Dorota Ogrodzka: Occupation as art. The creation of public space
Taking the Occupy Wall Street protests as a point of departure, this project attempts to find a formal affinity between art and this type of occupation. The analysis also encompasses ACTA and the commotion surrounding the squats in Warsaw. This type of action creates unity through performance. All kinds of “-isms” (feminism, postcolonialism, etc.) form a background for the protestors’ statements. According to the artist, this is where the political joins the artistic. Public space as art, as an ephemeral, performative act, stands in opposition to the notion of art as public space.
Breaking the stereotype of perception. Piotr Kosiewski speaks with Wojciech Krukowski
Piotr Kosiewski talks with Wojciech Krukowski, the creator of the Academy of Movement. He discusses the beginnings of the movement and describes his activities during Communist times, when many artists were strongly rooted in a socio-political context. The Academy of Movement went beyond the limits of theatre, and sought new means of connecting with the audience. The artists overturned obvious assumptions about what belongs in public space. One could say that today’s flash mob is, in a way, a continuation of the Academy’s activities.
Josette Féral: Reality and the challenge of theatre
Féral analyses the way in which theatre affects reality. She concentrates on actions in urban space in which the perception of the chance viewer undergoes a change, and (s)he becomes the artist’s partner. Her research draws from two examples: the Royal de Luxe group and Janet Cardiff. Members of the former create theatre out of public space by placing unexpected elements within it to stimulate the imagination, while the latter attempts to turn space into sound, and places the viewer’s aesthetic experience at the heart of the work.
Elżbieta Rybicka: The city as performance
The author analyses the connection between performance art and urban studies. She observes that in present-day urban studies there has been a shift towards praxis. Rybicka attempts to answer how the turn towards performance has changed the way people think about the city. One symptomatic change she mentions is a modification of the language used to describe the city: it is no longer seen as a text but rather as a performance, manifested in numerous activities in public space, artistic and otherwise.
The understanding of an essential category for this discipline – flânerie – has also undergone a change, and is now understood as simply drifting.
Katarzyna Osińska: Constructivism as a style. Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova
Osińska describes the work of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova in the context of their biographies, their social, political and technical circumstances, and the artistic atmosphere of the era. She notes that the artists’ lives were very integrated with the concept of constructivism they advocated. She also stresses the strong influence that their work had on the next generation of artists. The author draws attention to the fact that some projects were only able to be carried out many years later, due to technical reasons. Stepanova and Rodchenko’s collaboration with Meyerhold constitutes an important part of the article.
Iga Gańczarczyk: From reconstruction to mystification and back again
Iga Gańczarczyk’s text hinges on is a consideration of Krystian Lupa’s play, Factory 2. The author presents and proves the thesis that “in Lupa’s quests […] we can see a new variant of documentary theatre founded on the gesture of constantly negotiating the arrangement of theatrical reality, balanced on the thin, shifting border between what is real and what is fictional.” Gańczarczyk observes, however, that this type of “documentary turn” is still treated with suspicion in Polish theatre. She calls upon a wide range of examples from visual art and literature (primarily the work of Zbigniew Libera and Aneta Grzeszykowska, the books of W.G. Sebald and Georges Perec, and the novels and photographic collages of Ewa Kuryluk), and draws upon a wide theoretical foundation in her analyses.
Negotiating the arrangement of reality. Iga Gańczarczyk speaks with Krzysztof Pijarski
Iga Gańczarczyk discusses with Krzysztof Pijarski, a photographer and theorist, about the documentary nature of photography. Pijarski supports methods of depiction which contain “a gesture whose effect on the viewer is in parentheses.” Photography should not pretend to present the truth, but should rather provoke the question, “Why do we show something this way, rather than another?” The theorist ponders the use of strategies of deception and fictionalization and how a sense of strangeness is created through the use of documentary technique.
