9 I 1976

Gallery in the Castle in Świdwin

Manifestation description:

The castle interiors, two spaces: a small corridor and a chamber with a free-standing fireplace. In the chamber there is a table, on it a bottle of cognac and glasses. On the stone slab of the fireplace, a little above the level of the floor, there are four sheets of white drawing paper, some wood chippings and cups with paint. Action. At first there is no audience. The artist sits naked on a chair in the hallway for some time and paints red the grains of rice spilled on the table in front of him. He takes grain after grain from the table and after painting a given grain he throws it back into the pile of white rice. The rice is now white and red. The audience arrives. The artist finishes painting the grains of rice and walks into the chamber. He kneels down in front of the fireplace and puts his signature in red on the first white sheet of paper. He then paints a red letter C on his body. He gets up walks to the table and fills several glasses with cognac. He returns to the fireplace, kneels down by the other side of it and leaves his signature in blue on the another sheet of paper. He paints a blue letter Z on his body. He returns to the table and fills several glasses with cognac. He repeats this sequence of actions using yellow and green paints. When the whole bottle of cognac is spilt into glasses, the letters on the body form the colorful word CZAS (TIME). He now goes back to the fireplace, crumples the signed sheets of paper, drapes them with wood chippings and sets fire to them. He turns to the audience, invites them to have a drink and enter into discussion next to the burning fireplace. When the fire gets extinguished the artist takes out a piece of burnt wood from there and crosses out the colorful word CZAS (TIME) written on his body with it and leaves the chamber.