Zbigniew Benedyktowicz
Continuity
Jerzy S. Wasilewski The Travelling Ethnologist. Triste Arctique in a shamanic costume, under a festival masque
The everyday life of the Eveny (so
Vitebsky, 2005), a group of reindeer herders of Yakutia (
Siberia
) is split or dissociated in several ways. The male herders,
migrating continuously in the taiga, are separated from their
settled-down womenfolk, which results in a basic discontinuity in
the transmission of culture. With the post-soviet economic collapse
animal husbandry lost its meaning. The purpose of the reindeer
herders festival in Topolino is to re-establish hope and a sense of
meaning. Organized and choreographed by local authorities, which
accounts for its bureaucratic folklore and political nostalgia, it
gives nevertheless the herders a rare chance “to show off
themselves and to look at the others”. A crucial personage of the
old culture, the shaman, moved away to the capital city, where the
customers are. And so did another unusual member of the Eveny group,
Anatoliy Alekseev, an outstanding culture broker who introduced
Savey, a shaman from the taiga, to the modern city public. With his
truly tricksterian qualities, he provides an impressive mix of
mythological and scientific explanations for Savey’s actions, thus
enriching their spiritual dimension and contributing to their
attractiveness (see his unusual photos from a shamanistic séance,
showing allegedly supernatural powers at work).
CHOREA
The chapter concerning Theatre
Association „Chorea” consists of the texts that provide the
short glimpse at the three-year period of the Association’s
diverse activities. Though so young, the Association has its share
in the history of its founders – the former actors of The Center
for Theatre practices “Gardzienice”: Tomasz Rodowicz, Elżbieta
Rojek and Dorota Porowska. The Association continues artistic work
and research around the culture of Ancient Greece, that its founders
begun in Gardzienice. The two main areas of interest and exploration
are ancient Greek music and dance and the principle of choreia i. e.
simultaneous use of dance, music and voice in performance.
Anna Bogdanowicz
The Bulgarian “Banica” with
Cheese and Spinach.” Turkish” Coffee and Vine Leaves, or on the
Need for Experiencing the Different in the Theatrical Quest
The text that opens the chapter is an
impression after the group’s journey to
Bulgaria
between May and June 2005. It is a subjective account of a few
meetings with Bulgarian folk culture, witch were also a search for
inspiration to theatre work with iconography and music of Ancient
Greece.
Tomasz Rodowicz
Why Antiquity, or the Condition of
Europe
The Chorea Theatrical
Society (2004-2006)
Too Late – The “Bulgaria-Balkan Epic” Project
The text by Tomasz Rodowicz – one
of the founders of the Association concerns the origins of the
Association and situates the phenomenon in the wider historical
context and in the context of the personal experience of the author.
The text is an attempt to sum up the hitherto achievements of the
Association and sketch the plans for upcoming projects.
Martin L. West
Forward to the past translated by Marianna Cielecka
Martin L. West
Music of Ancient
Greece
. Its Transmission Then and Now translated by
Sara Rodowicz, checked by Włodzimierz Lengauer
Martin L. West Ancient Greek Music: its
transmission then and now translated by
Maciej Kaziński, Anna Bogdanowicz
The author of the three followig
texts – Martin L. West – the prominent classicist and
musicologist, author of Music of Ancient Greece (Polish translation by A. Maciejewska and M. Kaziński, Homini Publishing
House, 2003) visited
Poland
in October 2004 at the invitation of the Theatre Association Chorea
and Homini Publishing House. During the visit he gave two of the
three lectures published here (Music of Ancient
Greece
. Its Transmission Then and Now Institute of
Art, Polish Institute of Science,
Warsaw
and Man, Destiny and Death in Indoeuropean Tradition,
Jagiellonian
University
,
Cracow
).
Krzysztof Bielawski
The Paeans of
Delphi
– Historical Context
Article by Krzysztof Bielawski is a
fragment of the book (Poetic Texts of
Greek music fragments) that is being
prepared for publishing. He places the paeans that were performed at
the occasion of Delphic festivals, in the religious, social and
political context. He also writes about the performers – the technitai – artists of
Dionysios that were associated in the guilds.
