Design Art Papers 2025 | No. 13

Gabriela ROBECI Temporary Bodies in the Underground Time-Space Continuum / Introduction Spaces for displaying alternative art in Eastern Europe during the Cold War era carried multiple designations, and were named in a multitude of manners, such as: underground, alternative, other, colonized, conquered, grey, or third. These terms might be used interchangeably. However, each one is corelated with the manner in which artists negotiated creative freedomunder authoritarian regimes. Underground spaces are commonly understood as sites of subversion and direct opposition to political systems. Yet, associating on one hand underground exhibitions with acts of resistance, andon the other hand public displays inofficial spaces with acts of compliance is a simplistic and erroneous understanding of the more complex reality of artistic production behind the Iron Curtain. Even the art displayed in private or secret spaces and that showcased in alternative and semi-public areas was constrained by limitations and operated within systems of surveillance and censorship. The fear of repercussions transcended the limits imposed by others and even led to self-imposed constraints through self- censorship. This act shaped the creative process in artists’ private workshops and then was expanded into alternative or underground exhibition areas. What distinguished these unofficial and half-secret venues was not complete freedom from ideological constraint, but rather freedom from institutional norms governing the art Keywords / underground; body art; actions; basement; gray spaces; Summary / An underground space is both metaphorically and physically referring to a secluded place beneath our feet, where various actions can occur in half-secrecy. Its aspect prompts concealment and confinement, two elements vital to temporary performances. This study refers to the underground art scene of Eastern Europe by solely focusing on examples of body actions performed in actual underground spaces. Defined as gray spaces , the areas that were not specifically designed for exhibitions afforded more freedom of expression in times of censorship and propaganda. Basements in particular provided nooks for unique performances. Examples from Krakow, Sibiu, and Budapest are the focus of the study, with an analysis of how the environment, location, accessibility, and the presence of human bodies in such spaces embodied the quintessence of underground actions behind the Iron Curtain. Actions such as The Lunch - In Memoriam Batu Kán by Tamás Szentjóby, Gábor Altorjay and Miklós Erdély, Prophecy II by Jerzy Beres, and The Dream Has Not Died by Alexandru Antik are the references used to define the underground space of basements and their relevance to contemporary body art. world. Areas not specifically designed for exhibitions, such as basements,apartments,gardens,fields,villagesorworkshops, offered artists the chance to escape conventional exhibition formats and expectations [1]. This meant that there was no need to produce finite, everlasting and exhibitable artworks, that would eventually be indexed, archived and stored in an institution. The new environment allowed for a more fluid, experimental, and time-sensitive approach that emphasized art's event-like character over its status as completed object. If explain in thecurrent terminology, suchalternativeacts can be seen as non-objectual [2] manifestations, and participatory works of art. The improvisational nature of these spaces meant that their boundaries remained porous and shifting. Artworks, performances, and even the spaces themselves existed instatesof constant transformation,withparticipants able to enter and exit at will, mirroring the fluidity of lived experience itself. This fluidity aligns with what Edward W. Soja theorized as „Third Space” or „Lived Space,” a concept that extends Henri Lefebvre's spatial dialectic of perceived and conceived space [3]. In the context of Eastern European art, this Third Space functioned as an alternative between the First Public Sphereand theSecondPublic Sphere [4] , thefirst pertaining to officialandstate-sanctionedculture,andthesecondreferring to domestic life. Artworks that oscillated between dissidence and allignment with official politics inhabited this ambiguous 295