Edward Krasiński
Les mises en scéne
Publication to the exhibition from May to August 2006.
Ed. by Sabine Breitwieser. Preface by Dietrich Karner. Introduction by Sabine Breitwieser. Interviews with Edward Krasiński and Anka Ptaszkowska. Texts by Pawel Polit and Adam Szymczyk.
Edward Krasiński (1925 Łuck, POL —2004 Warsaw, POL) is one of the most important protagonists of the progressive Polish art scene of the 1960s and 1970s. His work drew on the avant-garde heritage of Constructivism and Surrealism in Poland, and is fully documented in this pblication for the first time with around 300 historical illustrations. This book includes numerous photographs by Eustachy Kossakowski and Tadeusz Rolke, who followed Krasiński’s work for more than forty years. The focus is on Krasiński’s unique exhibition designs, which always went beyond the presentation of individual works. Exhibitions became extraordinary spaces into which he integrated his works. Thus he provided ever new perspectives on his art which oscillates between painting, sculpture, and installation. Krasiński turned his studio, for example, which he had taken over from the Constructivist Henryk Stażewski, into an environment that then became a theme in new works. His longrunning “game” with the blue “line” is well known. The blue “line” could be represented by a taping down of his sculptural objects, by a telex at the Tokyo Biennale in 1970, or by a strip of Scotch tape. This blue tape became Krasiński’s chosen means of defining spaces.