Dariusz Kosiński Clouds
Essay Clouds by Dariusz Kosiński
is reflection after performance After the Birds (Theatre
Association Chorea in cooperation with Earthfall Dance). The author
situates the performance in the context of the contemporary theatre
and music phenomena in
Poland
, inspired by the culture of Antiquity. He develops his
iterpretation in relation to the text of Aritophanes The Birds, which was the pretext for the performance.
Dorota Porowska Theseus and the Labyrinth Dances
Dorota Porowska writes about the
beginning of the work with the group of the Dances of the Labyrinth,
interweaving the personal reflections with the technical
explanations of the methods of work and giving some resources for
the research that accompanied “reading” vase painting through
the body. She also writes about the myth that became the basis for
the performance Theseus
in the Labyrinth and she explains
interpretative traits that constitute the “reality” of the
performance.
Agata Zyglewska-Diduszko Theseus in the Labyrinth
Then Agata Zyglewska, in her review
of the performance organizes her reasoning around the three chosen
motives: ‘Woman and Bull’, ‘Theseus and Labyrinth’ and ‘Community’.
She also stresses the ceremonial – ritualistic traits as one of
most crucial qualities of the performance.
Małgorzata Szum The light of Antic: Hode Galatan –
Earthfall / Chorea first part of the trilogy
The text by Małgorzata Szum is an
extended review of the performance Hode
Galatan, which was produced in co-operation
with Welsh company Earthfall Dance. The performance was the result
of putting together modern, urban form of choreography represented
by the Welsh directors Jim Ennis and Jessica Cohen and
interpretations of ancient Greek music performed by Ancient Orchestra run by the Polish director of the piece – Tomasz
Rodowicz. The author notices in the piece the question about the
form of art related to an artist’s desire of experiencing the
sacred. At the same time there is a search for authenticity and a
new language of expression reaching to the Greek roots of theatre
and exploring the principle of chorea – the tri-unity of poetry,
music and dance.
Małgorzata Jabłońska The Dance – the Drama of the Body
– the Order of the World
The subject of the work on
iconography of Ancient Greece is also undertaken by Małgorzata Jabłońska.
In her text she undertakes profound interpretation of the labyrinth of signs: dance, gesture, body, rhythm, ritual and those that are created in the
relations and actions of the characters from the story in the
performance Theseus in the Labyrith. She also records fragments of different versions of the myth and in
relation to these she draws her associations and possible lines of
interpretation.
Elżbieta Rojek A Few Thoughts on the Training
The author analyses the emergent form
of training that has been the result of many years of her work on
Ancient Greek dance “reading” the movement from the paintings on
ancient vases, relieves and other iconographic sources. She also
talks about other inspirations: film, diverse form of dance,
literature, and gives an example how a piece of text was made into a
piece of movement. She places her discoveries in the wider context
of dance theory and research quoting for example Polish dance
anthropologist Roderyk Lange. She concludes her text with a
statement that training in itself does not have a stable value it
constantly develops and inspires new projects. She also mentions
that in her research she plans to look for the
“three-dimensional” kind of movement that would be useful in
exposing the meaning and the emotional content of dance.
Maciej Rychły A Pterodactyl in a Compote –
Subjective Notes from Work on Classical Music in Chorea
The last text by musician and
composer Maciej Rychły is a collection of often humorous
reflections about the work with remaining fragments of Ancient Greek
musical notation and composing music on their basis. The author
writes about all the intricacies of the process, finds surprising
analogies and in the end, appears to be a gifted storyteller.
Krystyna Duniec The Body in the Theatre. From
Transcendence to Transgression
Krystyna Duniec in her text analyzes
functions of human body in a contemporary theatre. She shows how an
artistic function of actor body has been changing during a
discussion of different theatrical and theoretical concepts of the
XX century art.
Ewa Klekot, Tomasz Szerszeń “Anthropology is Not Enough to Understand What Happens with Man in the
Face of Beauty...”. A Record of a Conversation about D.
