Maria Pinińska Bereś
The Banner, 1980
January 1980
fields of Prądnik, Kraków
ARTIST’S COMMENTARY:
I arrive in suburban fields, in the presence of a group of participants, wearing pink and pulling a pink sledge. On the sledge is a rolled-up banner and a pink horn filled with pink powder pigment. I hang the horn on my neck, untie the banner from the sledge, and proceed to pitch it in the deep snow. Once unfurled, a white inscription saying “Różowy” [Pink] appears on a pink background. I use the pink pigment to write “Biały” [White] on the snow in front of and behind the banner.
At the end, having unlocked a sledge bell, pulling the sledge and jingling, I make larger and larger circles until I finally disappear. The performance was based on a tautological gesture, which was also a self-referential statement.
At the “Sculpture of the Year” exhibition, I used those elements to build an installation. I painted a large white triangle directly on the floor. I put up the banner by winding it around metal stands, and wrote the word “różowy” [pink] using a pink roller. Across one side of the triangle there stood a pink sledge with photographic documentation of the performance. The work won the show’s main award.
Maria Pinińska-Bereś, action descriptions no. 5, manuscript, ca. 1995