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2007 (rok
LXI) |
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Bartłomiej Walczak Paul Stoller’s Project of Eidetic Ethnography A presentation of the controversial In Sorcery’s Shadow by Paul Stoller and Cheryl Olkes – a record of Stoller’s experiences
with the Songhay in Agnieszka Karpowicz The Collage Experiment. The Leopold Buczkowski Archive The ”ephemera of memory” comprise
a category constitutive for the works of Leopold Buczkowski.
Punctualistic, aleatoric non-fiction constructions create museum
space in which the author tries to revive ”Rusin words-sounds”,
i.e. the living, dialogical and multicultural vernacular of pre-war
Podolia. His stories, however, progress more in time than in space
by creating simultaneously overlapping strata of myriad versions of
events, myths, and imagery, enrooted in collective imagination. The
homophonic quality of the ephemera corresponds to the fleeting
nature of human memory. With attempts at capturing living speech and
music as his point of departure, Buczkowski arrived at
decontextualised records or even written down conversation when, for instance, he creates narration composed of
quotations from Polish-French phrase-books. Only decontextualisation,
characteristic for the written word, is regarded by the author as a
tool suitable for building a memory museum; he thus endeavours Jacek Leociak Contemporary Antigone One the determinant of humanity
mentioned by Giambatisto Vico is burial of the dead. The author of
this study does not deliberate on burial conceived as attempts at
taming dread of the deceased or an act stemming from fear of the
impurity of the corpse. He is interested in testimonies describing
situations in which the human corpse is defiled and the burial
ritual – violated, as well as in attempts at restoring the thus
undermined order of things. Subsequently, he ponders on the nature
of interment in extreme situations (such as the world wars or the
Holocaust) and the cultural meanings borne by the act of defiling
the corpse and desacralising the burial ground. The article starts
with recalling classical tradition (Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, and
the Bible) and goes on to study records from the Warsaw ghetto (primarily
those by Rachela Auerbach). In doing so the author focuses on burial
comprehended as the obligation of the living towards those who were
not allowed to survive. In this context, efforts to fulfil the
burial ritual should be understood as a final protection of the
foundations of humanity at the time of Shoah. Paweł Stangret A Concise History of the Avantgarde in Tadeusz
Kantor’s Lekcje mediolańskie The article considers the presence of
the avantgarde in the oeuvre of Tadeusz Kantor, and tries to capture
the artist’s conceptions relating to contemporary art. The
helpfulness of Lekcje mediolańskie (The Milan Lessons) lies in the fact that this publication is situated on
a margin of Kantor’s theoretical reflections and artistic
undertakings. The text shows how abstraction, Constructivism and
Surrealism affected the work of the author of Umarła klasa (Dead Class). Lekcje mediolańskie also indicates
the reasons why Kantor referred to precisely those three trends,
summing up their role and significance in twentieth-century
art. Kantor returned to the bases of modern art in order to
define his whole oeuvre and contemporaneity as such vis a vis the listed
currents. Aleksandra Melbechowska-Luty, Elegy
and Drama. The Niches, Passages and Thresholds
of Jacek Sempoliński In March 2006 the Studio Gallery in Aleksander Jackowski Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz In this fragment of a book currently
in print, Aleksander Jackowski reminisces about the outstanding
sculptor Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz, recalling the post-war years, the
1950s and the 1960s in the artist’s oeuvre. This period certainly
differed from the contemporary conditions of Polish art ”His era
required memory and forced the artist to tackle the setting of lies
and the gag of censorship. Today, young artists are free of such
determinants and feel no need to commemorate anything. The world of
their imagination is open. They astonish and even shock, without
having to paying any price for doing so (...) Could a portrait of an
artist, even such an acclaimed one, be of any interest at a time
when all the components of art are changing, and when it has become
outright embarrassing to speak about the categories of beauty and
consider what which is ethical (...)?” The proposed text is also an attempt
at personal meditation on memory: ”We live in such rapid times
that unrecorded memory vanishes instantly. Art? Everyday there
appear more painters and sculptors than in the whole history of
mankind. The rushing tide of facts is simply enormous. Which young
intelligent person today knows anything about Tadeusz Sieklucki,
Tadeusz Brzozowski, Józef Gielniak or Jerzy Panek? About the great
artists? What are you working on at the moment? – I was asked by a
female journalist from an important daily. – I’m writing about
Jarnuszkiewicz... – And who’s he? Well, I am writing so that she
would know”. Aleksandra Melbechowska-Luty Tribal
Rhapsody. Private Notes on the Art of
Magdalena Abakanowicz The numerous sculptures by Magdalena
Abakanowicz (and her examples of related arts) include unusual
visual concepts, meanings and contents relating to man’s
individual and group experiences. Abakanowicz is interested in all
that is alive: man, animal and plant, their diverse” bodies”,
which she shapes or commemorates in anthropomorphic or biomorphic
forms by using natural material, e. g. wool, canvas, jute, hide,
horsehair, and wood but also stone and metal. The characteristic
features of her works include monumentalism and a masterly treatment
of ”mobile” textures which link the structures of the surface
with the very core of a given composition. Abakanowicz is the author
of highly unconventional fabrics known as Abakany; these by no means decorative or utilitarian objects comprise
large-scale soft sculptures organizing space. She finds the thread
which ties together the structure of living organisms to be
fascinating material. The human figures which are, as a rule,
incomplete, maimed, naked, headless, armless, and sexually undefined
(derived from the myth of Androgyne), are accompanied by Sitting Figures, Backs, Heads, Faces, Self-portraits and the figures and heads of animals.
