early and late 1980s (1982-84, 1987-89)

Kraków

Maria Pinińska-Bereś:

In 1982–1984 and 1987–1989, I undertook a series of private, intimate performances harking back to the 1976 Kite-Letter performance, where I sent the eponymous object on a northsouth wind from the commons of Prądnik, Kraków, in the presence of invited guests. The 1980s pieces were attempts to send letters by forces of nature; their irrationality endowed them with certain characteristics of art. Being private, no photographer was present to document them; a few drawings were made. The letters were conveyed by moving sands, entrusted to rivers, thrown with the wind from tall buildings. I often found them trodden into the ground, which lent the performances a dramatic aspect. At first, the letters were written on pink paper and “mailed” in envelopes. But after I’d found them trodden into mud or wet snow, I started writing on the envelopes and put blank pink sheets inside. Those from the early 1980s were a political and cultural statement, a sort of provocation. Those from 1987–1989 were of a purely personal nature, making the performance all the more dramatic and absurd. They were psychological operations on myself.