Thursday 5 January 2012

DIY art career

Andrzej Sobiepan's 19 x 20cm work hung for 3 days unnoticed
Young Polish art student Andrzej Sobiepan has become known in the art world overnight by hanging one of his own art works in the Wroclaw National Museum in Poland. The Warsaw Business Journal reports that, while the security guards' backs were turned, he took the chance to put small green and white work on display. Not only did he manage to do so without being spotted, but nobody noticed the addition for three days.

Sobiepan said that he did not want to 'wait 30 or 40 years' before seeing his work on the museum's walls and so, in emulation of Banksy, he went ahead and put it up himself.

The BBC reports that although the museum's director, Mariusz Hermansdorfer, admitted there had been some security breaches, he also said that Sobiepan's stunt was a 'witty artistic happening'. The student himself isn't too worried about the museum's reactions, since he hasn't taken or damaged any museum property. 'What could they accuse me of?' he asked. 'I do not think that the [museum] rules have anything about bringing in your own artwork.'

Evidently there are no plans afoot to accuse anyone of anything illegal - indeed the work is due to be displayed in the museum again, before being auctioned off in aid of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, which purchases medical equipment for Polish hospitals.

Read more in the Washington Times and the Huffington Post.

1 comment:

mathinker said...

> before being auctioned off in aid of
> the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity

So, if Poland enforces resale royalty, this means that Sobiepan may indirectly get paid for doing this?

That seems weird to me. Interestingly enough, enforcing resale royalty as an inalienable right, deprives from artists the privilege of giving their art away "totally for free"!