en-59 | QUART

Faculty of Historical and Pedagocial Science

Journal financed by the
Faculty of Historical and Pedagocial Science
at the University of Wroclaw

Issue 1(59)/2021

Editorial

In the long tradition of our quarterly’s presence on the publishing market, there has never been an Issue so closely related to contemporary art, or perhaps not so much directly to art as to attempts at creating a modern analysis of the postmodern and already post-deconstructive reality that surrounds us.

The foreseen and inevitable end of the Anthropocene epoch, the pandemic, the turbulence and collapse, and the simultaneous emergence of new forms of presentation on the art market, create a conglomerate conducive to catastrophic thought, close to the vision of the next great extinction of species, as well as to the emergence, in a kind of defensive reflex, of attempts to find a way out of the situation, to find the famous light in the tunnel, which is not just the light of a train speeding towards us. A number of new discourses connected with feminist, anthropological, postcolonial and cultural studies and, last but not least, those present in the language of criticism developed not until the 21st century, lead us towards a seemingly uncomplicated Eden of not-knowing, incompetence or the title “unlearning”, which are supposed to allow us to participate, both on the creative side and on the side of the participant-receiver, in the mystery of New Art.

The Aristotelian principle, lasting for millennia, that art is “conscious production based on knowledge”, is violently falsified in the presented texts, which, of course, does not mean that these excellent statements are not based on the extensive knowledge and research experience of their authors. The selection of authors guarantees the high level of content of individual articles, and post-art requires new distinctions and research tools, somewhat anarchic and related to a changed pro-ecological and pro-social view of the world. Terms emerge such as: “non-alienated work”, “post-artistic practices”, “strange tools”, “radical democracy”, “utilology”, “experimental institutionalism”, and bold attempts to prove that some statements of former philosophers (Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Martin Heidegger) fit so firmly into the hermetic bubble of patriarchal philosophy that they lose their explanatory power in relation to art itself.

The discussion of social contexts and the reasons for the “deskilling” rebellion of artists against the processes characteristic of the epoch of developed capitalism is, in the newest “Quart”, accompanied by analyses of concrete presentations and creative actions close to attempts at creating a “New Order”, not so much in the economic and epistemological sense, but in a simple human one.

Let us remember, however, that as the poet, critic and philologist Jacek Łukasiewicz, who passed away recently, wrote: “They last for centuries / In museums of imagination / Bodies and glamours”. Perhaps this is a fragile and beautiful answer to the uncertainty underlying, in my opinion, the boldest attempts to change paradigms that have existed for centuries. But perhaps I am wrong and the operation of the “great extinction” of old notions is necessary so that we can wake up in a Brave New World.

At this point I would like to thank the thematic editor of this volume, Professor Anna Markowska, without whose commited work, professional contacts and extensive knowledge the “deskilling” “Quart” would not have been possible.

On behalf of the Editorial Board
Prof. Dr. habil. Waldemar Okoń

Od redakcji / Editorial