The city as stage: reading Poland's post-socialist transformation through art practices in (and on) public space in Warsaw

The thesis explores Warsaw's post-socialist transformation as seen through the lens of temporary public installations, interventions and performances as well as its changing representations in photography, film and literature. Guided by the broad range of artistic practices created within the specific urban context of the Polish capital, the thesis aims to illuminate interdisciplinary connections between the city at a time of radical change after 1989 and its manifestations in contemporary art and cultural discourse. It shows how artistic practices preceded, mirrored and commented upon profound social, political, economic and cultural changes, and how these practices have played a vital role in the democratic re-appropriation of public space in post-socialist Poland. The thesis follows five key threads, including the transformation of the post-socialist urban landscape; artists' material explorations and acts of unearthing Warsaw's layered and often invisible history; the experiences of observers, many of them foreign, and the documents they created of the evolution of the city; artist's interventions into public discourse and artistic forms of public address in public space; as well as the return of history and the search for new forms of commemoration in the post-socialist era. The main objective of this thesis, which is based on a broad range of sources including numerous interviews with artists and curators, is to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue between public art and its wider urban, cultural and political contexts after 1989, and thereby produce a cultural history that is, as of yet, undocumented in its broader complexity.