International Print Triennial – Kraków 2009

Print Festival
Several dozen exhibitions from Zielona Góra to Białystok, foreign projects from Vienna to Cuenca in Spain, world class artists and young debutants, classic drawings, as well as digital miniatures. That’s what the programme of the International Print Triennial – Kraków 2009 entails.

“The most important aspect of graphic art since the time of Dürer, Piranesi, Picasso, Daumier, Friedlaender, Brunovsky, Hayter and Anderle has been the artist’s hand and his spirit. This is humanity’s last testament transferred to paper” – observes Mersad Berber, winner of the MTG Grand Prix – Kraków 1997. It is difficult not to agree with him. Attesting to this are the four Triennial exhibitions, which have also been included in the events programme of the Polish Culture Congress 2009, taking place in September in Kraków.

The presentation of work by Ingrid Ledent (MTG Grand Prix – Kraków 2006) The Continuous Living of a Memory in the International Cultural Centre is composed of seemingly abstract works which are in reality a highly individual self-portrait. In this direct, very personal offering, the artist utilises reproduced fragments of her own body: the folds and troughs in her skin, an eye, a cheek, an ear, her nose. At the exhibition in the ICC Gallery, alongside lithographs and 3D objects are found video projections by the artist.

The second of the exhibitions – Past to Present – is in the Main Building of the National Museum in Krakow. The graphic art works by winners of the Taiwan International Print Exhibition constitute an individualised “window” on another part of the world that reflects the standpoints of the artists on such problems as: the economy, politics, history, society, religion and ecology. The works presented in Kraków form part of the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan.

In the graphic arts, apart from conception, creative vision or talent the final result of an artistic venture is determined by broad technical competencies, as well as the possession of continually refined tools. That’s why the coexistence of experience, tradition, modernity and the courage to experiment would appear to be highly justified and is continually sought after. For the attractiveness of graphic art stems from the continual enrichment and updating of techniques. The Friends of the Fine Arts Society will be welcoming visitors to the Palace of Art for Polish Print – Art and Education, an exhibition commemorating the milieu of Polish professors and their assistants, presenting their output at the turn of the century as they are confronted with the inevitable challenges presented by digitalisation…

And finally, what everyone is waiting for: the Main Exhibition of International Print Triennial – Kraków 2009 Competition Entries. Its opening takes place on 16 September at 6pm in Contemporary Art Gallery (at the map). It is also then that we can become acquainted with the prize-winning works. 6000 entries came in from all over the world, including Nepal and Malawi in Africa, from which 346 (including 119 from Poland) qualified for the competition. “I think that the main exhibition will be a surprise for many people because it will show how much graphic art is changing in the world” – observes Dr. Richard Noyce, leader of the jury, which will be awarding five regular prizes, as well as the Grand Prix d’Honneur. Apart from this, honouring artists with individual prizes will be: the Culture and National Heritage Minister, the President of the City of Kraków, the rectors of the Academies of Fine Arts in Kraków, Katowice, Warsaw, Poznań, the Higher School of Functional Art in Szczecin, Kraków’s A. Frycz Modrzewski Academy, as well as the Canson Polska firm. And this year the list of prizes has been extended by the addition of a prestigious new prize funded by Toshihiro Hamano, master of Japanese and global graphic art, sculptor and winner of numerous prizes in international graphic art competitions. The winner will receive 200 dollars and besides this, Hamano will organise in his homeland an exhibition of the works of the winning artist.

The Triennial’s programme combines openness to the latest trends with the commemoration of tradition and events from the past. That is why, in addition to historical exhibitions, like Vladimir Gažovič’s jubilee exposition – Stars of Slovakian Graphic Art – or Jerzy Grabowski’s Graphics, there is space for experimentation with the latest digital media – Digital Motion Graphics has a chance of becoming the hit of MTG Kraków 2009 and at the exhibition at the Piarists’ Crypt Gallery it will be possible to see works based on binary notation as well as the pixel as a module, imposing a 10x10 format, the end products of the Digital Processing of the Image Workshops.

The 19th edition of the Triennial (organised since 1966, initially as a Biennial) stretches well beyond Kraków. Included in the MTG Kraków programme are many highly-regarded cyclical exhibitions – The Polish Print Triennial, Mini-Digital in Płock, the Colour in Graphic Art Triennial in Toruń, the Premio di Città Chiera Triennial, as well as exhibitions by permanent partners – Triennale PrintArt Katowice 2009, the International Print Triennial Vienna 2010, International Print Triennial Oldenburg 2010, as the Print Triennial Ingráfica Cuenca 2010 in Spain. Awaiting us, then, is a global festival of graphic art!

Exhibitions: Contemporary Art Gallery, Main Building of the National Museum, International Cultural Centre, Palace of Art, Pod Jaszczurami Club, Piarists’ Crypt Gallery, the Szołayski House, Austria Consulate General, Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, Pryzmat Gallery, One Book Gallery at the Main Library of the Academy of Fine Arts, Fejkiel Gallery, Lokator Gallery, Herzyk Gallery, Artemis Gallery, Jagiellonian Library Gallery, Slovakian Society in Poland Gallery of Slovakian Art, Gil Gallery at Kraków’s University of Technology, Labirynt Gallery, Raven Gallery