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The “Empire of the senses” is the power of the senses and the power over the senses. It would be difficult to find a better metaphor for the activities of artists – pedagogues, associated with the Department of Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, whose art, by means of various media, affects various senses of the viewer.
“Empire” may be associated with control and dominion; after all, this is a show of works by lecturers of the Academy of Fine Arts, and therefore a pedagogical institution. The exhibition therefore reflects on art education and its various light and dark sides.
Why Intermedia? The concept of intermedia was introduced in 1965 by Dick Higgins an artist associated with the Fluxus movement. For Higgins, intermedia meant artworks made using several combined traditional media, created on the border between, for example, painting and music, printmaking and poetry, sculpture and happenings. From there it was only a step from intermedia to new media. Intermedia not only combines various techniques of expression and production, it also embraces new technologies.
An essential part of artistic preparation today is the ability to move creatively between media and translate one media into another, as well as the ability to create multimedia works based on the latest communication technologies. This is why the intermedia course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, founded in 2001 on the initiative of Izabella Gustowska, Piotr Kurka, Slawek Sobczak, Andrzej Syska and Marek Wasilewski, has studios for interactive, spatial, intermedia, multimedia and performative activities, shaping and transforming space, a video and audio-art studio.
What are the consequences of such intermedial explorations. In the perception of intermedial art, the fusion of media is combined with the fusion of the senses, the impact on the various senses of the viewer, not just sight.
Therefore, the exhibition Empire of the Senses is also about the explosion of visuality into multisensory fullness. Both the artworks and the way they are arranged refer to the experience of intense sensory stimulation. The focus is on the theme of art’s impact on the five basic human senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.
The entire exhibition is a laboratory of how art influences the various senses and thus inspires meaning. Stepping inside the Empire of the Senses is like moving in a specific “sensopolis” – a space of various sensory experiences.
It is a suggestion of a more sensual, imaginative and hedonistic artistic attitude, since it is with it that states of irrationality, ecstasy and loss of rational control can be associated. Increased sensual pleasure can be an alternative to the omnipresent regime of reason and work. Art education is a way of seeking these alternative paths of perception and life.
– Pawel Leszkowicz, curator