Exhibitions to mark the 2020/2021 Academic Year Opening Ceremony
Six real-life exhibitions, four venues and one online ceremony
The 20th Academic Year Opening Ceremony will start on Friday 9 October at 12:00. Since only a limited number of people may attend in person, the event will be streamed on Facebook. Bogna Świątkowska will deliver the keynote lecture titled “Let’s connect! Why creating a better future cannot happen without artists.”
Due to the pandemic restrictions, the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice has introduced hybrid learning. The official Opening Ceremony of the new academic year will be organised in a similar fashion.
Since we cannot meet in one room, let us meet online and see the exhibitions arranged by the Academy. Please take care of each other and observe the epidemiological guidelines. Before you visit the Academy premises, Rondo Sztuki Gallery or the BWA Gallery in Katowice, please check their rules of attending events.
The recording of the Opening Ceremony will be available on Facebook and YouTube.
Kalarus All Over in Rondo Sztuki Gallery
Roman Kalarus is exceptional for many reasons. Firstly, his works are inseparable from his character. Secondly, he is called a Master in his lifetime. Thirdly, Master Kalarus in always at that boyish age, full of charm and fascination.
Perhaps this is why he has got away with his innocently combining the sacred and the profane, busts with heavenly hosts. Explaining associations about Kalarus is like explaining TikTok to teenagers. It is like describing a pleasure without experiencing it.
Roman Kalarus’s aesthetics comprise a fascination with the body, flight, speed and sexual drive. The images are dynamic and full of significant detail, vivid in colour. He is visible regardless of the medium of expression: in his characteristic poster, the lettering hand, illustration, prints, scenography and polychrome in the Archdiocese chapel. We are presenting only a fraction of his enormous body of work, which elbows its way in the space and into the viewer’s head. It plays ironically with the sense of morality, disregarding it. It is but play. The Master is absolved of all disagreements and misunderstandings of the sense of humour. After all, he is a romantic who will one day fly away in a Zeppelin.
Exhibition curator: Joanna Ambroz
Exhibition design: Joanna Kubieniec
The exhibition accompanies the Transatlantic Festival
Rules for visiting are available on the Rondo Sztuki Gallery website. The exhibition is open until 20 October.