Hundreds of figures – swathed in sacking or cast in bronze – are
arranged in rows and crowds against the backdrop of a panorama of
large towns, in parks and gardens or on the banks of rivers and
lakes. These “collective” compositions carry universal symbolic
messages and speak about ”primary things” extracted from the
depths of time; simultaneously, they are transposed into
contemporary life and evoke a metaphorical image of the endless
”migration of the peoples”. Abakanowicz constantly resorts to
the oldest motifs, such as the form of the circle. She executes
round spoke constructions and rolled bearings, and in Israel
arranges large circles composed of limestone in the Negev Desert.
She also embarks upon the catharsis motif and depicts perennial War Games involving wounded
human bodies and war machinery – guns and missiles, resembling
toppled trees. Her Sarcophagi bring to mind coffins and the covers of nuclear
reactors. Untamed imagination directs
her towards architectural- town planning sculpture designed on an
immense scale. Abakanowicz is the author of visions of
plant-entwined houses-gardens intended for Paris and the 640-metres
high Hand
Monument, probably the loftiest statue in the
world, stretched towards the sky and commemorating the victims of
Hiroshima. Her entire oeuvre refers to the existential and spiritual
condition of homo universalis and all cultures, at the same time becoming part of the
”correspondence of the arts” since the compositions resound with
the echoes of musical rhythm or correspond to the visions of poets
(T. S. Eliot) and architects (Hand Monument evokes the conception launched by Le Corbusier who half
a century earlier executed a sculpture of The Open Hand raised towards
the heavens in the Indian town of Chandigarh). Joanna Sosnowska An Old Female Artist Paints Only recently has old age become the
object of reflections pursued in assorted domains of science.
Indubitably, the reason for this phenomenon lies in constantly
expanding longevity. We still do not have at our disposal criteria
for determining the precise onset of old age, and prevailing
opinions remain at odds. As a rule, it is accepted that old age is
tantamount to maturity when spiritual issues predominate over
material ones, particularly corporeal. Marcel Proust was an exponent
of a contrary view claiming that the commencement of old age is
marked by a changed attitude towards the surrounding world, when
bodily relations, to use the expression coined by the writer, become
more important than spiritual ones. This is the moment when contact
with the object, the landscape and another person assumes a new
significance, and becomes a nourishment of sorts, indispensable for
life and creativity. Późna twórczość wielkich artystów
(The Late Works of Great Artists), a book by Mieczysław
Wallis published more than thirty years ago and devoted
predominantly to aged artists – albeit not exclusively, since the
very term ”late works” does not have to denote creativity dating
from an artist’s old age, makes no mention of female artists as if
the very problem did not pertain to them. From a statistical
viewpoint, for centuries women tended to die earlier than men, but
this was not the essential reason for the omission. The explanation
should be sought in the category of womanhood obligatory in our
culture. Only a woman capable of fulfilling maternal functions was
regarded as noteworthy. An old woman who had already completed all
her duties towards the family and society, became a matron and was
accepted only in this guise. Apparently, the combined status of a
matron and an artist was excluded. Those two social constructions
could not be mixed, and female artists were refused the right to have a family; for all practical
purposes old female artists did not exist. Nevertheless, there
always remained the sort of a woman who violated the imposed rules
of conduct, and frequently she was an artist. Already in her youth
Olga Boznańska rejected the demands of the patriarchal world and
did not accept the functions deemed fitting for a woman by totally
devoting herself to art. By refuting all subjugation to conventions,
in time she drew attention to something which usually remains
invisible, i.e. otherness attained by age itself. As an older woman
she fascinated the visitors who appeared in her rather unkempt
studio. Physical relations, understood as contact with objects and
people, remained extremely important due to the very fact that she
was a painter, and with age they grew even more intense. She needed
them in the same manner as the one described by Proust, succumbing
to the tide of life delineated by old age. Wojciech Bałus Dan Brown, his Macho and the Question of Truth In his critical comments about Dan
Brown’s bestsellers, W. Bałus, an historian of art, omits their
widely commented factographic preposterousness and focuses on the
measures applied by the novelist in order to construct the leading
protagonist as well as the latter’s conceptions about culture.