The seams produce meanings. Iga Gańczarczyk speaks with Aneta Grzeszykowska
Aneta Grzeszykowska discusses the artistic strategies that she uses in her photographs and films, and the subjects she explores in them: re-enactment in the work Untitled Film Stills, the annexation of imperfection in the series Portraits, the opposition between visibility and invisibility in Album and Untitled Film Stills, alienation from one’s own body and playing with the gaze and expectations of the viewer in the films Black, Headache, Bolymorphism and Holes… She also speaks of the theatrical dimension of her work, and comments on her relation to feminist art. A large part of the interview is dedicated to the new documentary art and its significance in her work.
Anna R. Burzyńska: He has left himself and he isn’t coming back
The text is devoted to a Danish artist who formerly appeared under the name of Claus Beck-Nielsen, but who decided to eradicate his identity in 2000. Gradually achieving his goal, he began to function as Nameless, the Person Known as Nielsen, while also impersonating real live people. Burzyńska places this artistic act within the context of Greek philosophy, the ideas of Ernest Kantorowicz, and Giorgio Agamben’s concept of homo sacer. She also describes the activity of Das Beckwerk, a company founded by Nameless, which blurs the boundary between art and reality.
Jarosław Wójtowicz: Dammit, Mama, I’m going to die of lung cancer, and that’s when they’ll give me a lifetime achievement award
Interest in the work of Christoph Schlingensief rose in Poland after a presentation in the German pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. The project was initially led by the artist himself, but after his death the concept for the pavilion changed. Wójtowicz describes Schlingensief’s suggestions, and uses them as a basis for his analysis of the final effect – the pavilion became a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Schlingensief, in which pride of place was given to an installation from the performance The Church of Fear of the Alien in Me: Fluxus Oratorium. The author is critical of this idea.
Andrea Tompa: I am looking in the right direction. Árpád Schilling and the audience
The author examines how viewers’ perception is controlled in the work of Árpád Schilling. His early theatrical experiments aimed at revitalising traditional theatre, but did not go beyond its confines. Presently, however, Schilling has become a severe critic of classical forms. He set a goal of breaking the viewer out of perceptual habits, became more involved in researching theatre’s influence over society, and, above all, began to seek new spectators beyond the institution of theatre.
Gabor Takacs: This is not theatre, or maybe it is
The author describes Hungarian theatre as being socially involved and interactive. This derives from the twenty-year history of theatre education in Hungary. Theatre education and the role of audience participation are closely connected, in his opinion, with the level of solidarity and social empathy in the country, as well as the general democratic situation. He presents examples of two projects of this type which reached out to viewers (for example, theatre groups which travelled to small villages) and touched upon important social problems through performances that involved the audience.
Natalia Jakubowa: Reality’s criterion
Jakubowa follows the artistic path of Árpád Schilling, who has stretched the boundaries of documentary theatre. He creates it not out of material or living evidence, but as a result of creative co-operation with other artists. Thus, he has formed a kind of reality based on shared experience. He uses the idea of Dramapädagogik in his work with children, teaching them through theatre. In all of his performances he seeks sincerity amongst the spectators, and it is perhaps from here that the rather simple form originates. He tries to grasp reality changing through the influence of theatre.
Unification of the theatrical profession – a utopia? Natalia Jakubowa speaks with Árpád Schilling
Natalia Jakubowa talks with Árpád Schilling about Hungarian theatre, in which the theatres with “solid foundations” still function within a very limited field, even though they receive state support, while models of alternative theatre are becoming exhausted. The artist would like unification in the field of theatre, which is why he attempts to find a “third road” between alternative theatre – regarded as unprofessional – and subsidised institutional theatre, which is not artistically independent.
That which is sensible does not interest me in the slightest. Wolfgang Limmer and Fritz Rumler speak with Rainer Werner Fassbinder
In this interview from 1980, Rainer Werner Fassbinder talks about his efforts, through film, to tackle the “disease of the spirit,” manifesting itself in susceptibility to manic-depressive behaviour. The director discusses one of his hallmark films, dedicated to his lover: “The death of Armin was a starting point, but In a Year of Thirteen Moons goes beyond this event, and expresses a lot more than what I could have expressed about my private situation. And this decision determined my entire life.”