Freedberg’s “The Power of Images: Studies in the History and
Theory of Response”
The book by David Freedberg makes an
important attempt at examining the image from an anthropological
vantage point. Although the author is by training an art historian
he challenged his discipline by writing that the whole discourse
which emerged and grew around ”art” is a mere evasion. The image
always exerts a similar impact upon the recipient – Freedberg drew
attention to, i. a. the Freudian motif of suppression, and
underlined the religious character of art and the image. The point
of departure for research into art is the question of iconoclasm.
The presented text is a recorded conversation about the titular
publication.
Transformations of the Category of
Aesthetics in the World of the Multimedia
Alicja Kuczyńska Shall I Close My Eyes to See?
It is true that we live in a world of
images although their existence remains sightly ambiguous:
increasingly often they are shown not only in a completed form but
are merely generated. For quite some time now, their exclusive and
indisposable feature has ceased to be eyewitness perception
comprehended literally, since the winner in the competition with it
is spontaneous imagination and its derivatives. Images exist, press
all round us, and populate in great numbers all possible regions of
cognition.
Katarzyna Kasia The Author
Within the context of the so-called
“death” of the author in contemporary art I analyze two
phenomena: the non-existent author (and his works) and collective
creativity rendered possible by the www web. I also refer to real
examples of unreal authors, inquiring into the merits of their works
and pondering on the manner in which they are perceived by
contemporary philosophy.
Bogna J. Obidzińska Painting of the Pre-Raphaelites, or
the Composition Which Can Be Itself
In order to fulfill the function of
depicting something else than itself, the painting must leave the
centre of attention. It is this act of departure that art wishes to
avoid. Successive attempts at rendering the representing-represented
dichotomy whole proved to be ineffective – abstraction resigns
from the represented, illusionism – from the representing,
academic realism transforms the represented in its own fashion, and
although the symbol combines both elements, the recipient, while
noticing them, incessantly wavers between one and the other, unable
to encompass both simultaneously. The Pre-Raphaelites insisted on
the authenticity of art understood as creation based directly on
Nature and according to its laws. The outcome of their work is
painting which presents itself and thus makes it possible to
establish contact with the reality to which it belongs and refers.
In an aesthetic experience the Pre-Raphaelite oeuvre reveals both
the image and the depicted world.
Alicja Sawicka The Director’s Intentions. A
Record of Assumptions
This text is a “record” of
assumptions about the intentions motivating Krzysztof Kieślowski
and the opinions which this director could have voiced in a
discussion on ”The eye, the view, representation. The image in
culture”. All the questions and answers come from the author of
the article. The basic point of reference is a series of TV films
made in 1988/1989 under the joint title of Decalogue. By citing the
statements made by the director (K. Kieślowski About Myself, Cracow 1997)
and proposing an interpretation of selected fragments of the Decalogue, the
author outlines the artistic path followed by Kieślowski (a
departure from the documentary film for the sake of the feature
film) as a consequence of perceiving the danger that might be
created by the power wielded by the director over the viewers of his
films. In order to preserve a so-called director’s sincerity the
artist begins to deprive himself of the right to use certain means
while working on a concrete film. Relinquishing them one after the
other, he is finally is left with nothing and compelled to resign
from making movies. This takes place in a situation when the
director becomes aware of the necessity of taking into consideration
three intermingling perspectives: the author or authors, the
protagonists, and the spectator. As a consequence – he also
experiences the need to suggest to the spectator the existence of
these viewpoints, a task achieved with the assistance of certain “signs”.
The director is forced to leave behind assorted traces of his
presence in the film: sufficiently ambiguous so that their meaning
could not be identified with a certain single thought which he
supposedly wished to express and at the same time sufficiently
unambiguous so that they could be noticed by the spectator and
recognized not as signs referring to some sort of meanings.
Unwilling to appear in the role of a judge (and not wishing to allow
the recipient to assume such a rank) the director must accomplish
within the film an “interiorization” of a single perception, i.
e. his own and the spectator’s. The basic problem which
concentrates the analyses and interpretations proposed by the author
of this text, is the possibility of implementing the above-outlined
ideal and indicating those of its consequences which could turn
against the good intentions of the artist who wishes to retain his
honesty as a director.
