7th International Print Triennial in Gdansk
7th International Print Triennial in Gdansk, kdy v současné době do 25. února 2023 probíhá výběrová výstava tohoto projektu v Galerii Uniwersyteckiej Wydziału Sztuki i Nauk o Edukacji w Cieszynie. V rámci trienále získali ocenění pedagovové FU OU Prof. Zbyněk Janáček (NAGRODA MARSZAŁKA WOJEWÓDZTWA POMORSKIEGO) a doc. Marek Sibinský (NAGRODA DZIEKANA WYDZIAŁU SZTUKI I NAUK O EDUKACJI UNIWERSYTETU ŚLĄSKIEGO). V loňském roce proběhla výstava 7th International Print Triennial in Gdansk v Centrum Ekspozycyjne STARA KOTŁOWNIA - galeria sztuki, Olsztyn.
The 7th International Print Triennial in Gdansk - "From Gutenberg's Book to Digital Reality" is a continuation of the achievements of the International Biennial and Triennial of Digital Graphics organized in Gdynia in 2008-2019. On the occasion of the inauguration of the Triennial I wonder, which communication and transmission tools allow the contemporary man to make the most characteristic - from the civilization development point of view - statement. Another way, which media let us describe the world in the most complete way? Every epoch presents its own image in its own peculiar way, preferring these media, which characterize it the best. Art may be the sign of the world acceptance, or the act of disagreement, a form of its contestation. But only this art which bravely derives from technological development, uses new ideas, as at the time of Leonardo de Vinci and Michael Angelo, and then impressionists and cubists, becomes the memory of its times, at least at the major part. Today the digital press is certainly such a technical novelty. So, there the problem starts, because from one side, we have the computer and digital technologies, from the other side: the memory of the tradition returns. There is the existing dilemma between cultivating of old graphic techniques and the adoration of the digital world. The answer is not simple. To me, digital graphic arts became the place of meeting this, which the traditional graphic print possesses in its own memory, video or computer transformation with a separate note, the paintbrush trace, a subjective installment. Even, because of the reason of such close "clinging" to the present time, recording and illustrating digital graphic has its own very specific identity. Just in this I see the unlimited possibilities of broadening the area of artistic statement. Giving more or less transient time picture, it suits the epoch perfectly. This picture is always partial, but yet it is composed of particles, which half-tone screen gives in graphics, the "grain" of crayon or paintbrush trace. This elementary part of the picture is for me the same, as the spot in paintings of impressionists. Unintentionally, the comparison the structure of digital graphics to pointillism, which comes to mind here, has its own relevance to the structure of the computer picture. Its elementary part is just so called pixel. I think, that the artistic computer possibilities, its creative potential, is still in the phase of the mysterious evolution, which in no case will influence on the position of traditional graphic techniques and the sphere, so called manual arts. Probably, revolutionary element in creating the structure of the picture is apparent, because only tools are being changed, but the method remains the same? Technology contains gigantic possibilities, not always approaching the world and the people. It is the fact that new technologies substitute the old but it is natural. The changes happen just at the uncontrolled pace! Holograms, three-dimensional prints are just reality and moreover, it is our future. But, does it mean that it puts away not very old, classic techniques as: woodcut, metal techniques, lithography, or even relatively new silkscreen. I do not think so. Digital technology - and I am absolutely convinced about it, in a way absorbed some possibilities of other graphic techniques, however, it has not made it less important. Similarly, it also absorbed the photography or the computer picture adopting mainly their potential "artistic value". It is any more the technique open to the experiment and any news, it takes its time, both in the sense of the idea and the form, and at the same time it does not renounce tradition. I think that the future of printmaking is the coexistence, and just in any areas of its functioning. Even not dividing into traditional graphics and that digital according to me, the essential is the idea, which is the issue of every creation. It is obvious, it has been just one matter, leaving the individual trace. Within the space of centuries, the awareness of the human subject (me) has formed the only self-existing reality. The outer world did not have the independent existence behind it. And that awareness is also indispensable for those who reach so willingly new digital technologies. These days, it may sound as a banality, we live in the world subjected to the guidelines or even terror of the digital picture. The transmission which was to serve us- made us its slavers. The Internet, a computer, a mobile phone, changing our imagination about the outer world, interfered the inner human life so deeply, that accidentally made a structural reconstruction of the human brain. The mind has been functioning differently and the graphics is varied as well. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, printmaking, along with the development of civilization and using new computer capabilities, expanded its own areas of communication and distribution of digital images. This is also the premise of this year's Triennial: the organizers expect works presenting a high artistic and technological level in the field of broadly understood artistic graphics - both digital and classical. Contemporary graphics have also become an attractive area of discourse on elementary problems of today, such as women's equality rights, world peace or ecology in the broad sense of the word as a manifestation of shared responsibility for our planet. The organizers hope that these extremely important issues will be reflected in the works sent to the 7th Triennial competition. Therefore, it will be worthwhile to carefully follow the qualified proposals. At the end once again: I underline coexistence as the existence among variety of technologies, methods and ideas. Moreover, artistic education in the range of graphic te0chnique should follow this direction: it should preserve the respect for older techniques, and treat the new ones as the natural development of print technology. For me, the digital graphics has become the opportunity to save the idea, which is at the base of the development of graphic techniques, having found its own, permanent and equal place. But the most important is the transmission, this which we want to say and because of that we select the method of its duplication. The message, which comes to the receiver, penetrates the "tissue" of the realistic world, it connects it in a form of a chemical-mental reaction. This reaction is irreversible, it means that never after- after the creation of graphic print, it is impossible to separate the real world (its passage or its elementary particle) and the graphic matrix. It does not matter if it is digital or traditional! Printmaking has always tried to describe the contemporary world with all its symptoms. It has become the attractive field of artistic, political and social interference, It initiated the dialogue, the necessity to construct crossing this, which is common and obvious in it. It has never been in the mainstream of art, it has always been functioning as "under". So, it might be in the future. For me, it is the charm and a valuable trait of it: it always has time to self-reflection! I hope that it will also be the case at the exhibition of the 7th Triennial in Gdansk. The results of the Jury's deliberations of the 7th MTG are planned to be announced on September 30, 2022 at the premises of the former Gdansk Shipyard in the Plenum Hall - exactly on the 570th anniversary of the first print of Gutenberg's Bible in 1452.
prof. Mirosław Pawłowski, 2022
Zveřejněno / aktualizováno: 24. 02. 2023
