The Biennale of Graphic Arts, established in 1999, is a cyclical review/competition presenting the works of artists of the young generation, working in the field of graphic arts.[1] Since 2019, the formula of the competition has changed by specifying thematic areas that emphasise alternative values entering into a dialogue with contemporary culture and everyday life. The new formula of the biennale has been adapted to changes in contemporary art related to post-art activities (1: 1 art, ‘utilitarian’ art, material realism) and adapted to transformations conditioned by the role of graphic statements in the context of social activities (activist movements).
IMPORT/EXPORT is the theme of the 14th Graphic Arts Biennale, which will take place in Poznań in the spring of 2025. It refers to the hierarchy of dependencies between core countries and the periphery that lead to cultural self-colonization and perpetuate this division of the world. Here, import and export allude to the exchange of culture-forming artistic phenomena.
The competition is addressed to artists from all over the world, aged 18 to 40 years.
More about the 14th Graphic Arts Biennale
[1] Graphic arts – a field of art related to media message. It includes all forms of creative activity that interact with a common, socially shaped visual language.The area of graphic arts involves all forms of printing (such as offset, photocopying and digital printing), including classic graphic techniques (such as woodcut, linocut, lithography, metal techniques and serigraphy), as well as activities performed using modern information media (such as press, books, internet, television and external screens). It includes artistic activity related to the use of graphic language – simplifications, synthesis, condensation and visual communication (accepted and commonly understood visual content) – aimed at creating new forms of creative expression. Hence, graphic arts include interventions in urban space, artnet, templates, collage techniques, archival records, graphic installations, actions on billboards, murals, comments on existing information carriers, leaflets, original posters, as well as graphic works on paper or canvas and on other surfaces’. Maciej Kurak (ed.), Bunt. Nowe ekspresje, Poznań: Uniwersytet Artystyczny w Poznaniu, 2021, p. 305.