4 II 1977

Student Club “Riwiera Remont”, Warszawa

Manifestation description:

The interior of the club. Three plain, uncovered tables stand in a row, not far from each other. At the first table there is a chair, on it lies the weekly magazine “Culture”. The action. “Ritual of Culture” is announced as the next entry in the program of the Congress. The artist is present in the hall. He strips naked, leaves his clothes on the chair and walks over to the table with the weekly “Culture”. He sits down at the table. From the front page of the newspaper, he precisely tears out a piece in the form of a leaf and puts it down on the table. He then tears off several strips of paper, as long as possible. A sort of noise can be heard in the hall at this point. Mrs. Cieślarowa strips naked and steps into the middle of the venue. She approaches the artist and declares that she wants to join the action. The artist, seeing no such possibility, does not initially react. He continues his work in concentration, making it clear that this is an interference disturbing the course of the action. Ms. Cieślarowa, however, insists and appeals to the audience. This situation threatens to break down the planned action. The artist then moves with his work to the other table. However, he leaves some pages of the newspaper and – without stopping his work – he asks to get a second chair and proposes to Mrs. Cieślarowa to show her ingenuity in making something out of the newspaper or to imitate him. He then twists a paper cord from the strips of paper and threads a “newspaper” leaf onto it. He gets up from the chair, ties the string around his waist in such a way that the dangling “fig leaf” covers the embarrassing part of her body. Mrs. Cieślarowa remains completely naked, she tears the newspaper, and after some time she returns to her seat and gets dressed. The artist, meanwhile, moves to the third table where he folds a square piece of newspaper several times so that a figure of a horse is formed. He places the horse in the middle of the tabletop and makes a ball out of the leftover paper and places it on the top of the first table. Finally, he unties a “fig leaf” from his hips and places it on the table in the middle. He returns to his place in the hall and gets dressed. What remains is the “Ritual of Culture” – a display on three tables featuring the paper ball, the paper leaf threaded on a paper string and the horse made of newspaper.

Photo by Zygmunt Rytka