Agnieszka Jakimiak: Reality in Fassbinder’s performances. On what is not hidden beyond the screen. The message as a medium
Agnieszka Jakimiak is interested in three ways of getting the message across in this director’s work: repetition, transformation, and representation. She analyses Fassbinder’s work before the breakthrough (anti-theatre film productions) and afterwards – at “the moment when the camera turns towards the director’s own surroundings.” Through his films, Fassbinder questions the “safe” functioning of groups in society, language and ideology. There is nothing metaphysical or didactic in this, however: “Fassbinder had more of an affinity for diagnostics that defined a particular scheme of action, appearing in concrete socio-political circumstances.”
Anka Herbut: Everyone eventually kills what he loves. The difficult love affairs of Rainer Werner Fassbinder
All of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films are about love with no a happy end. Love is hell, since all inter-human relations are based on the mechanics of violence, much like the oppressive effects of authority. Herbut analyses Fassbinder’s last films, because, in her opinion, they “bring us the closest to the essence of his work” – the obsessive circling around the causes of love’s oppression, the relationship between the executioner and the victim, and themes of toxic loneliness. Although Fassbinder’s films are autobiographical, it is difficult to distinguish the director’s experiences from the products of his imagination. The most personal production is Querelle, which, according to Herbut, “can be seen as a biographical study.”
Agnieszka Jelewska: Somatic interface. The affective turn in art
Departing from Net art and new-media performances, the author draws attention to art which has an effect on a physical level, drawing upon spectators’ new abilities of perception. Perception is a product of our physical functions. It is from this that sensory beauty is also derived, with its primary figure – emotional affectation. Diagnosing the affective turn in art, Jelewska demands increased interest in the affective modern history of theatre and drama, focusing on phenomena that are familiar to us nowadays and which activate and interact with our somatic interface, in the work of artists such as Romeo Castellucci, Heiner Müller, and Sarah Kane.
Ewa Guderian-Czaplińska: Myth De-faced
In her review of Orestes, directed by Maja Kleczewska (Narodowy Theatre and Wielki Theatre – Opera Narodowa in Warsaw, premiere: 14.04.2012), Guderian-Czaplińska states that Kleczewska uses Aeschylus’s text to explore the topic of the modern family, “whose members […] have transgressed every possible kind of conventional and socially desired family behaviour.” This extreme topic results in an excess of devices, from which no one clear message emerges. Guderian-Czaplińska wonders whether this lack of cohesion was intentional. Then, analysing further layers and scenes in the performance (for example, the function of the Greek chorus), she tries to discover why this form was chosen.
Daniel Cichy: Not a fair fight
The author addresses the topic of Maja Kleczewska’s harshly criticised Orestes (Narodowy Theatre and Wielki Theatre – Opera Narodowa in Warsaw, premiere: 14.04.2012). He reminds us that this performance was originally meant to be a “dramatic opera,” in which Agata Zubel, composer for the performance, was meant to play a role equal to that of the director. In fact, Kleczewska dominated the show, filling it with gratuitous brutality. However, when Zubel is allowed to speak with her sophisticated compositions, it turns out that this music could have had much more to say.
Weronika Łucyk: Landscape after a battle
The author analyses Barbara Wysocka’s play Medeamaterial (Wielki Theatre – Opera Narodowa in Warsaw, premiere: 28.04.2012), based on a libretto by Pascal Dusapin with text by Heiner Müller. Łucyk points out that Wysocka’s play presents us with a contemporary Medea who serves as a metaphor for mankind after a catastrophe. A key idea behind this unique psychodrama is a fragmentary subjectivity, around which the director builds deep significance.
Jakub Papuczys. What do we need this illness for?
In his review of Michał Borczuch’s newest play, Hans, Dora and the Wolf, performed at the Polski Theatre in Wrocław (premiere: 9.03.2012), Jakub Papuczys points out that the director has managed, in a subversive way, to “return to Freud.” The show’s creators, avoiding a detailed reconstruction of psychoanalytical theory, treat the three title cases as vivid and vital theatrical stories. By fragmenting these stories and stripping them of chronology and cause-and-effect logic, Borczuch presents material to the viewers which they must interpret for themselves.
