Chabros Ewa, 'Patyczak' Grzegorz Kmita - Graffiti in communist Poland

Graffiti in the People's Republic of Poland
Author: Ewa Chabros, Grzegorz Kmita 'Patyczak'

Publisher: IPN 2011
Cover: hardback
Condition: very good, 193 pages of album format.
Notes: none

The album was prepared by Ewa Chabros of OBEP IPN in Wroclaw and Grzegorz Kmita "Patyczak" - a participant in the graffiti community in the 1980s. The publication was created as part of the nationwide research and educational project "Year of Independent Culture." The aim of the project was to show culture independent of state patronage, as a form of social resistance to communist rule in Poland.
Today, graffiti is often seen as vandalism; in the People's Republic of Poland, it fought not only against the system in place, but also against the dirt and greyness of Polish streets and the hopelessness of communist reality. Colorful, funny pictures on dirty, gray, shabby walls attracted the attention of passers-by, brought a smile and took your mind off the coarse socialist reality for a moment.

The album consists of three parts: the first introduces the history of Polish graffiti, the second contains accounts of artists, and the third includes documents of the "Pędzel" operational case, conducted in Świdnica in 1973.