• THE TATRA CONFERENCE description [pdf]
   
• THE TATRA CONFERENCE PROGRAMME [pdf]

The point of departure is the art of sculptor Władysław Hasior (1928-1999), his entire life very closely linked with Zakopane, who still remains one of the best known artists of post-war Poland. A charismatic author of monuments, assemblages, performances and set designs, though travelling abroad and drawing on his foreign experience, Hasior has always remained close to the material culture of the Tatra Mountains region, its customs and symbols. The recent renovation of the artist’s gallery and his archives have resulted in the reopening of research of his art and educational activities. Thus the symposium about the Tatra Mountains, Zakopane, and Hasior himself is an important component of the conference, with contributions presenting the town and its history from the viewpoint of art, literature, anthropology and politics, where Zakopane is more of an intellectual construct, an idyllic utopia, a product of the imagination. Continuing along these lines, one of the panels of the symposium is focused on Hasior’s artistic practice seen through the lens of local traditions and customs, but also concentrating on the figure of the artist himself who had very consciously created his public image. Other presentations treat the sculptor’s work in a broader artistic context, with questions about the exceptional nature of his art and its affiliations with international tendencies, as well as his own entanglement in history and politics. By gathering specialists from different disciplines, the event is seen not so much as an academic revision of Hasior’s practice but an impulse triggering a critical approach to his rather complex oeuvre.

The conference assumes a broad field of references and tropes of interpretation of Hasior’s art. An artistic programme lies at its core, with participation of international artists whose works will be presented in a number of locations, mainly at the exhibition titled “Modest Muses” which focuses on ordinary objects transformed into extraordinary works of art. The presentation is about the insightful and vigilant observation of quotidian reality. Historical and contemporary works blur the boundaries between the common and the special. They question the rationalistic division of the world into the animate and inanimate, displaying it via the prism of intuition and imagination. The entire mood of the exhibition is determined by its specific location – the mysterious nature, fantastic mythology of the place and surrealist motifs present in the practice of the many artists who had worked there. There is also an annex to the show – a projection of slides selected from Hasior’s Photography Notepad, documenting the vernacular culture of Zakopane and the region. In addition to the show, artist Maria Loboda has created a piece locating it in the high mountain shelter at the Valley of the Five Ponds (Dolina Pięciu Stawów). The conference also includes a film programme, Echoes from the Highlands inspired by the nature of the Tatras and the local rituals, as well as a performance by Agnieszka Brzeżańska, and a concert of the Pathman band made up of musicians who had collaborated with Hasior in the past.