Established in 1972, The Artistic Program Centre Duniko served as a substitute for the author. The artist curated his brand following the examples of state-controlled manufacturing plants and science facilities.

This branding involved above all the use of perforated computer paper, letterheaded “THE ARTISTIC PROGRAM CENTRE DUNIKO” as well as labelled for the purposes of classification and attribution (“ORDER NUMBER,” “DATE OF REALISATION,” “SIGNATURE,” etc.).

The Centre’s activities negated human effort as a prerequisite for the creation of works of art, extending the latter’s definition to include standardised aspects of a cybernetic aesthetic, and thus pointed to the possibility of having art produced by computers.

Mottos appeared in longhand or stamped on the Centre’s letterhead, stating the artist’s creative stance (TO BE IS TO BE AGAINST, 1972; TO BE IS TO BE DIFFERENT, 1972), becoming instructions for future political and ironical actions (an exhibition at the butcher’s: PRICE LIST, 1973, as well as ART ART ARTICLE *, 1973,; painting out street nameplates: LABYRINTH, 1973) and installations (MY BEST VIDEOTAPE IS CURRENT PROGRAMME, 1974), or forming original visual texts (MY BEST…, 1973).

*The Polish title, ART ART SPOŻYWCZE, plays with the ambiguity of the word art, denoting—as an abbreviation of artykuły and combined with spożywcze—groceries or foodstuffs.

Written by Krzysztof Siatka