"The Castle of Imagination".
Grzegorz Borkowski and Wladyslaw Kazmierczak - curators of the first International Meeting of Artists "Castle of Imagination" very strongly emphasized neutrality of its idea were formulating it without imposing any introductory conditions, which could constitute obstacles for unconstrained performance of individual presentations. Starting point for creation of the concept of the meeting of artists consisted in showing the festival audience various connections among traditional forms of expression such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and media of expression which have been generated by traditional forms taking into consideration such formal aspects as: time (performance), space (installations, site specific works), sound and text. Construction of the idea of "Castle of Imagination" enabled realization of very important artistic mission i.e.: creation of the network of links comprising all the artistic fields, the mission which results from aiming at global look at the human condition, social political or ecological issues. The factor which was most attractive for invited artists from Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Japan, Holland, Slovakia, Estonia and Poland consisted of possibility of artistic presence in the space of a historical castle, in a differentiated space, which ideally underlined uniqueness of each artistic realization. Multiple context of historical reference, which were the characteristic feature most often referred to, was quite important too. Location of art far from big metropolitan areas or art centers constituted another positive characteristics. It was quite interesting when artists had immediate possibility to present their ideas to extra artistic community, which happened to be very sensitive and open. Audience took place of works of arts and gradually changed from passive on-lookers to active participants. It is important to refer to that obvious thing, however, since in majority other artists constitute the frequent audience at similar festivals held especially in known galleries of big town. The fact of presentation of art in professional circles is frustrating for artists, because reception of each work of art concentrates in detailed analysis of the used artistic media., less on the idea of the work of art as such. Therefore to the "Castle of Imagination" we invited artists who while representing contemporary sense of art wanted to be useful in the community and were committed to seeking close, real, true-not occasional contact.
Wladyslaw Kazmierczak
CASTLE FULL OF IMAGINATIONS.
Quite a few months passed since the last meeting at the Teutonic Castle in Bytow… Human memory is treacherous (therefore I have to apologize to some of the artists…) - it retains the specific, the extraordinary as something which is foolishly accidental, well, even banal, so incidental as incidental (?) the creak of the old door can be, the sound of the steps on the stone floor, the shape of the creeper on the castle wall, a skin freezing abyss opening at your feet when you open the old trapdoor. The jolly chink of the plates in the dining room, which at the some time served as a sitting room and the place of exchange of organizational considerations, night fun and meeting with friendly aborigines, the intensive color of tessellated floor the strange shape of the hotel rooms influenced by the XIVth century architecture, also the halls where exhibitions and meetings were held, a small picturesque town drown in the constantly falling rain, completely anonymous, as an uninhabited Island on the "featureless territory", neither German nor Polish-only Cashubian, induced participants to more careful examination of the neighborhood, closer contact with numerous audience eager to see everything, open and cordial. Completely different from the audiences at metropolitan galleries. A week of intensive preparation with the following four days in the middle of June full of concerts, performances, fragmentary exhibitions, film projections, documentation displays. So much effort for one to, at most, two hundred spectators anyway. The worthier the effort of participating artists, some of whom came from far way countries (such Japan), the more intimate and pleasant the participation of spectators and the audience invited by Wladek Kazmierczak and Grzegorz Borkowski - the organizers and animators of the whole undertaking along with the hospitable management of the Bytow Castle. A Gold Fish imitating the Marx Brothers. "Clock Live Art" performance was the real hit of "Castle of Imagination". Michael Cummins, Jason Walsh and Luke McKeown - three young men from Cardiff, as the subject of this consideration, proved "performance", as a continuous process of performing and creation, to be as it is defined. Continuous of "folk from Cardiff" taking advantage of any change for self presentation, during which they were characterized by an excellent sense of homier and hearing, intuition and creativity which immediately integrated them with the audience and other participants. If I want to account for stylistic features of their performance which was most probably closer to the TV gags of Benny Hill and Covent Garden tradition than to the Polish messianic and philosophical school of performance (strongly influenced by two absent seniors of that art - Jerzy Beres and Zbigniew Warpechowski), so I must admit it is not so easy. Having considered open and "tolerant" character of "folks from Cardiff": suggesting possibility of "Gorging" of any cultural film immediately reflecting it in the distorting mirror own irony