19 XII 1976

Student club, Toruń, Toruń

Manifestation description:

The interior of a student club, three free-standing tables. Two of them are set against each other; the middle one, positioned centrally, is set back. Lying on it there is a strip of white fabric 50 cm wide and 1 m long bearing the inscription ALTAR OF TIME on it. The strip is cut into 3/4 of its length, but you can’t see it. The other two tables are covered with white tablecloths. The right one bears the inscription ALTAR OF LIFE and has gingerbread (or some other kind of cake) on it, a bottle of vodka and glasses. The left one bears the inscription ALTAR of ART. On it there is a wooden bottle, crudely sculpted with a few blows of an axe; next to it there are small pegs resembling glasses. Action. The artist is among the audience. He approaches the “Altar of Time” and places 11 packets of popular cigarettes on the floor right in front of it. The packets form a single line. He then takes a brush and with black paint writes one letter on each packet. The letters form the inscription SMUGA CIENIA (SHADOW LINE). The artist walks to one of the chairs standing among the audience, undresses, and puts his clothes on the chair. Then he returns to the “Shadow Line”, goes in front of it, paints on his body a black, vertical line running across his face, torso down to his privates. He takes a white fabric from the“Altar of Time” and puts it over himself by slipping his head into the slit. He approaches the “Altar of Life.”  He alternately breaks the gingerbread and paints fragments of a green plant on the white fabric he is covered with. In doing so, he bypasses the inscription placed there. Then he alternately pours vodka into glasses and paints red flowers on the green plant. He moves on to the “Altar of Art.” He makes the wooden bottle more realistic by “feigning” the red label with a brush. He returns to the middle, empty table. He removes the decorated robe with the inscription of the ALTAR OF TIME and carefully places it on the table. He then places a wooden bottle on this decorative “tablecloth.” On a piece of paper he writes the title and date of the manifestation, and puts his signature. He puts the crumpled piece of paper into a vodka bottle. He places the glass bottle next to the wooden bottle. The artist addresses the audience, invites them to join the discussion and help themselves to cake and vodka from the table and cigarettes from the floor. The “Altar of Time” remains to be viewed.