O oknie wystawowym księgarni im. Bolesława Prusa. Na marginesach campu
On the Display in an Academic Bookshop in Warsaw. On the Margins of Camp

Summary/Abstract: Kulas presents a critique of a Christmas display of Wydawnictwo Literackie (Literackie Publishing House) in the window of the Bolesław Prus academic bookshop in Warsaw, in 2008. Kulas uncovers the subversive dimension of the display, that offers clients books as Christmas gifts. The source of this subversion is in the main element of the display – a mirror. The purpose of the advertisers was to place the advert in the context of Christmas, to use the Christmas atmosphere and its basic attributes in order to increase sales. However the display has the potential to criticize the mechanisms of the market economy and consumption present in the contemporary world. The advert becomes a caricature of the Utopia of the Free Market, in which the client not only can but must choose. The necessity of consumption – the hidden structure of trade – defines the character and confines of people’s lives in contemporary world. Camp, according to Kulas, defines a strategy of perception, which causes one to take a critical stance. Camp is a tool of stripping the illusions present in the prison camp of consumption in which people find themselves.

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