The goal of “The Power of Fantasy” exhibition is to present how fantasy, magic, madness and absurd became vital themes in Polish contemporary art. The media library however is organized around the conceptual use of a simple tool: Bookmark/Information Return. Books selected by the user are organized within a web of references- associations made through the use of bookmarks in other texts reveal relevant phenomenons in Polish art as well as connections between people and events.

The bookmark tool facilitates not only moving around "unknown territory", it also allows for a more involved and personalized reading experience, (...) will allow for the creation of new links - the reader, through his act of selecting and organizing within the library those sections which he finds relevant, will be able to forge a personalized literary trail. What this also means is that every subsequent user will be able to see the library through the eyes of his predecessor.

Functioning alongside the library there is a virtual media library created by Mateusz Kula. It consists of a platform of web pages based on the idea of "social bookmarking". On their monitors users will be able to see a "semantic cloud" composed of names, ideas and concepts. Through the use of bookmarks, tags and descriptions- signs of activity by users, the cloud changes shape; certain components "shrink" whereas others "grow", enriched by new associations. Every look into that virtual space will be therefore different- each subsequent user will contribute to an ever more dynamic conglomeration of information, creating a never ending narrative.

The exhibition - presented under the Honorary Patronage of Albert II, King of Belgians and Mr Bronisław Komorowski, President of the Republic of Poland - is organized as part of I, CULTURE – the International Cultural Programme of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council.

"The Power of Fantasy. Nowoczesna i współczesna sztuka z Polski"
curators : David Crowley, Zofia Machnicka, Dr Andrzej Szczerski
Media library “s(h)elf curating 2.0”
team of curators: Agnieszka Kilian, Karolina Harazim, Anna Borejczuk
Brussels, BOZAR,  24.06.2011 - 18.09.2011

image: Olaf Brzeski, Dream - Spontaneous combustion, 2008. Courtesy of the Czarna Gallery (Warsaw, Poland)