Multiple Realities offers a sweeping survey of experimental art made in Central and Eastern Europe during the 1960s to 1980s. Despite their geographical proximity, artists working during this time encountered different conditions for daily life and art-making, confronting varying degrees of control and pressure exerted by state authorities. Embracing conceptual or formal innovation and a spirit of adventurousness, Multiple Realities sheds light on ways that artists refused, circumvented, eluded and subverted official systems, in the process creating works often riddled with wit, humor or irony.

Drawing on visual art, performance, music, and material culture, Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s–1980s discusses the work of artists from East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia—canonical figures as well as lesser-known practitioners, particularly women artists, artist collectives, and those exploring embodiment through an LGBTQIA+ lens.

WIth contributions by Ivana Bago (art historian, Zagreb, Croatia), Dušan Barok (editor, Monoskop.org), Michał Grzegorzek (independent curator, Warsaw), Daniel Muzyczuk (head of contemporary art, Muzeum Sztuki Łódź, Poland), Pavel S. Pyś (exhibition curator, Walker Art Center), Kathleen Reinhardt (curator, Albertinum, Dresden, Germanny), Natalia Sielewicz (curator, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw), and artists Anna Daučíková, Libuše Jarcovjáková, Alexandra Pirici, and Karol Radziszewski.

Artists include: Milan Adamciak, Autoperformationsartisten, AWACS, Lubomír Benes, Sándor Benkö, A.E. Bizottság, Vladimir Bonacic, Geta Bratescu, Adina Caloenescu, Zdenka Cechová, Vera Chytilová, Lutz Dammbeck, Jan Dobkowski, Sherban Epuré, Barbara Falender, Lászlo Fehér, Stano Filko, AG Geige, Teresa Gierzynska, Karpo Godina, Tomislav Gotovac, Ion Grigorescu, Wiktor Gutt & Waldemar Raniszewski, Gino Hahnemann, Heino Hilger, Károly Hopp-Halász, Janós Istvány, Sanja Ivekovic, Libuse Jarcovjáková, Zeljko Jerman, Krzysztof Jung, Eva Kmentová, Milan Knízák/AKTUAL Group, Július Koller, Jirí Kovanda, Gyula Konkoly, Kryzys, Jolanta Marcolla, Florin Maxa, Tomislav Mikulic, Teresa Murak, Katalin Ladik, Matei Lazarescu, Natalia LL, Ana Lupas, Dóra Maurer, Simon Menner, Andrzej Mitan, Kolomon Novak, Ewa Partum, Plastic People of the Universe, Polish Radio Experimental Studio, Queer Art Institute, Józef Robakowski, Jerzy Rosolowicz, Akademia Ruchu, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Alina Szapocznikow, Peter stembera and Krzysztof Wodiczko.

 

The book is published in conjunction with the eponymous exhibition at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. [publishers’ note]