A new exhibition hosted by the National Museum in Krakow reveals an explosion of counterculture in 1980s Poland.

The ongoing events surrounding the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Solidarity movement have been complemented by a major new exhibition chronicling underground art during the last decade of communist rule.

A joint endeavour on behalf of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) and the National Museum in Krakow, The 80s Generation: The Independent Creations of the Young,  1980-1989 was curated by Professor Tadeusz Boruta, himself a veteran of the counterculture movement .

Over 200 works can be explored, ranging from paintings to sculptures to recordings of declamations by underground theatres.

Photographs highlight idiosyncratic protest movements such as the fabled Orange Alternative, known for using ridicule as a means of undermining the regime, notably in its street-based “Revolution of Gnomes.”

The concept for the exhibition emerged under the aegis of the late president of IPN, Janusz Kurtyka, who died in the Smolensk air tragedy in April.

Speaking to the press at the National Museum last week, Mrs Dorota Kowczanska-Kalita, Director of the Secretariat of the President of IPN, expressed that she had thought that the exhibition might not come to pass following  Mr. Kurtyka’s death.

She also stressed that one of the aims of hosting the exhibition was to show the public that IPN was concerned with other issues than ‘lustracja’,  the controversial process of ‘outing’ public figures with  communist skeletons in the closet. (nh)

“The 8os Generation: Independent Creations of the Young, 1980-1989” runs until 16t January, 2011. Entrance is free,  National Museum in Krakow, Main Building.