Interior of Biuro Poezji (Poetry Office)
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- Interior of Biuro Poezji (Poetry Office)
- late 1960s
- b&w photograph
- 22,7 × 18,3 cm
Andrzej Partum opened his Poetry Office (Biuro poezji) in 1971, and it came to form an important node in the mail art exchange network as well as meeting place for artists in Warsaw. He described this institution’s profile in his characteristic way: “The Poetry Office is of a creative and authoritative character. It does not define things, does not buy or sell. It does not mediate or intervene. It registers creative facts created within 48 hours of the moment they are reported. At the author's request, it may issue an opinion on the concept or work. When conducting activities of avant-garde thought, the Poetry Office has first and foremost its own good in mind. The Poetry Office is apolitical. It is a criticosystem that self-regulates abstract conditions in favor of information that is always of the future, that is, not very verified…” The Poetry Office issued communiques in the form of printed statements that were dispatched by post. One of them, set directly against the existing institutional system of art, was associated with an exhibition he presented in 1973 entitled “List of Culture and Art Ignoramuses” at the Repassage Gallery in Warsaw. Said list contained the names of numerous individuals who occupied key positions in official cultural circles. Since they had been described as ignoramuses, the aim of the exhibition was to discredit their competence and thus emphasize that the field of art in which real values are created is found outside of the mainstream. Many of these individuals received a postcard that accused them of being ignorant of art and culture. D.M.