Two Paradigms – Two Art Worlds: On Constructing the Difference as a Strategy for Validating the Concept of the Artist and Art

The subject of the article is two art worlds in the field of visual arts which currently exist side by side in Poland. These worlds operate as part of two different paradigms of art, which is why two different definitions of the art and artist apply to them, and, in consequence, also different models of operation. What is important in the case of both communities is the process of constructing the difference and separating out their own communities of meanings, being a strategy to lend credence to their own concept of the art and artist, as well as their position in the art world. The aim of the article is to describe the process of constructing internal boundaries in the Polish art world and its division into two separate worlds, what means have been used in that process, as well as what are the consequences of belonging to the two separate art worlds for their participants.

To an average observer, the art world described by Howard Becker as "the network of people whose cooperative activity, organised via their joint knowledge of conventional means of doing things, produce(s) the kind of art works that art world is noted for" seems to be quite uniform.
He/She will easily separate out in the public space specific institutions and actors which make up the contemporary art world, which, in turn, will appear to him/her to be simply another manifestation of the centuries-old tradition. However, what that observer will see will merely be, to quote Anthony Cohen, "the common mask," i.e. "the public face" of the contemporary art world, which pretends to be uniform but masks "the private face," which is full of diversity and full of visible boundaries between individual communities (2001:73-74). Artists also "mask the differentiation within itself by using or imposing a common set of symbols," which is why it is important to "discriminate between the common mask and the complex variations which it conceals" rather than describe and analyze this public medium (Cohen 2001:73).
In this article, I focus on artists who create in the area of visual arts as well as on the process of constructing difference, which is an internal boundary between the artistic communities which construct it. The difference results from two different art paradigms -i.e. the modern paradigm and the contemporary one -which exist side by side in the Polish art world and define art and the artist so differently that they, in fact, divide that art world into two separate and incompatible art worlds.
The first paradigm -the modern one -is predominant in the concept of art taught at prestigious universities and practiced by a significant part of professors of fine arts in art schools; it is also common in exhibition programs of the BWA galleries (Artistic Exhibitions Bureaux), which operate in the capitals of the former voivodeships, as well as among the artists associated in the ZPAP (the Association of Polish Artists and Designers) and among continuators of the tradition of plein-air workshops and artistic symposia. I would refer to that model of art and the artistic community connected with it as "the peripheral modernity." The peripherality does not refer to the geographical location of the individual centers but, rather, to their marginal significance; continuing the modern paradigm, but without avant-garde ambitions, these artists hold a secondary position with respect to the mainstream art in Poland and in the world.
The second model, i.e. the contemporary paradigm, is something that I would call "the mainstream contemporariness." The paradigm has originated as a result of criticism of modernity, which is said to be too academic and devoid of avant-garde ambitions. It involves artists connected with the socalled mainstream, i.e. represented by such institutions as centers for contemporary art, avant-garde galleries, and foundations. In the article, the concept of the mainstream will be understood as related to the main, dominant discourse and its circulation in contemporary art worldwide.
The aim of the article is to demonstrate the process in which the artist and art are constructed, and, owing to it, the internal boundaries in the Polish art world as well as divisions within it. It is important to present the means used in that process as well as the consequences -for the participants -of belonging to the separate art worlds. What will be crucial to achieve this purpose is to determine which actors and in what capacity participate in the processes which are important to the art world, as well as who has been authorized to construct valid defini-

Research material and methodology
When writing about the "peripheral modernity" in this article, I use the results of the empirical research conducted in the years 2017-2019 among the visual In the case of the second art world -the "mainstream contemporariness" -I used the collective case study method (Stake 1994  In the article, an imbalance regarding the depth of the exploration of both art worlds can be perceptible.
In the case of "the mainstream contemporariness," I present the results of the first stage of the research (I am planning to conduct one-to-one in-depth interviews with artists at the next stage), which is why they are preliminary, but in my opinion sufficient to outline the specificity of this art world.
Moreover, I analyze the initial periods of these institutions' functioning, as they have changed over the past two decades (i.e. the UC CCA has lost its leading position to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and the anti-system Raster Gallery has turned into a commercial gallery). modernism as "an international style based on the autonomy of the artistic subject and dominance of esthetics." According to the author, the main strategy of modernism was to neutralize the framework (context) and to melt the art work into "the uniformist world of the common artistic idiom" (Piotrowski 1999:266), which, in consequence, led to the situation in which modernism demonstrated features of formalism and supported the "utopia of the universal language." Piotrowski believes that such a style was always convenient for any type of authority, because it was a style which "avoided critical references to the reality, and was, in fact, decoration which could be defended against trivialization only by discourses of esthetics. History, which was sometimes incorporated in it, tended to be quickly disarmed, and the modernist art work triumphed with the apparent power of its autonomy" (Piotrowski 1999:266).

