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The title of the exhibition is taken from the Minimalist Composition1960 #15 (9:05 AM, December 25) by La Monte Young – a legendary work created based on the concept of a piece that comes together in the imagination of the author and the recipient. Obviously, “little whirlpools in the middle of the ocean” form naturally, but the phenomenon usually occurs without human participation, emphasising its poetic and ephemeral significance. At the same time, it makes reference to the poetic and ephemeral facet of human absence and disappearance.
Minimalism wasone of the last 20th-century avant-garde movements that changed the history ofvisual arts. Frank Stella’s assertion, “What you see is what you see,” becamethe motto for the minimalists, rejecting the context and emphasizing the“straightforward reading” of an artwork. By embracing this approach intopractice, the trivial notion of the ‘materiality’ of art was no longer needed.At the same time, the commercial sale of minimalist artworks was fetishized.Consequently, the postminimalist aesthetic approach started dominating the artworld and everyday life, starting from design to the populist wabi-sabi as“shortcut” zen manuals.
Due to a formaland semantic reduction, minimalism has begun to gain relevance in art,especially in the climate crisis and overpopulation of the planet, fatiguecaused by information overload, and appreciation for the value of error andchance as a source of new knowledge. At first glance, the exhibition may seemfar from minimalism or perhaps a criticism of the commercial abuse ofaesthetics. However, the six artworks – the six chapters of the exhibition –grew out of and demonstrated the “rules” and “grammar” of minimalistaesthetics.
The exhibitionaccompanies the Music Design Form Festival 2021, held by Mieczysław KarłowiczPhilharmonic Hall in Szczecin and TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art inSzczecin.
