Kultura Zrzuty trzydzieści lat później

The “Pitch-In Culture” began functioning at the end of 1981 within a circle of people connected with the Łódź Kaliska group, but very soon its strongest presence was reflected by the Artist pilgrimage, Long live art! (Łódź 2-4.09.1983). This was when two meanings of the term “Pitch-In Culture” emerged: a narrow one, meaning people connected with the Łódź Kaliska group and those whose concept of art was closely associated with the group and broader intrepretation – meaning the way the artists acted who wanted to keep their independence during the martial law. Józef Robakowski on the occasion of an exhibition organised in Belgium entitled The Polish avant-garde wrote that the Pitch-In Culture was “independent of politicians, police, church, administration and artists themselves”, it expresses in gestures and slogans, “that is why it may be everywhere, in our homes, streets, forest, bar, park, tram, queue at the butchers shop and even on the train from Łódź to Koszalin and back”. Martial law forced artists to search for new forms for their activities, but this did not blur the previous personal and artistic differences. For Józef Robakowski the Pitch-In Culture was a new form for the activities of independent artists; for Łódź Kaliska it was a new artistic form. In the first case the ‘Pitch-In Culture’ was only a means; in the second – it was an aim. Of course, the second is more interesting but it requires us to answer a question: what was the art form about? Some critics thought of Jacek Kryszkowski as one of the Pitch-In Culture leaders, although he considered that the Pitch-In Culture was supposed to break with the production model of art. Kryszkowski never explained how this post-production art shall look. Today, even though Kryszkowski would not have been happy about this, since many times he attacked the dependence of Polish criticism upon art terminology and theories worked out in the West, we could say that post-production art actually resembles the relational aesthetics of Nicolas Bourriaud.