Talk

Aleksandra Janik: Cutting edge Printmaking / Where is printmaking? In search of new meanings.

What determines the borderlines of printmaking? Does the combination of the technological processes of woodcut and video in the work on an image, as proposed by Christiane Baumgartner, already constitute the crossing of the borders of the graphic medium? Does the use of a road roller to make a duplicate print of a large-format woodcut by Bodo Korsig not cause confusion in the classification of printmaking? How to classify Willi Cole’s images burned out by means of an iron? Are the silkscreen projects made by means of coal dust on the water surface by Oscar Muñoz prints? Can a used car tire be a matrix for a print? – Betsabeé Romero, a Mexican artist, convinces us that it can.

I would like to present the works of artists who penetrate the vast areas of the printmaking universe in search of new meanings and new possibilities of imaging. The selection of works has been subjective, as any other selection would be possible as well. I have, first of all, focused on the works of authors who make a conscious and unique use of the formal and aesthetic values of the art of printmaking. I have compared experimental works in classic techniques with technological innovations, intriguing examples of combining techniques and untypical perception of the matrix and surface, performative printmaking falling outside any classification, printmaking in dialogue with the third dimension, and printmaking within the public space.