Two art paradigms
What is useful in understanding the paradigm of modern art is the concept put forward by Niklas Luhmann (2016), who perceived art as a social system. According to this notion, art is a closed system in terms of its operation, and it produces for itself all operations it needs for its own continuation. In this approach, the history of art is "the conversation of some art works with others," and "does not contain anything imported from outside"; the autonomy of the art system consists in the fact that "the artist is well-oriented in the world of works created earlier and his/her own creative programs" (Piotrowski 1999:278). The differentiation takes place in the context of works which are already recognized and theories which already function; what is more, it requires a limitation of the social factors which apply to the way in which works are created and received, as the art work must be able to differentiate itself from something else; "it must be able to identify that it is about art" (Piotrowski 1999:276); the reduction of contacts with the sur-Two Paradigms -Two Art Worlds: On Constructing the Difference as a Strategy for Validating the Concept of the Artist and Art rounding environment is aimed at protecting the boundaries of one's own definition of art.
Heinich also describes two significant changes which took place in the history of art. The first one was the transition from the classical paradigm to the modern one, and the second change was the appearance of the contemporary paradigm, which re-

Peripheral modernity
What is characteristic of the artistic community which believes that the modern paradigm is still binding and inspiring is its striving to make the art work and artist as autonomous as possible. Its members believe that the art work is the creation of isolated individuals. Furthermore, in their opinion, only artists are experts in the field of art, so it is them themselves who perform most of the tasks connected with the functioning of the art world.
In addition, the fact that they are employed by art institutions and schools helps to sustain the myth of the disinterestedness of art, which is created and exhibited during leisure time, and that its optional sale is not the main source of income.
In the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, most galleries and exhibition rooms are managed by artists who hold the position of institutions' directors or specialists in a given exhibition program. In such a case, those artists also play the role of curators of their colleagues' exhibitions, but the way in which the curator's task is understood here is different than in mainstream institutions. Usually, the author himself/herself chooses the works, arranges the exhibition on the gallery's premises, whereas the curator is merely the author of the text to the catalog which had been agreed with the artist, as well as It is the same with the willingness to make money on art: I know that the curator is a nice institution, but he/she In terms of the values considered to be the most important in artistic practice, truth ranks first.
The statements of the artists covered by the research suggest that it is understood as sincerity of the statements and consistency with one's own personality, which is quite significant in that paradigm -art's main task is to express the artist's in- to looking for the truth. Admits that they miss it.
I appreciate the fact that somebody doesn't pretend anything while creating. That they aren't coy.
Two Paradigms -Two Art Worlds: On Constructing the Difference as a Strategy for Validating the Concept of the Artist and Art Looking for truth in expressing oneself is not a fast and easy process, which is why the creative process is often described as a struggle or even a fight: What's the most important to me is sincerity. Sincerity What is problematic for them in the reception of contemporary art is not its controversial contents, but, rather, its insufficient formal and esthetic val- The members of this environment take into account mainly big state institutions (the BWA, city galleries, and galleries owned by the ZPAP) as well as private, independent galleries, but they completely disregard centers for contemporary art or public space as a place for artistic activity. Many artists dream about an exhibition at the 'Zachęta' National Gallery of Art, but none of them strives for an exhibition at any of the CCAs.

Mainstream contemporariness
The mainstream connected with the contemporary paradigm is an art world created mainly by cura- The analysis of the contents of Obieg shows which phenomena in contemporary art were indicated as worth "mainstreaming," and which ones were disregarded (their absence in the magazine suggested they were unimportant). In the 1990s, the magazine clearly indicated the avant-garde movement in the 20th-century art as the tradition which deserves to be maintained (the theme of an avant-garde museum and the process of collecting is discussed) and continued. What was also initiated was a discussion about the need to develop a new artistic policy.
Accounts from artistic events in Poland (initially, mainly in Gdańsk) and abroad (reports from New • "Zakalce" -["Sad layers"] -exhibitions (salons, reviews, triennials) organized by "tasteless buns" (Gorczyca and Kaczyński 2009:29); • "Lack of Content Syndrome" -"the most common disease among Polish painters" who believe that art is a separate, autonomous world, which is why the art work's form is its content (Gorczyca and Kaczyński 2009:52).
The concepts bearing positive associations, related to the phenomena which critics believe to be worth promoting, include: • "Ambit" -i.e. the most ambitious type of a collective exhibition, the so-called "problem exhibition," based on the curator's idea and selection (Gorczyca and Kaczyński 2009:21); • "As" ["Ace"] -a pun, as the ace is the highest card in the deck and, in Polish, it is also the abbreviation for the "Network Artist" (Gorczyca and Kaczyński 2009:25); • "Kowalnia" -the sculpture studio run by Pro- From among the texts on art written at the three above-mentioned stages, one can identify the main categories, on the basis of which the distinction is made. First, these are categories of novelty, youth, avant-gardism, and contemporariness. Then, the term "topicality" is added (a selection of art which Two Paradigms -Two Art Worlds: On Constructing the Difference as a Strategy for Validating the Concept of the Artist and Art is a direct dialog with "here and now"). The third stage involves the "dynamism of change" (giving an account of the phenomenon of "fluidity" in the global art world). Curators are the directors of the whole process, and it is them who, through institutions which they represent, are authorized to create new definitions of art and the artist.
In the "mainstream contemporariness" model, art is a space for discussion about the contemporary times which is attended, apart from the artist, by and institutions, and explains his own actions as resulting from the need to weaken the mainstream and strengthen that which has been marginalized.