seasoned by serene jest, I would unfortunately incorporate them into not very original aesthetics of Postmodernism, although we could equally talk here about "Post TV Era" or, let us say, neo-joker-art. Their treatment of surrounding area, goes further beyond the irony of situational gag. It brings about the understatement of various cultural observations. It is characteristic for its unusual contextual reactions, capability of communicating on the basis of well know clinches and cultural figures. Santa Claus, Alien Creature (Alf), Naive Black (a figure of a primitive tribesman), Announcer-these are characters from well known comics, tales, TV series. Absurd and nonsense scenography consisting of unique "still lifes", the part of which consists of actors themselves, implies the gestures of the same type. It is unusually simple in it s dramatic context. For example, the action of the presented performance evolved around painting of a pile of stones in the yard into an icon representing "The Order of Smile" - which was very popular during downfall of the communist system - while spectators were further enhanced to touch each of them (smiling of course) and to help to make another non-empowering pile. Lively imagination connected with that performance, elements of carnival fun, good contact with audience helped to achieve the objective of constant focusing of their attention on the performance, which lasted a few hours. "No time, no idea", the credo they very often refer to, meaning "the endless story" of their performance without the point, without the moral does not mean the lack of reflective ness. Being very young (all of them are below thirty) they are outstandingly intuitive, so we see perfect wizards or excellent sociologists in them, the result of modern marketing education and advertisement. Strictly speaking - the adult orphans from McLuhan's global village. Exotic Moon. A Warsaw theatrical music group "The Moon" was equally applauded by audience. Their improvised concerto for piano, clarinet, accordion, "disturbers" and two soloists raised emotions and interest spectators. "The Moon" presented their generational belonging to Post Modern Era not only by their wide scope of inspirations included in mostly their own compositions , ranging from traces of Russian ballads, trough Chinese and Korea songs to already mentioned "Clock Live Art". Which finally resulted in group presentation of dance and pantomime in the lobby of the castle restaurant parallel to the mainstream event. The Negev Desert, steps, neon Lamps end romantic faun from Italy. A concerto by Krzysztof Knittel, one of more interesting composers and performers of electronic music in Poland, was another interesting event of "Castle of Imagination". The performed pieces, with a visionary messianic piece "The Negev Desert" was a good development of Krzysztof's entirely new composition written along with his friend: a photographer and acoustic - Jan Pieniazek, which was a laser - sound installation entitled "Nogi" ("Legs"). The installation, which covered the biggest site in the castle consisted of ten small mirrors reflecting the streams of light from a laser (LHN5) with two closely installed sensors at the same time connected to simple tone generators amplified by two loudspeakers. The whole composition was completed by a fog machine and a subtle ultra light covered with cotton wool. Covered by darkness, the installation was enthusiastically received by the youngest spectators. The specific mood and original construction of the whole composition helped the spectators to concentrate and calm down, since only then could they hear the continuously changing piece improvised by the moving feet of the audience. The place covered by Knittl's installation became a "site relaxation" for all participants tired with intensive impressions of the fast galloping events. Another installation: "Sex don't limit" by Miroslaw Filonik exhibited in a cradle vaulted cellar of the castle was close in character (the magic light) to the already mentioned one by Krzysztof Knittel, being at the same time in maximum musical contrast. It consisted of 17 neon lamps on thin wire stands, part of which played the role of something like audience, while the other one p the female (warm neon light) and the male (cold light) were placed in the form of a third degree intercourse. The natural stone basement served the purpose of exposition of the scene supplied with a suggestive sound track from a porno movie of the same title. Various sounds could be heard around the castle on different occasions, but a short recited performance by Giovanni Fontana was very pleasant form of sound production. Put in narrow slots of window frames pages of "Tarocco Mechanico (romanzo sonoro)" by Fontana served as a basic score for vocal and clarinet. The piece under consideration consisted of 80 poems, each of them underwent semantic and rhythmic analysis of words and sentences. They referred to late Middle Age Italian roman as of which the meaning creating method resembled looking into a holographic mirror or a tarot game, was one of the examples of Fontana's artistic activity who in his art presented a synthesis of various media. That extraordinarily creative personality, combining, the soul of a poet and dramatist, composer and experimenter in one, know in Italy as the Editor in Chief of "la Taverna di Auerbach" review dealing with poetry and experimenting contemporary literature, aesthetics and theory of language, but also as a creator of various experimental programmers on radio and TV, as well as organizer of audio visual art festivals.