Piotr Schollenberger “Transcendental Narcissism” and
the Philosophy of Art
The author discusses the question of
“narcissism”, specifically understood in the phenomenological
works of Merleau-Ponty, in which it denotes a perception that
discovers truth within itself, the unexpressed, pre-rational truth
of the world as it is, which best captures the process of painting
as a work of art. Merleau-Ponty believes that although it evades the
claims made by the rationalizing description, the relation between
the visible and the invisible generates a linguistic, discursive
meaning. In other words, it is possible to speak about art in the
language of philosophy and, in addition, to speak well by doing
justice to a given work of art, or not. Does the philosophical
discourse apply painting as an illustration, or perhaps it unites in
a common objective the solution of the mystery of visibility, or
discovers within it its own “silent” reflection? Regardless of
the answers we give to these questions, the problem of
“narcissism” – a perception which finds the truth within
itself – remains a problem not only of contemporary philosophy but
also of contemporary art.
Maciej Rożalski The “Animation” of the Image as
a Method of Creating a Theatrical Work
The text focuses on the possibility
of “animating” an already completed work of art which serves as
a theme and source of inspiration in the process of creating another
artwork. The author cites the example of the efforts pursued by the
“Gardzienice” company while referring to ancient Greek vase
painting, primarily the Francois Vase, as well as iconographic
themes relating to the Greek Cabiri mysteries.
Aleksandra Kos The Text of the Image
Although the perception of the
photograph as a “mirror of reality” is universal, it cannot be
upheld. The process of noticing the complexity of relations between
language and reality is by no means a new discovery. Already at the
very outset of photography there appeared theoretical opinions
indicating that it faithfully registers only the physical world
while the remaining meaning is created by a cultural superstructure.
Photography is a text.
Marcin Sutryk “The Black Square” by Kasimir Malevich
The author attempts to define the
role played by the form of the square in the suprematist painting by
Kasimir Malevich. This was the form which in the artist’s oeuvre
acted as a point of departure and a goal, by designating the
beginning or signalizing the end. Furthermore, the form in question
encloses all the suprematist accomplishments of the painter. The
article tries to decipher the form of the square as a unique
boundary.
Aleksandra Hirszfeld Greenaway á la “Greenaway” –
or an Englishman’s Creative UNIVERSE in a Nutshell
The
text is a cursory survey of the wide
spectre of films by Peter Greenaway from the perspective of
innumerable webs composed of events, symbols and figures. The whole
Greenaway oeuvre, his collages – the reference to earlier and
later works, the creation of imagery and installations or
theatrical-opera spectacles which supplement his cinematic pursuits
– enable the spectator to enter premises full of artifacts created
not necessarily in a manner resembling the conditions and events
transpiring in our world, and to cross the boundaries of a separate
Universe. The article is an attempt at finding a key to this
sophisticated multi-level world composed of a labyrinth of images,
and at placing Greenaway’s work within a certain framework of
contemporary philosophical thought, together with the prime
ascertainment that the world depicted by the author of The Pillow Book ceased
presenting something and became art solus ipse, part of the
post modern current of multiplying Borgesian maps. The creative
Universe, including every film, comprises maps of a new world, a new
self-reference hyper-reality, a film model of simulation. The
spectator – invited to take part in the game, to watch the film
world, to celebrate the webs of connections, and to seek keys and
open successive domains concealing myriad references and finely
constructed mini-truths, enters a world of a schematic construction
as subtly knit as Descartes’ model of reality, a Magic World of a
Creative Universe built by a certain Englishman.
Jerzy Prokopiuk What we can do with Gurdjieff?
A renowned Polish anthroposophist and
translator (R. Steiner, C. G. Jung, E. Fromm, M. Eliade), puts
Gurdjieff’s teachings in a historical theosophical context. He
sees them as syncretic, anti-Christian, pseudo-Sufi and negative
Gnostic teachings. Still his advice is not to fight them but to
transform them.
