10 IX 1981

Osieki near Koszalin

as part of the 19th Meeting of Artists, Scientists and Art Theoreticians: Rhythm of Time, Rhythm of Art, Rhythm of Generations (3-17 IX)

Description of the manifestation:

The artist had previously assembled a primitive wheelbarrow. A thin piece of wood cut from a board served as the wheel. A dowel, acting as an axle, connected the wheel to bent branches that could be used to push the wheelbarrow. A long, sturdy pole was mounted vertically at the center of the structure, with a canvas bearing the inscription TACZKI WOLNOŚC (THE WHEELBARROW OF FREEDOM) fluttering from its end. The object stands in front of the building. The artist emerges naked from the building and makes a brief statement. He says that what he is about to do will be neither a happening nor a performance, but a manifestation documenting recent Polish history. I was nine years old when the ongoing drama of the Polish struggle for freedom began, he concludes. He takes the wheelbarrow and pushes it through the park’s avenues. Every now and then, he stops and paints a date on his body in black paint. These are, in order: 1939, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1976, 1980. After completing a full circle, he returns to his starting point. He sets the wheelbarrow down in the square, removes the banner, writes his signature and the current date on the canvas, and reattaches it. Then he walks away naked, covered in dates, leaving the wheelbarrow in front of the building.

Photo by Ryszard Motkowicz