On the 18th January 2012, a workshop for students took place, which was related to the exhibition Viennese Actionism. The Opposite Pole of Society. It was led by Staszek Ruksza and Elżbieta Sala from MOCAK’s Education Department.

The participants met in the MOCAK Reading Room, where they talked about themselves, their motivation and their expectations of the workshop. Next, those present made works which expressed their associations with the topic of Vienna and the Viennese society. The collages consisted of quotations, thoughts, newspaper cut-outs, leaflets and other material available in Vienna’s public space.

The participants finished their works during their visit to the exhibition of the Actionists. Staszek Ruksza presented the idea behind the exhibition and talked about selected works. During the visit, the students each wrote ten words on their boards which expressed their impressions and emotions evoked by the works they had been viewing.

At the exhibition, the participants also received a number of texts related to the topic of the workshop (quotations, interviews, fragments of works of literature, a text by the curator of the exhibition, etc), which were both an inspiration and materials to use in the collages. After that, each person displayed and described their own collage and their impressions from the exhibition.

The session culminated in a meeting in MOCAK Café, where the students discussed, over coffee, what the opposite pole of society means for them today.