L'animoteur 14 — donkey stor(i)es
intervention and ritual in public space in Płocku Poland
* good-bye of all performers in Warsaw, photo by a passers-by *
words from Małgorzata Sady, the organizers of the festival and exhition on Stefan Themerson, on the background of the performative arts festival
On the performative arts festival «Stories. The world is more
complicated than our truths about it» – a few words of introduction a
few words.
Before the whole thing began to take a real shape I had a
serious dilemma: how to call a substantial artistic endeavor, which was
to be implemented both in Norway and Poland over 12 months and include a
wide spectrum of diverse events with an opening act of performative
arts festival. What could function as a common denominator, not
limiting, but setting a direction, a structure or anything else that
allows us to situate our world, express it and pass it on.
And then
the word ‘stories’* emerged. Stories are fundamental to our thinking and
our search/finding the meaning of existence. We all carry stories
within us and convey them to others. Storytelling is the most natural
means of communication, not necessarily verbal. One can tell a story
through gesture, movement, sound, light, image, all the vast
instrumentation available to the animate world. Life is full of stories,
those real and those fictional, the ones that are entirely created and
the ones based on memory, modified almost every time they are being
told. Stories accompany us throughout our lives, we listen to them and
tell them ourselves. Sometimes they are beautiful, sometimes they are
cruel. Why are they so important? It happens that they deaden the fear
of mortality, distract us from penetrating deep into our own being, and
sometimes, on the contrary, allow us to explore the inaccessible layers
hidden inside of us. Stories are a broad concept, hence we avoid
limiting artists in what they can and want to tell us. They are allowed
to spread their wings and visit ‘the regions of the great heresy’. Our
intention is far from imposing anything, but it is all about opening
possible doors through which we will enter personal, significant,
unusual, beautiful, difficult, colorful or black-and-white worlds… We
trust that this privilege will be bestowed upon us by the invited
artists.
We have chosen as our patrons a pair of uncompromising
avant-garde artists – Franciszka and Stefan Themerson (1907/1910 – 1988)
whose oeuvre covered a wide spectrum of the fields of art (including
avant-garde film, painting, graphics, literature, illustration, design,
theater, stage design, opera, publishing, typography, philosophy,
photography), came into being and was presented internationally. which
corresponds to the multifaceted nature of our undertaking. Besides, both
had family ties to Plock and Mazovian Museum is proud of having the
only permanent exhibition of theirs in the world – the Themerson
Gallery.
Stefan Themerson once wrote “The world is more complicated
than our truths about it” (WOOF! WOOF! Or Who Killed Richard Wagner). He
continues that as a result of this state of affairs, “an interpretation
directed toward the general public is required, and this task is
undertaken by artists”. We want to urge our audience to reject the
established patterns, leave the one-sided view of the world and look at
it from many points of view. Nowadays when we experience so much absurd
evil and injustice, the domination of low instincts, we desire people to
turn to open and untethered thinking. May free and open-minded thinking
be praised!
Time without stories is dead and might as well not exist.
Olga Tokarczuk, Playing on Many Drums
...
full text here ... about the whole project «Stories. The world is more complicated than our truths about it» ... program