Piotr Sikora | Intermarium (English)
Channel: CEAD / Central European Art Database
Date: 2016-04-21

“Intermarium” is an ongoing project based on four exhibitions traveling around Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in 2016. These four shows are engaging art pieces from internationally recognized artists from the Central European region, such as Rafani, Zbigniew Libera, Chto Delat, Irwin or Little Warsaw. The main field of research lies in theoretical and artistic exploration of idea of a non-existing state called Intermarium. This federation of the countries between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea shows to be an impossible political alliance that employes phantasms and dreams of creating a Central European empire and re-enacting the Golden Age of the Jagiellonian dynasty (a country stretched “in-between two seas”), established without a foreign power.
In the hands of artists of the region, art often becomes a tool for research on issues related to history and national identity. Radicalism of artistic groups taking part in the exhibition stems from the need to move outside the still ardent conflict between the East and the West. We were seeking to presents examples of aesthetics verging on art and propaganda, typical for totalitarian systems.
The timeframe for reflection on artistic identity of the countries of Central Europe was set by research conducted, among others, by Piotr Piotrowski and Zdenka Badovinac but also with help of publication edited by IRWIN group – East Art Map: Contemporary Art and Eastern Europe.
I‘d like to apply for the conference with a paper presenting research prepared on the occasion of this ongoing exhibition project. The main subject of my presentation would be an introduction the concept of Intermarium through the historical literature inspirations up to contemporary socio-political contexts, with a special focus on the artists` reflections of the Central European identity and its critical re-examination in contemporary terms.