COURAGE

connecting collections

The exhibition at Desa in Warsaw at Nowy Świat in November of 1983 was the first individual presentation of Anna Dąbrowska’s works. Recognition of such a respectable institution as Desa in the 1980s should be considered a significant commendation for a young photographer at the very beginning of her career.

Dąbrowska’s exhibition featured a series of portrait photographs of her friends and colleagues from punk community, e.g. Paweł “Kelner” (“Waiter”) Rozwadowski, a member of Fornit, Dexapolcort A, Deuter, Max and Kelner bands. The photographs show great intensity, they are often blurred, resonating with the dynamism and vitality of punk movement. Also, the artist focused on capturing the moods and emotions of photographed persons — rather than documenting their punk style (haircuts, apparel, adornments, jewelry, etc.) — which also seems to reflect accurately their distinctive personalities.

The edges of prints of the photographs, accordingly to the rules of punk style, are torn and rugged which gave them striking, irregular shapes. On the back of the photographs Dąbrowska placed drawings and collages that sometimes metaphorically and sometimes humorously refer to punks’ images (e.g. a note “18-year-olds’ decisions”) The self-ironic game between the frontside and the backside of the photographs may be interpreted also in a wider context of the contradiction between punk rebellion and a gallery space.

Selected works are available at Dąbrowska-Lyons’ website: https://adalyons.com/exhibition-at-desa-warsaw-1983/

Commonpress was a Mail Art magazine founded by the Polish Pawel Petasz. Each issue was compiled by another fellow mail artist who circulated a call in the network naming a special theme for the coming issue. The topic “Hungary” was inspired by the imaginary “Italian boots” of the Italian poet Adriano Spatola’s “Italy issue.” Galántai organized an exhibition of the incoming material in the Young Artists’ Club in Budapest in 1984. However, the show was immediately banned, as the authorities considered it an expression of opposition to the regime. At the vernissage, Radio Artpool’s 6th program: Hungary was “broadcasted.” As a result of the exhibition, Galántai suffered intense reprisals; the secret service started openly observing and restricting his activities, and they confiscated the next issue of AL (Artpool Letter), a samizdat art periodical edited by him. Showing the exhibition again became possible only during the pivotal moment of regime change (Young Artists’ Club, 1989), where a roundtable discussion was held with the banned artists and the individuals/officials who banned the exhibition. The catalogue of the exhibition (Commonpress No. 51) could be published in bigger circulation. When the secret documents became available for research, Artpool received a report about the opening of the exhibition. Using this secret report, Galántai reconstructed the original exhibition a few times (Artpool P60, 2000; Centrális Galéria, 2002; Area 51, Kapolcs, 2018).