Jarosław Kozłowski’s new exhibition – Yes or No and Vice Versa – provides a continuation of his long-running, subversive play with the very concept of art. As early as in the 1970s, in his Art as Art manifesto, Kozłowski put forth fundamental questions about what art is and what it is not. In his view, art cannot be identified strictly with the notions of beauty and aesthetics. Instead, what is most important is the idea, even if it does not take material form. The artist’s intention and the awareness of participation in the language it creates are also significant. For Kozłowski, art can be a reflection on the idea of art: its language, form, and function. This is why the artist’s actions often take the shape of texts, installations, instructions, or documentation.
Therefore – according to Kozłowski – that which does not carry reflection nor participates in artistic discourse – is not art. Thus, it is not an objective category, but rather an open expanse of meaning in which intentions, contexts, and communication play a key role. What we recognise as art need not be visually pleasing or permanent – it is sufficient that it provokes one to reflect. The artist points out that: “Art is fully realized in its contact with the viewer, whom I invite to join a conversation, a potential exchange of ideas. I therefore make an effort to be fairly transparent in my <<statements>> and to encourage discussions or debates.”
Jerzy Ludwiński, Kozłowski’s long-time friend, argued that art was increasingly moving further and further away from material form. He wrote: “The work of art has ceased to be an object – it is rather becoming a fact, an event, a structure of thought”. According to Ludwiński, the idea was far more important than its physical manifestation – all that was required was a concept that would spark a thought process in the viewer. Ludwiński thought that art could exist without a tangible, visible object, and that the artist could become a certain kind of researcher. Arthur Danto, on the other hand, wrote that it is not the appearance that makes something art, but the context and the way of thinking about it. In his essay, “The Artworld”, he wrote that to see something as art requires something the eye cannot describe – a knowledge of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld.
Danto introduced the concept of an “artworld” understood as a network of institutions, theories, and practices that render objects meaningful. Without the context of this network, even the most original objects could go unnoticed. This network is also referenced by Kozłowski, who views the process of mythologizing of institutions and the idea of art as a crucial area of analytical deconstruction. Arsenal Municipal Gallery in Poznań is also a subject of the latter: within its building, we can find the artist’s drawings created on the building’s exposed brick walls in 2022. This work of art, currently in the Gallery’s collection, provides a hidden reference point with respect to the artist’s most recent, fully visible pieces.
Kozłowski’s work – which consistently undermines the aesthetic aspects of artistic endeavours, but also subversively exploits them – reveals the artist’s attachment to the notion of manual gestures. Painterly streaks, colours, and lines visible in the artist’s works are elements of the process of deconstructing artistic tools. The series of conceptual drawings and paintings feature evident traces of handwritten notes. Expressing thoughts through elements of traditional artistic practices appears to be a key element of Kozłowski’s artistic identity. The artist’s gestures are entirely selfless and – in a kind of perverse way – useless.
As Kozłowski explains: “I’m intrigued by art that is purposefully useless, and do I not use this term in a derogatory sense. On the contrary, I understand uselessness as a safeguard of unimpeded activity that has no formal function beyond sheer cognitive satisfaction. I like it all the more because, freed from external determinations, it gives credence to this idea of artistic freedom that is so dear to me”.
The title of the exhibition – Yes or No and Vice Versa – can be understood as an artistic reflection on the ambiguous and relative nature of cognition, providing an interesting parallel to Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. This fundamental concept of quantum mechanics states that it is impossible to simultaneously measure certain pairs of physical quantities – for example, the position and momentum of a particle – with precision and accuracy. Observing one impacts the possibility of knowing the other: the more accurately one is measured, the less accurately the other can be known. This leads to the conclusion that reality at the quantum level is not fully predictable or unambiguous, and that the very act of observation changes the observed object.
The show’s title also undermines the conventional, logical distinction between “yes” and “no”, and draws attention to the continual interpenetration of opposites and the lack of fixed points of reference. The viewer is plunged into a state of epistemological uncertainty, similar to that introduced to science by quantum physics. The artist suggests that our comprehension of the world – both in art and science – is always fraught with a certain degree of uncertainty, subjectivity, and ambiguity. Both Heisenberg’s theory and Kozłowski’s art underscore the active role played by the viewer in the process of interpretation. It is not just the world itself, but the way we see it that shapes our understanding. Thus, the title of the exhibition is not simply a word play, but rather a reflection on the nature of cognition and the limits of human reason.
curator: Marek Wasilewski
