as a part of 11th National Youth Open-air Workshop Miastko’ 78: Open-air session of questions – Open-air session of answers

Manifestation description:

The artist begins his journey to a town three kilometers away. He is dressed in two boards tied at his hips. The front board bears the inscription BODY OF THE ARTIST. In one hand he holds a flag: the fabric with the words SPIRIT OF THE ARTIST was attached to a long stick. With the other hand he pulls a “vehicle”, the main part of which is a rolling sizable block of wood sawn from a tree trunk. The side surface of the block bears the inscription ARTIST’S MONUMENT. It will serve as the monument’s pedestal. In the hole drilled through the center of the block a stick is inserted which acts as an axle. To this stick, on its two sides, are attached two long branches by which the “vehicle” can be pulled. The block rolls like a cylinder. It takes a lot of effort to move along the road: there is fierce counter wind that blows the banner out of his hands. The vehicle rolls hard, the woods bruise the artist’s skin until it bleeds. Upon reaching the town, the artist stops in the square, surrounded by some random audience. He removes the block of wood from the wheelbarrows and sets it up like a pedestal. He paints the soles of his feet with white paint and walks around the pedestal, imprinting a large circle of footprints. He then breaks the branches from which the vehicle is constructed, places them on the pedestal with the inscription ARTIST’S MONUMENT and sets them on fire. He removes the wooden boards and throws them into the fire. From the shaft he removes the fabric bearing the inscription SPIRIT OF THE ARTIST and puts it on. It turns out to be a kind of tunic with the inscription on the front. The artist walks outside the circle of the white marks and spreads on the ground the white fabric bearing the inscription ARTIST’S CONTACT WITH THE PUBLIC. He places a bottle of vodka and glasses on the fabric. He then pours the vodka and invites people gathered there to have a drink. The invitation is accepted. At the end of the manifestation, the artist extinguishes the bonfire that  burning on the pedestal of the “Monument”, takes off his robe, mounts it again like a flag on a long pole and puts around his hips a piece of fabric with the inscription CONTACT OF THE ARTIST WITH THE PUBLIC. The block of wood with the inscription THE ARTIST’S MONUMENT into which the banner with the inscription THE ARTIST’S SPIRIT is stuck and the overburnt wood with the inscription THE ARTIST’S BODY get transformed into an object – a sculpture.

„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. 120-21.