We are delighted that the Warsaw Autumn Festival is a place of collaboration between young artists associated with two art schools, active in the multimedia sphere. The musicians themselves often argue that it is worth keeping a close eye on what is happening in the visual arts, because in a few years the same trends will appear in music. Without arguing which discipline goes further in the avant-garde, let us observe that this view certainly does not apply to multimedia and intermedia activities, which by definition are interdisciplinary: sound and shape mutually define each other. Redefining the scope of expressive means by occupying a point of reference other than within a certain discipline is often productive and allows one to break through the glass ceiling of convention. 

Thanks to the understanding and support of Prof. Klaudiusz Baran, Chancellor of the Chopin University of Music, this collection of installations created by students and teachers of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Chopin University of Music for the Warsaw Autumn Festival expresses the great sensitivity of their authors to fellow human beings and their relations with others. 

This may come as a surprise, as we often hear about social atomisation, young people living in bubbles, ignoring their neighbours and communities. Judging by the works present in the Czapski Palace building, nothing could be further from the truth. They testify both to an attentive “listening” and artistic referencing to the audiosphere of our surroundings and everyday life, or a focus on a human being experiencing drama and hardship on an individual and global scale. The relationship between man and nature is also discussed, both as the environment of our lives and as the place where our common destiny—our existence in the ecosphere—unfolds. The Czapski Palace building itself will provide more than mere exhibition space. Elements of its architecture shall become signs and messages active in relation to the environment. The utilitarian aspect of everyday life shall become a symbol and a meaningful place. Perhaps the catalogue of this exhibition’s “common things” shall contribute to the broader picture: an expression of the young artists’ position towards seemingly ordinary things, but actually—without pompous pathos, but conscientiously and sincerely—resonating with the term and space defined as “res publica.” The artist as an empathetic citizen? Exactly. 

Prof. Prot Jarnuszkiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and Jerzy Kornowicz, Director of the Warsaw Autumn Festival