Jan Świdziński
Sztuka, społeczeństwo i samoświadomość
This book, written in English and first published in 1979 in Canada under the title Art, Society and Self-consciousness, is to this day the most important presentation of the concept of art as contextual art. The approach to the phenomena of art proposed by Jan Świdziński brought him international recognition, and his idea is still one of the key points of reference in reflection on the dynamics of contemporary art. However, due to historical circumstances, such an important publication has not been published in Polish until now. Nowadays, when the concept of art context is used in various meanings, when various publicists who do not know any of Świdziński's texts write about the contextuality of art, it is worth getting to know the source concept of this author. It includes not only the concept of context, but also the fascinating and still cognitively inspiring theory of four models of logic that shape the world we live in. The publication also includes Twelve Points of Contextual Art written by Jan Świdziński in 1976, thus allowing the attentive reader to form their own view on one of the most important ideas for contemporary art.
Jan Świdziński
(born in 1923) performer artist, author of installations, art theoretician, organiser and participant of many symposia and presentations of performance art, author of books published in Canada and Western Europe, including: Art, Society and Self-consciousness, Art as Contextual Art, Quotations on Contextual Art, Freedom and Limitation.
