NOT A WORD ABOUT MONEY
“Autoprotret” – a journal on good space requiring a bit more space on the shelf than an average magazine in standard A4 format, all that would suggest that finding it is not difficult. However, the small number of copies published gives it the uniqueness enjoyed by the professional journals. Are then “Autoprotret”'s journalists and readers professionals or maybe the field they specialise in is so broad and universally obvious that the Average simply does not give it a thought? Probably neither the former nor the latter but something third. As musicians are able to discern more sounds in a melody they listen to, as painters are able to see more colour subtleties in a picture, thus “Autoprotret”'s journalists are capable of reaching deeper into a space.
The latest issue (2/2006) on commercial space invites readers with the cover showing piles of coins, a perverse advertisement of the magazine's content, very little concerned with money. Even though coming from different family backgrounds, cultures, fields of interest and services they provide, the journalists here share one common longing – a longing for the human face of trade.
Giving the example of Sophia's “merry wives market”, Iliana Genew-Puchalewa (Przestrzeń amoralna / Amoral Space) puts forward a question whether the sole fact of a trade exchange taking place makes a marketplace something malicious. The rethoricality of that question was definitely most strongly felt by homo sovieticus, who limited by bans and orders by the bureaucracy of not his own country, from one Tovaris! to another, only here, in the Bulgarian pazar could get in touch with the real people. Was it because of longevity of bazaar and the rituals worked out during this may years, which must have created the community feeling due to focus and time every ritual requires? Exactly the community is the main reason for which pazar is so long-lived and remains intact by fashion and administrative changes. Another cause for its popularity that Iliana Genew-Puchalewa mentions is the possibility of running your own small business, which was extremely valuable to stallholders from twenty and more years ago. A relatively large freedom allowed in the commercial activity and in the relationship between the seller and the buyer added up to marketplace's offer. Today, you can buy basically everything there, however, the main objects of stall trade were and still remain fruits and vegetables. Polish marketplaces also know the phenomenon of greengrocer's stalls where greens with no quality certificates sell better than the labeled ones from shopping malls. In Warsaw and Sophia alike it is not known where these vegetable goods come from but encouraged by sellers’ assurance that his apples come straight from the tree of his grandparents’ living in a beautiful organic countryside, you pay for it without the least sign of hesitation. Besides, the possibility of using your makes the ritual of selling be not only about consumer's money but more about trade and social skills. The ease of making contact, negotiation skills, high emotional intelligence so precious in the modern business world, they all are rooted in the marketplace trade. Some sellers may not be characterised by a high level of all the skills mentioned, but even the hackneyed “only today and only for you” allows every buyer enjoy those sellers to some extend.
Different relations are brought to our attention by Adam Nadolny (Akt zakupu – handel w przestrzeni miasta / An Act of Buying – Trade in the Urban Space), who sees a marketplace, fair, agora as a city stage on which the residents act their roles. His view is in perfect agreement with the social being’s need for being seen, a need currently rather not satisfied as now it is difficult to be visible in the crowd. Today's variety of city stage users, the social stratification reached for against the political correctness, let alone the potential of the Internet, make these stage areas lose parts of their identity to every group of users. Still, a fair, market, shopping mall and the main street are the places enabling a complete expression of one's personality. In the pre-mass media times, the main square constituted the main place of entertainment, where one could meet friends, listen to bards, see a performance or an execution. All that required also an attractive frame, the frame of most interesting buildings in a city. In the 19th c, Adam Nadolny writes, steel constructions opened new spaces for entertainment and commerce. Everybody knows how nice it is to do shopping or just window shopping on a sunny day. Then why should we deny ourselves this pleasure just because it rains? Such were the advertising slogans used by first shopping malls. Plenty of space, plenty of sun and electric light, plenty of goods and, finally, plenty of shoppers and onlookers. In his Au bonheur des Dames, Emil Zola aptly described the process of economic leviathans taking over small family businesses. Sole raising interest in the goods offered was not enough, they wanted to bewitch and overwhelm. It must have been vivid, shining and surprising. The prices in malls were lower than anywhere else, but in the same time it was fashionable to go and buy there. Consequently, these were not just ordinary shops in the space of which one chose goods but they were familiar spaces similar to marketplaces, where the relation between the client and the customer turned out to be more important than the relation between customer’s wallet and goods being sold. At least that was how it was supposed to appear to the customers. How great shopping mall’s power of persuasion must have been that it made people believe that.
The power of persuasion must also be in shop displays, so as to turn a passerby into a customer. Zuzanna Dziuban (Fasada jako wydarzenie / A Facade As an Event) perceives the displays as interior representatives, a kind of hostesses standing at the door, inviting one to come in and try some sample products. Also in this case, the customer is supposed to believe the facade that it is worthwhile entering the shop. In its interior, he will probably forget what brought him in, once façade communication role is fulfilled. Such was the role of facades in the pre-shopping mall era. Take for example a cloth shop with few bales behind a shop window, additionally of lower quality as one would not regret having it covered with dust or faded in the sun. It seems that the rapidly growing number of city dwellers in the 19th c as well as the increasing importance of heavy industry turned the bland and transparent form of shop window displays into an autonomous façade bursting with meanings. Lazily passing minutes in a dim shop were not enough for the century of steam engine and electricity, which energy powered not only engines but also human minds and desires. Their expectations were aptly satisfied by a shopping mall with a lot going on there and with displays beaming with meaning. The street was in a way supposed to live faster than man was able to, just like a machine, cogs and gears. Thus the new role of shop windows was an extension of the new life style. The fact that in the 21st c the façade still has its minimalist and informational function and additionally carries its own meaning shows that city remains a scene of social activity. Zuzanna Dziuban proves that the autonomy of the façade and multiplicity of meaning it carries reflect the character of a continuously changing city. There is nothing like an objective view of the city but a total of subjective perceptions that together create a new value. This is a process in which façades play a substantial role. Contrary to gloomy shop fronts they shun not from surprising, provoking and flouting conventions. They display their meanings in as many ways as many passers-by dare to look at them, thus creating a kaleidoscope of municipal performances.
“Autoportet”'s cover uses piles of coins to invite a potential reader. Is this a version of the minimalist symbol of trade expressing its essence? The magazine’s façade surprises us with the new dimension of money, in its literal version; the interior surprises with the new dimension of trade in a metaphoric version. And apparently everybody knows it is about money but there is not a word about it.
Katarzyna Ornowska
Translated by Anna Skrajna
Discussed journals: Autoportret