Robert Langdon, the hero of Brown’s books, appears to be a
scientific macho and an advocate of scientism, whose knowledge
possesses all the traits of total unambiguity akin to nineteenth-
century visions of culture. Brown is described as yet another
”master of suspicions”, and his book is regarded as a successive
example of postmodern para-religious nonsense. Artur Rumpel Pious Inscriptions in the Tworki Deanery Folk songs are suffused with symbolic,
in the past universally understood and today largely forgotten.
Almost every song had not a single meaning but at least two or even
more. At present it has become impossible to discover all of them
although in certain cases such an objective may be attained. The
presented song Miała Kasia Jasia (Kate and her Johnny) describes the tragic death of a young man on the
battlefield and the complicated love for a poor boy, disclosed by a
sequence of legible symbols which create a logical whole. Czesław Robotycki Against Kopaliński and towards
Bartmiński. On a Polish
Dictionary of Folk Stereotypes and Symbols The title of the article suggests a
cautious use of dictionaries of catalogue-arranged symbols in all
interpretations of culture (in Poland the author of the most popular
dictionary of this sort is W. Kopaliński). C. Robotycki claims that
the anthropologist will find ethno-linguistic dictionaries of
greater use. Dictionaries of symbols list meanings without
indicating their pragmatic context, while the latter variety locates
symbolic meanings within the context of the vocabulary, grammar and
pragmatic rules. Such a dictionary has been written by Jerzy Bartmiński
(together with a team of collaborators). The range of this
publication encompasses folk symbols and linguistic stereotypes,
making it possible to reconstruct the linguistic image of the world
of culture. The author discusses the premises of the presented
dictionary and the manner of their realisation; he also emphasises
the importance of links between ethno-linguistic and anthropological
reflections, indicating the long tradition of ethno-linguistics
derived from the philosophy of the language, anthropology and
linguistic studies. Aleksander Jackowski “Na Skróty”. Postscript A postscript to the autobiographical Na Skróty (Shortcuts) by the long-term editor-in-chief of
”Polska Sztuka Ludowa” and a steady collaborator of the
quarterly ”Konteksty”; the book was published several years ago. Joanna Pietruszka On Those who Stayed Behind. A Study on Old Age and the
Looming Extinction of the Ukrainian Countryside A presentation of old age along the
borderline between contemporary society and a Ukrainian traditional
rural community facing extinction. The portrayed group of people
share their place of residence, age, and experiences of historical
events as well as the progressing disappearance of village life.
Upon the basis of a local comprehension of the conception of age –
within the context of performed social roles and health, the author
interprets the organisation of life and the changes transpiring
within the community. Observations of daily life, communication and
memory of the deceased serve as a foundation for describing
strivings towards the maintenance of a continuum and resistance
against the gradual loss of impact on one’s fate. Justyna Chmielewska An Old Story of New Jerusalem An attempted reconstruction of the
history of the Murashkovtsy Christian Holy Zionists – a religious
community established in the 1930s in present-day Western Belarus
and Ukraine. The chief protagonists are the prophets Ivan Murashko
and Olga Kirylchuk-Korneychuk who, according to the Zionists,
embodied the Second Coming of Christ. By basing herself on
on-the-spot interviews the author tried to bring the reader closer
to hagiographic narrations about the miracles and sanctity of the
Father and Mother of Zion, as the founders of the movement were
known, and the history of New Jerusalem – a holy city built in
1936–39 in Volhynia as a realisation of the idea of the Kingdom of
God on Earth. We learn about prophets, apostles, holy blood and New
Zion as well as about rejection and strong social stigmatisation.
The post-war history of the group is branded with persecution,
arrests and imposed wanderings from Volhynia across the Caucasus to
Central Asia and finally to the environs of Odessa where more than
350 members of the congregation continue to reside. From the very onset the Zionists,
engaged in implementing their utopia, remained on the margin of
social and religious life. Ridiculed by some and openly branded by
others, they sought refuge in isolation, fled the outside world, and
closed themselves in enclaves governed by rules formulated by the
prophets. The presented text is an attempt at bringing the reader
close to the alternative created by the Murashko adherents in their
New Jerusalem. Wiesław Szpilka No So Long Ago In 1981 ”Polska Sztuka Ludowa”
published a survey on Ethnography –
ethnology – anthropology of culture. What are they? What is their
objective? The survey was a sui generis generation manifesto issued by
researchers connected with the editorial board of ”Polska Sztuka
Ludowa” (today: ”Konteksty”), who at the time perceived
ethnography as a ”science without boundaries” and one which
”opts for freedom”. This methodological breakthrough (which
coincided with the proclamation of martial law)
became the reason why, according to the author of the article,
Polish ethnography lost its innocence. The presented text, written
in the form of a recollection, challenges oblivion. Józef Czapski
wrote that ”personal reminiscences rebel against the reduction of
our past, which has been already pigeonholed by historians and
devoured by statistics and figures in the order of millions to
become abstract and almost meaningless for the next generation”. |