I always have thousands of potential scripts in my head. Jakub Papuczys speaks with Aśka Grochulska
Describing the path that led her to theatre, Aśka Grochulska mentions both her personal and artistic inspirations. Attempting to specify the characteristics of her role as a playwright, she emphasises that a playwright is an artist whose contribution to the creation of a performance complements the work of the director and gives his/her vision a new dimension. A playwright also puts him/herself in the position of the viewer, and strives to anticipate certain reactions among the audience in order to overthrow them.
Tomasz Kowalski: The sparkle of gold dust
The author of this review enters into a debate with Radosław Rychcik, the creator of Twelve Angry People (Nowy Theatre in Poznań, premiere 2.03.2012). In Kowalski’s opinion, the director’s deconstruction of Reginald Rose’s text was not radical enough, and the strategies that he used were inadequate. In this review, there are many more complaints about the performance. The author is very critical of the show: “The reasons which led Rychcik to choose this text are vague. The intended message eludes us somewhere along the way, vanishes like magic gold dust.”
I pick up the story along the way. Tomasz Kowalski speaks with Jan Czapliński
Jan Czapliński discusses a wide range of fundamental questions concerning his work as a playwright. He describes how work is divided between him and the director, as well as the importance of teamwork in theatre. Commenting on theatrical acting styles that are currently popular in Poland, he explains why he values a good story and demands professional artistry from actors. Alongside general questions, the interview also contains details of his work on shows such as Twelve Angry People and Dangerous Liaisons, as well as the nature of Czapliński’s collaboration with Radosław Rychciki.
Monika Kwaśniewska. Who didn’t love the kitten?
In her review of Michał Buszewicz’s Crime, directed by Ewelina Marciniak (Polski Theatre in Bielsko-Biała, premiere: 12.04.2012), Kwaśniewska traces the changes that were made to Gombrowicz’s short story, A Premeditated Crime, which was the primary inspiration for the text and performance. She draws attention to the reversal of perspective in the survey of events, the play on the detective novel convention, and how family relations and female characters are brought into the foreground.
The wrong tracks. Monika Kwaśniewska speaks with Michał Buszewicz
Buszewicz discusses his work on the text and performance of Crime, revealing the principles underlying his collaboration with Ewelina Marciniak, the stage designer, Marta Stoes, and the actors from the Polski Theatre in Bielsko-Biała. He talks about his inspiration from films, lectures, and also from the field of logic. He also devotes a lot of focus to the planned reaction between the stage and the viewer.
Dorota Jarząbek-Wasyl: Iwona’s last tape
Krzysztof Garbaczewski staged Iwona, Princess of Burgundy (Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole, premiere 15.04.2012) using film projections. Dorota Jarząbek-Wasyl wonders “how this medium can create a space that is no longer between an object and its dynamic reflections or deformations, but from the audience’s perspective, between looking at a motionless screen and intellectually participating in the transformation of an entire stage.” Unfortunately, the tension created by Garbaczewski between the actors’ field and its projection quickly dissolves, and the audience becomes bored television viewers.
Katarzyna Lemańska: Egalitarian revolution 2016
The Watergate Affair, the quality of meals in a cafeteria near Poznań, Amy Winehouse’s suicide – these are the main topics discussed during therapy at the City Social Help Centre, where the action is located in Strzępka and Demirski’s newest production, Oh Goodness (Dramatyczny Theatre in Wałbrzych, premiere: 27.04.2012). It takes place in the year 2016, after an egalitarian revolution and the overthrow of capitalism. The artists dedicate this play to “people of good will” who are interested in the situation in Polish art theatre, and the repercussions of the activities of decision-makers and the media in public life.
