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ZERO-61 GROUP

In the 1960s in Poland, artistic collectives flourished
in the city of Torun, fostered by the academic com-
munity of Copernicus University despite the restric-
tions placed on artists by the Communist re ́gime
then in power. One of the most significant of these
groups was a photography collective known as Zero-

61. The moniker was derived from the year of the
    group’s founding, 1961, and was based on the mem-
    bers’ insistence on starting from scratch, aestheti-
    cally speaking. Desiring to shed themselves of all
    influence and formalistic tradition, they sought to
    begin again from zero. The founding members in-
    cluded Jo ́zef Robakowski, Czeslaw Kuchta, Lucjan
    Oczkowski, Jerzy Wardak, and Wieslaw Wojczu-
    lanis. As the 1960s progressed, more artists came to
    participate in the collective, including Andrzej
    Ro ́zycki, Antoni Mikolajczyk, Michal Kokot, and
    Wojciech Bruszewski.
    The various participants shared darkroom space,
    experimented with technique, and exhibited their
    resulting work together. They did not employ a
    specific program or write an artistic manifesto, as
    their aesthetic direction was essentially freeform.
    Yet they did share certain values and strategies in
    common. Their motivation was self-consciously
    rebellious, and they were specifically interested in
    challenging the journalistic, documentary photo-

graphy popular in Poland at the time. Their work

is characterized by a playful attitude toward the

photographic medium, and frequent experimenta-

tion with technique and process. Such manipulation

served to problematize photography’s reputation as

a transparent window into reality, and a conveyer

of unmediated truth.

For the Zero-61 group, artistic intervention did

not conclude with the click of the shutter. They were

interested in pushing the boundaries of their med-

ium by manipulating their images and combining

their photographs with other materials. There was

diversity to the formal strategies utilized by the

Zero-61 members, and the results of their experi-

mental endeavors were often visually poetic. Brus-

zewski frequently scratched his negatives, Ro ́zycki

painted directly on finished prints, Mikolajczyk uti-

lized multiple exposures, and nearly all produced

various types of photomontage. Some created mon-

tages by juxtaposing negatives, others by combining

fragments of prints and re-photographing them to

create a sense of seamlessness. The willingness of

the Zero-61 members to mix photography with

other mediums points to the multiplicity of their

artistic practice; some were practicing painters,

while others went on to create more conceptually-

based work.