"Winning is strictly prohibited" : on the creative strategies of Banksy and Jan Klata

Bibliogr. s. 31. Przedruk (pierwodruk doi: 10.31261/SSP.2020.16.07)

The text constitutes an analysis of the work of two socially-engaged artists: Banksy and Jan Klata, who use the motif of an amusement park in their works. Banksy uses it in a literal – though subversive – way in his project Dismaland, which presents a mocking reversal of Disneyland. Klata, on the other hand, in his performances that often function as a commentary on the reality that surrounds us, uses a set of formal "attractions" reminiscent of those found at an amusement park, which put the viewer (like Eisenstein’s montage of attractions) in a state of perceptual dissonance. The author argues that the space created by engaged art, which utilizes the concept of the amusement park, allows for a true rebellion against the established order. Real amusement parks, on the other hand, create only an illusion of the possibility to break from the existing social norms.