publications

Miejsca. O przestrzeniach dla sztuki by Małgorzata Kaźmierczak and Anna Orlikowska

About the book:

Obrońców Stalingradu 17 is an artist-run space in Szczecin, Poland. The name of the place originates from the street name and the number where it is located. Obrońców Stalingradu 17 (OS 17) is by definition neither a gallery, nor a project room, nor an artist-run space, nor the headquarters of a collective. Nevertheless, it has hosted a number of artistic events over the several years of its existence: exhibitions, workshops, concerts, meetings and residencies. Obrońców Stalingradu 17 has also become a meeting point for the young creative community associated with the Academy of Art in Szczecin - a place where not only exhibitions are held, but which can also be co-created on many levels.
Participation in this kind of informal situation naturally gave rise to a monographic publication devoted to alternative and independent spaces for art. A publication that is a theoretical analysis and description of the functioning of models of different places that escape the official scheme of hierarchical institutions such as the museum or the gallery. The authors of the texts range from those with a rich creative and scholarly output to young artists and theoreticians who are currently co-creating such situations or functioning within their circulation. Some of the texts are also devoted to the place understood as the physical space of the city - Szczecin, where Obrońców Stalingradu 17 is located, and are an attempt to grasp its complex genius loci, which determines the specificity of the creative environment. A city where, with the establishment of the Academy of Art, a group of people connected with the academy has emerged: students, graduates and teachers, feeling the need to co-create a space for art.