ARTIST’S COMMENTARY:

Living Pink was a performance that portended the possibility of a catastrophe. The site was the part of the Planty park in front of the BWA building.

Like before, a section of the lawn had been surrounded by a white fence. Dressed in pink, wearing a white hat adorned with a pink rose, I enter the sectioned-off area, carrying gardening tools and a rose bush. I put on a pink apron, dig a hole, plant the bush, and mound earth around it. I rake dry leaves onto the mound. I detach the shaft from the rake and transform the pink apron into a flag. I put it up in the center of the “garden.”

Then I affix a “Do not walk on grass”-type sign to the side of the shaft. The sign, dated and signed, says, “żywy róż” [living pink]. Upon affixing it, I ask – in Polish, French, and German – whether roses are going to bloom pink in Poland next spring. The French and German versions are for the international audience of the 9th International Kraków Meetings.

Maria Pinińska-Bereś, “Akcje” (action descriptions no. 6), manuscript, ca. 1995
Maria Pinińska-Bereś, notebook (“Pink Panther”), manuscript, April 1997