Zbigniew Osinski Contribution to the Reception of
Gurdjieff
The interest in Gurdjieff disclosed
by Grotowski was the outcome of his years-long friendship with Peter
Brook, starting with the 1960s. Its evidence includes the
correspondence, cited in the article, between the Customs Office in
Zgorzelec and Jędrzej Selle (in 1966–1971 deputy head of
administration at the Laboratorium Theatre in Wrocław, in
1972–1978 head of organization entrusted with the duties of deputy
director), who in December 1968 brought Grotowski’s books over to
Poland. The more than ten titles, primarily classics of literature,
philosophy and mysticism, included French translations of Gurdjieff
’s Belzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, 1950 (Récits de Belzébuth a son petit-fils) and P. D. Uspiensky’s In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown
Teaching, 1949 (Fragments
d’un enseignement inconnu), highly regard
by the Gurdjieff circles. In the light of the documents cited in the
article the beginnings of more profound interest in Gurdjieff could
be dated as 1968. I discuss the copy of Uspiensky’s book given to
me by Grotowski in 1982, prior to his final departure from Poland. I
also recall that the part of the young Gurdjieff in Jeanne de
Salzmann’s and Peter Brook’s Meetings with Remarkable Men (1978) was supposed to have been played by Ryszard Cieślak. Grotowski
was not interested in having some of his texts, originally published
in the West, translated in Poland. They included his study on
Gurdjieff – A Kind of Volcano. An Interview with Jerzy Grotowski, based on three meetings with Michel de Salzmann in
Paris in 1991, published in French in Switzerland in 1992, and in
English in the USA in
1996. In
this case, however, the Polish translation was issued in November
2001, almost three years after Grotowski’s death. His heirs agreed
to the request made by Peter Brook, who turned to them in connection
with a publication prepared upon the occasion of a conference held
in Wrocław – “Towards the essence. Georgiy Ivanovich Gurdjieff
– impact and significance”. It is a great pity that we do not
have at our disposal a precise list of Grotowski’s book collection,
and that all chances for such a list will be lost irreversibly.
Grotowski was to a considerable degree influenced by a dialogue with
certain book, as I mentioned more extensively in the article Dzieło
Jerzego Grotowskiego jako przedmiot badań (The Works of Jerzy Grotowski as a Topic of Research), published in this
issue of “Konteksty”. Finally, I would like to mention that, as
far as I know, Grotowski never connected his name with any of the
Gurdjieff groups; on the other hand, he harboured the conviction,
which he shared with others, including me, about the absence of any
sort of a missionary inclination both on the part of Gurdjieff
himself and his followers. Naturally, we cannot exclude the
possibility that even if he had not met Peter Brook, Grotowski could
have stumbled upon Gurdjieff in some other way. These are, however,
mere speculations which it is best to evade.
Jacek Dobrowolski „Guru Gurdjieff”
A Polish poet, critic and translator
criticizes Gurdjieff following Anthony Storr’s diagnosis published
in his Feet of Clay. Saints, Sinners and Madmen: a Study of
Gurus as a charismatic, highly narcissistic
manipulator who abused his students. Dobrowolski sees his teaching
as a distorted Sufi doctrine combined with wild theosophical
theories of his own making.
Nikolai Evreinov Towards the Philosophy of the
Theatre
The author poses a question about the
essence of the theatre by opposing the generally accepted perception
of the theatre as entertainment or narrowly comprehended “art”.
Nikolai Evreinov saw the presence of the theatre in simplest human
activity, claiming that each person possesses a theatrical drive and
instinct which compel him to conduct constant transformations both
of reality and himself. Stress is placed on the fact that we render
our life theatrical already in childhood, if only in the assorted
games we play. The role of games among Indian tribes, Mexicans, etc.
is also discussed. Finally, Evreinov was one of the first to
introduce the concept of the theatralisation
of life, which remains fundamental for such
domains as the anthropology of the theatre or performance studies.
Julia Holewińska A Pearl from an Old Curiosity Shop
At attempt at a brief presentation of
the life and works of Nikolai Evreinov – one of the leading
figures of the Russian Silver Age. This extended biogramme mentions
both Yevreinov’s involvement in successive artistic initiatives,
including the establishment of the “Under the Homeless Dog” club,
his activity in “The Crooked Mirror”, and theoretical texts. The
author draws attention to the multitude of professions pursued by
Evreinov, who was a director, a philosopher, an actor, a playwright
and a theoretician of art.
|