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The 16^th international Triennale of sculpture presented itself in Poznan/Poland under the theme ?The crisis of the genre?. From October the 3^rd until November the 2nd you could see 5 exhibitions in one: One homage to the 89 year old Italian sculptor Marino de Tiana. The  two like ?a dialogical couple?curated exhibitions  of the French curator Laurence d?Istand and the polish curator Robert Sobocinski , one  exhibition paying tribute to the curator Olivier Billard who died during the project,  and as fifth the the juried exhibition selected by an international jury frommore than 600 international entries.

Hosting place of this largest sculpture exhibition of Poland was the culture centre Zamak, a Wilhelminian remake of a castle in an  overdone Neo-Romanesque style from 1910. Albert Speer later made some changes in this castle by order of the Nazis.

However the result was surprisingly positive: The exhibitions expand over two floors of the gigantic palace complex with its grandiose but rambling floors, halls and stairways. A spectacular presentation has been created by Laurence d?Ist, Waldemar Idzikowski, Robert Sobocinski and Karolina Szotkiewicz. Through strategic use of the given architecture and clever use of separation walls an exhibition  has been created, in which sculptural elements have been implanted, which confront the spectator with various unexpected situations.

You might be surprised by the fact that you can see the handwriting of every curator. However this project unifies the different approaches because of its enormous dimensions. Despite the small budget of just over 100.000 Euros the international dimension is still large: main focus lies on France, Switzerland, Holland and Germany are well represented, there are also artists from Belgium Luxemburg, Martinique, Israel, Russia, Denmark and the USA. The catalogue, although finest designed , could have been more extensive, but given the small budget this could be accepted.

The opening programme with a big opening, a bilingual controversial discussion about the various crisis of the genre, as well as a guided tour through the exhibition was well accepted by the audience. Many foreign artists were present, who were offered two different special receptions.

I want to conclude with a comment on the young polish sculpture scene. Of course polish artists do have their focus on the international scene; however there was a very high level in the presented Polish sculpture . In the future the young polish artists deserve much more international attention.

Author: Jörg Plickat, sculptor, Bredenbek/ Germany

Further information:  http://www.triennale.artproduct.com.pl/