Opis Manifestacji:

The action is scheduled for six days. On the first day, the audience gathers in one of the park’s covered pavilions. On the floor there are placed: a block of wood, an axe and a cup filled with paint. The artist, dressed only in a white loincloth tied at his hips, walks up to the block of wood. With red paint, he paints a vertical line on his body and chops up the block of wood. He repeats these steps alternately until the block is split into small chips and the body and loincloth are covered with a grid of linear divisions. He then makes a bundle from the chips, signs it and declares that he is putting the bundle up for auction. The auction of this bundle is to be conducted by a professional auctioneer and will continue until the end of the manifestation. Over the next few days, the artist installs earlier prepared objects in various places in the park. They are to mark the points – “the stations” of the road that the artist intends to walk on the final day. On the first day, “the Political Signpost” is placed at the “political station”. It is a big windmill moved by the wind. On the second day at the “station” of dignity he installs an object entitled “the Purification Ritual”. On the third day, an object entitled “the Law Ritual” is being assembled at the “justice station.” On the fourth day, an object entitled “the Erotic Ritual” is being assembled at the “animal station.” On the fifth day, the artist prepares the final station in the park’s central meadow where the “Sacrificial Ritual” is created. It is the afternoon of the last, sixth day of the manifestation. The audience gathers at the storage yard located at the back of the park. The artist is dressed only in pants rolled up to his knees. He grabs the handles of the wooden “Romantic Wheelbarrows” built earlier and sets off. Attached to the “Wheelbarrows” is a red and white flower, weighted down with a cobblestone. During the ride it rises up, when the wheelbarrows stop it falls down. The artist pushes the heavy “Wheelbarrows”, walking barefoot on the asphalt alleys of the park, leaving green footprints in the process. Now and again paint is applied to his feet by an accompanying woman. A procession of spectators follows him. At each station there is a final mounting of the object and handing it over to the public who can set it in motion. The exception is “the Political Signpost” which is moved by the wind. At one point, there is an encounter of the wooden “Romantic Wheelbarrows” with a train that takes tourists around the park. The procession, led by the artist, reaches the “commercial station”, where a professional auctioneer with the bundle of wood is waiting. The penultimate price of the bundle of 5,000 West German marks is outbid by the artist’s wife who then offers the bundle to her husband. The artist takes off his clothes and ties white and red-colored fabric around his hips, the one which was featured in the manifestation on the first day. Pushing the “Wheelbarrows” he moves towards the final station – the “Sacrificial Altar.” There the bundle gets burned. Next to it the “Romantic Wheelbarrows” remain.

„Katalog twórczości Jerzego Beresia, 1954-1994 – część II: Manifestacje”, opr, Jerzy Hanusek [w:] Jerzy Bereś. Zwidy, wyrocznie, ołtarze, wyzwania, red. Aleksandra Węcka (Poznań: Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, 1995), s. 105