This intimate publication documents an iconic art space of the 20th century, the Warsaw apartment and studio of Polish artists Henryk Stazewski (1894–1988) and Edward Krasinski (1925–2004)—a lively artistic and social space shared by multiple artists.
Stazewski moved in this apartment in 1962 with avant-garde painter Mewa Lunkiewicz-Rogoyska and her husband, Jan Rogoyski. Together they created a lively artistic space, one of very few at the time in Warsaw, a venue for a busy social life and artistic meetings. In 1970, Krasinski moved in with Stazewski, and the two continued the venue's tradition together.
Following Stazewski's death in 1988, Krasinski was inspired to create new works, which were largely informed by the studio's space and history. The main feature of this site-specific bodies of work is Krasinski's emblematic use of blue Scotch tape, which he stuck horizontally at a height of 130 cm, "
everywhere and on everything."
Referencing the landmark artist's book '
An Anecdoted Topography of Chance' by
Daniel Spoerri (1962), this publication interweaves a very detailed photographic survey of the studio—still preserved today in exactly the same state it was after Krasinski's death—by Polish photographer Pawel Bownik, as well as numerous short stories written by relatives, artists, critics, curators, and friends of both artists in commemoration of the importance of this location in the definition and social life of the Polish avant-garde, and in the dialogue between Western and Eastern European contemporary art scenes.
Contributors include
Daniel Buren, Andrzej Przywara, Anka Ptaszkowska, Joann Mytleowska, Adam Szymczyk, and many others. Together they propose a sensitive mapping of an inspirational time capsule of the contemporary.
