Project: Grzegorz Laszuk.
On Saturday, 7 December (7.30 pm), as part of the RE??MIX Finale at komuna//warszawa (ul. Lubelska 30/32), Karol Radziszewski and Dorota Sajewska will premiere their collaboration project devoted to Jerzy Grotowski, and especially his special relationship with Ryszard Cieślak.
In their piece, the artists ask “Are we able to say something about Grotowski as a person today? Or has this fundamental figure in contemporary performance art been completely devoured by myth? Perhaps the only way out is to look at him indirectly – through the prism of the actors who collaborated with the founder of the Laboratory Theatre [Teatr Laboratorium], and in particular, Ryszard Cieślak, whose performance in Książę Niezłomny [TheConstant Prince] was a career turning point, and without whom Grotowski himself would not have become so radical towards the body. Why then did Grotowski first brought Cieślak to the top only to abandon him like an unwanted lover later? We would like to cast a careful glimpse at the moment when the two parted – the turn of the 18970s and 1980s, when Grotowski dismissed Cieślak as an actor of the Theatre of Sources (Teatr Żródeł), while Cieślak himself started to look for his own way, conducting numerous training courses and acting classes in Poland and abroad.”
Next presentation – Sunday, 8 December, 7.30 pm.
Dorota Sajewskais a dramaturge, author of theatre scripts and texts on theatre, translator of contemporary Germany plays and texts on theatre theory. She studied Polish and German studies at the University of Warsaw, as well as cultural communication, theatre studies and latest German literature at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2008–2012 she served as deputy artistic director and dramaturge of Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw. She teaches at the Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw, and is the author of Chore sztuki. Choroba/tożsamość/dramat (Ill Arts: Ilness/Identity/Drama; Księgarnia Akademicka, 2005) and Pod okupacją mediów (Under the Media’s Occupation; Książka i Prasa, 2012).
Karol Radziszewski’s artistic activityfocuses on photography, videos, installations and interdisciplinary projects. He graduated from the Faculty of Painting, the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He is the publisher and editor-in-chief of DIK Fagazine. He received the Paszport
Polityki award in 2009. His works have been showcased at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Kunsthalle Wien, Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina in Novi Sad, National Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu, New Museum in New York, Cobra Museum in Amsterdam, and during the Prague Biennale, the Biennale
of Young Artists in Tallinn, New York Photo Festival in New York, and the WRO Media Art Biennale.
About the series:
Initiated in 2010, the RE//MIX series features new productions referring back to classic pieces of theatre and dance, but also literature and film that, now a bit forgotten, once changed the awareness of people who are today dealing with “strange” theatre, namely theatre that is interdisciplinary, searching, verging on visual theatre, performance art, plastic arts and social actions. These pieces make up a specific cultural canon, shape testes and styles, define its own sources and inspirations, act as points of reference. Remix is a term borrowed from music; it denotes a work made by processing a different work. It is not a simple interpretation, or a rendition of the original piece using new means of expression, or a new arrangement. When it contains fragments of the original, or samples, they are quotations only. Remix is a new work whose form or content refers back to an original piece, dialoguing with it or interpreting it anew.
Tomasz Plata, the RE//MIX series initiator, about the Finale:Four seasons, tens of premieres from the most exciting young artists representing different genres of performance art: theatre directors, dancers, composers and musicians…, the RE//MIX project has become a unique experience. Firstly, it triggered a discussion on a new, alternative, canon, or set of canonical achievements in the history of avant-garde theatre, contemporary theatre, performance art and related fields. Today we know that such an unorthodox canon may contain John Cage, The Wooster Group, Trisha Brown, and Akademia Ruchu, existing side by side. Secondly, RE//MIXes have added intensity to the discussion on documenting performances, being an excellent occasion to reconsider such elementary questions as, “may a performance be recorded and reused?”, and “if, yes, how and on what conditions?”. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, RE//MIXes have had a practical outcome: they allowed people to network and form a new community, and created a space where they could compare different creative strategies. We’ve achieved so much with such a simple idea – to get a few young artists to work on their favourite performances. It’s time to take stock of it all.
The project is received funding from the Warsaw City Hall and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.
