C.U.K.T.

  • Name
    • C.U.K.T. Centralny Urząd Kultury Technicznej
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  • Status
    • Meta-national artistic and political institution
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  • Year of Establishment
    • 1995, Gdańsk
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  • Founders
    • Robert Mikołaj Jurkowski, Artur Kozdrowski, Jacek Niegoda, Adam Virus Popek, Rafał Grabowski, Piotr Wyrzykowski
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  • From the C.U.K.T. Manifesto (1995)
    • Elimination of info-apartheid.

    • Transformation of culture into technical culture.

    • Fight for machine rights and against technophobia.

    • The machine as author.

    • Designing information management systems.

    • Establishing a new democratic order based on technology.

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  • Methods of Operation
    • Techno-entertainment as systemic propaganda.

    • Mass rave events as a political-aesthetic format.

    • Educational activities and infiltration of public institutions.

    • Own documents, seals, and systems of representation.

    • Founding informal institutions (e.g. The Cyborg University).

    • Bio-stimulation of social consciousness.


  • Key Events
    • 1994
      • pre-C.U.K.T.: pioneering action by M.R. Jurkowski & P. Wyrzykowski, 120h Mega Techno Presence Art is a Cultic Space or There Is No Art, Galeria Chwilowa, Konin
    • 19952000
      • ​​​​​​​series of techno-demonstrations and artistic interventions in public space
    • 2000
      • Wiktoria Cukt’s presidential campaign and launch of the CES programme
    • 2024
      • reactivation of the idea in the form of Wiktoria Cukt 2.0
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  • Exhibitions
    • Solo
      • 2000
        • The Presidential Campaign of Wiktoria Cukt, Łaźnia, Gdańsk; Museum of Art, Łódź; Zachęta, Warsaw
    • Group
      • 2024
        • Rave: Recharge, Southbank Centre, London
      • 2019
        • 140 BPM, Tate Modern, London
      • 2000
        • After the Wall, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
      • 1996
        • Delikatessen Avantgarde, Kunstraum, Düsseldorf
      • 1995
        • Anti-election Techno-demonstration, Forts, Gdańsk/Kyiv
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  • Vision

    • Quotes from the Analysis by Łucja Iwanczewska
      (Source: Łucja Iwanczewska, (Techno)Transformation: A Story of a Field Experiment, Jagiellonian University)

      • C.U.K.T. was a symposium of modernity and a laboratory an experimental redefinition of existing cultural games and the design of new ones.

      • Techno was both tool and language a form of generational expression, an organisational strategy, a funding method, and a political declaration.

      • The artists of C.U.K.T. attempted to establish the Cyborg University a space for educating a new democratic, civic, and technologically aware society.

      • Technical culture is not just about creativity, but also about systems of information control. Its values include: objectivity, professionalism, standardisation, progress, and the economisation of human relations.

      • C.U.K.T.’s actions were an attempt to establish society through art, techno, information, and experiment.

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  • System Declaration
    • C.U.K.T. does not create, C.U.K.T. makes aware.