Aleksandra Konopko: The art of protest
In her review of the Wrocław-based performance Will You Be Reading That for Good? (Polski Theatre in Wrocław, premiere: 12.04.2012), Aleksandra Konopko compares the staging by Michał Kmiecik (director) and Marzena Sadocha (playwright) to a hybrid docudrama and rally. The artists use a collage of authentic statements and texts published in the media to discuss the state of theatre in Lower Silesia, the protest in the arts community, and the stormy meetings between theatre people and decision-makers. The performance is meant to change “depending on what will happen in the real-life world of theatre.”
Łukasz Grabuś: Ho-hum
Jan Klata did not exploit all the potential in musical forms of theatre in his production of Jerry Springer – The Opera (Capitol Music Theatre in Wrocław, premiere: 24.03.2012). Klata focused solely on assessing the impact of television on our view of the world. Therefore, instead of a musical he directed a performance “as revealing as an outdated television talk show.”
Piotr Olkusz: A march for the benefit of comedy
In his review of the play Polonia March, directed by Jack Głomb (Teatr Powszechny in Łódź, premiere: 21.01.2012), Olkusz analyses the show within the context of the Polish Comedy Centre created in the Powszechny Theatre, and of Jack Głomb’s counter-revolutionary manifesto and the Legnica theatre company. He remarks that “Polonia March […] is –deliberately or not – an answer to a question that has been posed at the Łódź Powszechny Theatre for a long time: How to revive Polish comedy.”
Aneta Mancewicz: Różewicz repeatedly and ambiguously
Homage à Ró¿ewicz is the newest production by Piotr Lachmann and Videoteatr Poza (premiere: 30.03.2012). The main subject of the performance is the work of Tadeusz Różewicz (currently through the use of recordings), presented in the context of the earlier productions by Videoteatr and fragments of Stars by Helmut Kajzar. A key role is played by the actors Jolanta Lothe and Jarosław Boberek, who act out a poem of birth and death, eroticism and filth. According to Aneta Mancewicz: “Prompting extremely diverse associations and constructing the script of Homage… like a collage, Lachmann opens up this production to many possible interpretations.”
Agata Łuksza: Seeking Nancy
In her review of the play Nancy. An Interview, directed by Claude Bardouil (Nowy Theatre in Warsaw, premiere: 20.04.2012), Agata Łuksza states that the show depicting the lives of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen is the latest example of how “pop culture, though cracked and inarticulate, gives theatre artists material and inspiration to explore the nature of modern man – a social actor – and the essence of theatre.” The director uses the image of famous punks “at work on a new form of artistic expression.” Łuksza claims, however, that this experiment seems half-cooked and leaves us with a sense of wanting more.
Ewa Bal: Hybrid and Diasporic identity in the age of cultural mobility. Italian theatre and drama
The author describes the characteristics of Italian drama and dialectical theatre, which are opposed to models of identity promoted by the government and media. According to Bal, theatre draws attention to the distinctive features, cultural characteristics and nationalism of local communities, which she joins Stuart Hall in calling a Diaspora. Using the work of Emma Dante as an example, she discusses examples of “questioning identity as a cultural ballast which is shutting Italy up within a Diaspora.” Bal explains that it is directors, above all, who see the need to “begin a serious public debate to discuss the challenges and opportunities created by modern society in the age of cultural globalisation.”
Michał Lachman: The young and the old. English theatre, where generations meet
Focusing on the National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre and the Young Writers Festival, the author analyses modern English theatre from a social perspective. Lachman discusses in detail the dramas presented during the festival and the repertoire of both London stages. He emphasises that all of the texts and performances are a reflection of the “social and intellectual structure” of the country. In his opinion, English dramaturgy directly confronts reality, and theatres actively take the floor in social debate. English theatre is comparable to a melting pot, in which the opinions of older and younger artists clash.
Agnieszka Marek: Trash-Hamlet
The title of the play, Au moins j’aurais laissé un beau cadavre (premiere: Festival in Avignon, July 2011) is a verbatim quote from a Quentin Tarantino film. In his modernised production of Hamlet, director Vincent Macaigne acknowledges pop-culture readings of Shakespeare. The “process of constructing the play itself and the ostentatious deconstruction of its many sources and narratives” is more important than the interpretation of the drama. The artists consciously use threadbare and overused strategies – deconstruction, collage, installations, happenings – to build their “recycled Hamlet.”
