Work for Small Change is a richly illustrated catalogue of works by Polish artist Franciszek Orłowski. This is the first such extensive presentation of his art.
The main theme of the publication and the artistic practice of Orłowski is the concept of work. The artist explores the place of work in a contemporary capitalist society affected by economic crisis – he addresses issues of precarity, illegal work, economic migration, poverty and homelessness. He approaches the subject of social class with social sensitivity, questioning his own position as an artist.
The book contains commentary on the artist’s work by four theoreticians of contemporary art. Ieva Astahovska, an art curator from Riga, associated with the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, analyzes the role of Orłowski’s work in the broader context of engaged art from Eastern Europe. Caterina Preda, a political scientist from the University of Bucharest, author of Art and Politics under Modern Dictatorships: A Comparison of Chile and Romania (2017), winner of the 1st European Arteast Foundation International Research Grant, emphasizes the political nature of Orłowski’s activities. Amy Bryzgel, a professor of film and visual culture at the University of Aberdeen, the author of Performing the East: Performance Art in Russia, Latvia and Poland since 1980 (2013) and Performance Art in Eastern Europe since 1960 (2017), discusses the performativity and empathy of Orłowski’s works. The theoretical section of the book ends with a chapter by Magdalena Radomska, the editor of the publication, which binds all the texts together and interprets the artist’s work from a labour-oriented perspective.
