Minor Compositions Podcast Episode 16 Sports & the Avant-Garde with Przemysław Strożek 

For this episode we talk with Przemysław Strożek about the relationship between avant-garde arts and sports in the 1920s and 1930s. We discuss two of his books, one as editor: Sport and the European Avant-Garde (1900–1945); and one as sole author: Picturing the Workers’ Olympics and the Spartakiads: Modernist and Avant-Garde Engagement with Sport in Central Europe and the USSR, 1920–1932. What was the role of avant-garde artists in the emergence of working class sports cultures during this period? How did they contribute to the shaping of the politics of mass sporting events such as the Workers’ Olympics? And what might these histories tell about the relationship between sports, politics, and art for today and into the future?

Bio: Przemysław is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences and Research Associate at the Archive of the Avant-garde in Dresden. He has a PhD habilitation and occupies himself with the history of avant-garde, modernism and contemporary art. He sometimes curates exhibitions and also wrote a book about how sport and art have intermingled. 

Intro / Outro Music: Stuart Pearce - Theme From Red Sport International