Grzegorz Stępniak. Against timelessness
A review of the play Jerker or the Helping Hand by Robert Chesley, directed by Glenn Kessler (Space 916, West Hollywood in Los Angeles, premiere: 4.11.2011). Stępniak describes the plot and outlines the history and significance of “one of the most famous gay plays,” written in 1986. This historio-cultural context is important for this twenty-fifth anniversary presentation of Jerker by Glenn Kessler, and is the reason for the drama seeming outdated.
Tomasz Cyz: The reality of Senta and the Dutchman
The author describes the circumstances around the making and premiere of Richard Wagner’s Flying Dutchman, and then segues into a description of the performance of the opera directed by Mariusz Treliński at the Wielki Theatre – Opera Narodowa (premiere: 16.03.2012). Cyz compares the Warsaw production with a staging by Jonathan Kent (English National Opera, premiere: 28.04.2012). The local production suffers in comparison, both in terms of the cohesion of the narrative and the music. Treliński makes no attempt to respond to the question that irks Wagner enthusiasts: Where does the Dutchman come from?
Re-evaluating the Wagnerian spirit. Tomasz Cyz speaks with Mariusz Treliński
Tomasz Cyz talks with Mariusz Treliński about Richard Wagner in the context of his rendering of the Flying Dutchman. Cyz asks the director about grappling with Wagner the genius, with whom the artist has a fairly complex relationship. What seduces him in Wagner, and what he seeks in the composer, is the music of transgression and a new dimension of reality.
Time going backwards. Marta Michalak speaks with Kaya Kołodziejczyk
Marta Michalak interviews another dance artist for Didaskalia, in what is truly a portrait of an artist. Kaya Kołodziejczyk speaks of her education in ballet school, and then at Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker’s P.A.R.T.S., and work in the Rosas ensemble (also led by De Keersmaeker). Speaking of her work for re//mix in komuna//warszawa devoted to the artist, Kołodziejczyk characterises the style of dance taught by De Keersmaeker. Then she speaks of her teacher’s work, and the projects she is currently doing – primarily in the U/LOI collective.
Agata Łuksza: Welcome to our fairy tale
The author reviews performances presented for the small Warsaw Theatre Encounters (24.03-3.04.2012): Pokolorowanki by Łódź’s Pinokio Theatre, Circleplay by Atofri Theatre from Poznań, Lublin’s The Animal, Little Secrets byPaweł Passini, Bullerbyn: How Children Made a Home-made Forest and What Grew out of It by Anna Smolar of the Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole and Konrad Dworakowski’s Microcosmos from the Wrocław Pantomima Theatre. Agata Łuksza sums up the festival positively: “Young people’s theatre […] has a refreshing and cleansing potential.”
Rafał Maciąg, Jon McKenzie: Perform or… – In search of the whole
This review of the book Perform or… From Discipline to Performance (Krakow 2011) is a thorough meta-linguistic analysis. Maciąg deciphers the linguistic mechanisms McKenzie uses. The keys to the American researcher’s theories are the terms performance and challenger, and the concept of the “lecturing machine.” McKenzie does not, however, formulate precise definitions, he only “illustrates the performative aspect of speaking through one’s own special, iterative speech about oneself (about one’s words and in one’s words).”
Anna R. Burzyńska: Equation for the Universe
Anna R. Burzyńska reviews Monika Pasiecznik’s book The Ritual of the Superformula: Stockhausen Licht published by Krytyka Polityczna (Warsaw 2011). The publication is an ambitious monograph on Karlheinz Stockhausen that focuses on the composer’s opus magnum: the opera Licht. Die sieben Tage der Woche. Burzyńska notes that his works could be a very interesting source of inspiration for theatrologists, as they hold examples of performative thinking about music, profound literary inspiration and operatic verve. Pasiecznik’s book is a brilliant introduction to the subject and an invitation to further discussion. |