25 XI 1996

Krzysztofory Gallery, Kraków

Description of the manifestation:

Description of the manifestation: A table stands against the gallery wall. On it are a bottle of vodka and vodka glasses. In the raised part of the gallery is a wheelbarrow with a canopy bearing the inscription Elite Wheelbarrow.

Action: The artist pushes the wheelbarrow up a walkway into the main hall. He is naked, his penis painted red and white. A rope is wrapped around his neck, dragging along the floor behind him. He walks with a loud tapping sound because his feet are strapped into grooved wooden clogs. He stops in the middle of the hall. He removes the clogs, places them in the wheelbarrow, and begins tying them with the rope he has taken off his neck. He approaches the table, paints the letter S on his torso, and begins pouring vodka into the glasses. While doing so, he discusses the issues he would like to raise in a dialogue with Andrzej Wajda, who is unfortunately absent. He says that the elitism once justified during the communist era, because of surveillance, is now pathologizing the intellectual life of Poles. He walks back and forth between the wheelbarrow and the table, fastening his clogs to the wheelbarrow with the rope, writing letters on his body, and pouring vodka into glasses. He says he wants to question the understanding – strongly present in the circles of Andrzej Wajda and Maria Janion – of Romanticism as a culture of defeat rooted in tragic irony. He proposes also considering a bold, triumphant Romanticism. He expresses a critical stance toward the art exhibition organized by Andrzej Wajda at the Palace of Arts in Krakow. Finally, he states that he would like to ask Andrzej Wajda why, out of his entire oeuvre, he chose for this exhibition a work that the artist himself does not fully feel he created, since it was commissioned: a portrait of Father Kolbe in Auschwitz clogs. The theme of the work had been selected by the commissioning priest. While he speaks, the clogs are fastened, the vodka is poured, and the letters on his body form the word SENS (MEANING). The artist then overturns the wheelbarrow. On the underside of the canopy, the inscription ETOS TWÓRCZY (CREATIVE ETHOS) appears. He takes an empty bottle and smashes it loudly against a stone built into the structure of the wheelbarrow. At the end of the manifestation, the artist offers the audience vodka and invites them to continue the discussion.

Photo by Zbigniew Bielawka