, Lodz, 2011.

• Exhibition, Fundacja Profile, Warsaw, 2020. Video tour.

• Wikipedia-PL

• Muzeum Artystów - International Artists' Museum on Wikipedia