On the Table. The table as a site of performance was the attribute chosen by at least two artists one of them was Seiji Shimoda from Japan - the author of the performance "On the table". Another person acting in a completely different way and proposing entirely different poetic image was a Dutch artist Geert Duintjer. Seiji Shimoda, who has performed the same piece for 3 years now, who has operated the same objects (he is one most outstanding artists all over the world-performs 100 times in a year) showed in his performance the always repeated trial to establish his own position in the world, for which the table - an immediate surrounding of the object agreed upon. Before very complicated evolutions around the table, which demand unusual acrobatic skill, Shimoda using very simple accessories such as: dust bags, develops and describes by means of that accessory the properties of the space, its temperature, air currents, dynamic and electro - magnetic fields. Then, he performs "winding oneself around" all the axes of the table presenting excellent posture, strength and concentration. "Healthy soul is the soul of health" - according to one of Zen masters, the name of whose I can not remember at the moment. Seji treats his as a very intensive mediation training which keeps up his own philosophy of life, finds old elements in the wandering of a nomad, a wanderer, who is de-concentrated by his great interest of the every day world and people as they are. Ryo Takahashi ("Candlelight performance") and Hiroyouki Shimizu (with the series of photographs "Time Files") who were recommended by Seiji Shimoda, seemed to represent a similar school of concentration on mastering one skill, which only after repeated efforts leads to understanding of a performed process and though evolution leads to perfection. Practicing of virtues and skills of mind, even those most abstract ones as for example: carrying tens lit candles on ones body and walking with them along the suspended line, shows thousand years of Japanese cultural heritage, so much differe3nt from Polish tradition. Geert Duintjer entitled his performance "Cross Over". On the other table made of raw timber boards touching the opposite walls, he displayed various coal stones, seven loafs of bread, seven glasses of water and then after having covered his body with flour and marking two points black paint - one on his forehead the other at the back of his head - he started his wandering around the table, each time trying to step on the fewest loafs. After successful completion he decided to clean the site of performance by covering his body with a white cloth containing all the remains of the objects from the table - bread, glasses, coal etc. Although crossing the table looked as if a man was walking down a thorny road of human existence depicted by Jesus Christ (represented by bread, water and painted stigmas). Kees Mol was undisturbed in his nearby performance - slightly related to the context of the previous one, which constituted an interesting visual complement. Mol. Generally nonchalant during his meeting, was reading the fragments from Kant with unusually grave voice, cutting (infinitely) "the Moebius band" taken off the wall, stretching at the same time "The length of infinity" and the patience of the audience to the limits. Performance of a Hungarian artist Otto Meszarosz was a very compact and effective in form and one which I liked the best. In his performance he used 60 eggs throwing them easily up and watching them crash against the glass plate just to dance a Vienna waltz with them. Causing some panic among the audience and happiness on the children's faces.
Jolanta Ciesielska
Supplements (still incomplete).
Kees Mol and Geert Duintjer created a situation which was very symptomatic for the meeting in Bytow. In one castle hall they realized two separate performances. That simple idea in unconstrained way caught parallel character of the conduct, live and individual flow of time of us all, the ones who for a very short period of time gathered in one place. Everyone with his short thread of time. Rhythmically wandering along the road made of tables, Duintjer measured his time as a metronome. For a while we could turn our spiritual watches off. At the same tome Kees Mol was busy, seemingly disorderly, with various activities. Some of them were Quite simple, but always a hint of metaphor: sharpening of a horse shoe, blowing the soap bubbles with his mouth. He was reading original excerpts from Kant with the same natural concentration. He was drawing on the wall the announcements which summarized his semantic reflections. In his performance, time consisted of a series of moments, which were not joined in line. It was a sum of concentric elements of a complicated mosaic. Together with Duintjer they management to create the climate of cars less dignity unifying the importance of prosaic as well as noble issues. Then, putting up of a small bonfire on the floor isolated from castle had a character of both a ritual of ordinariness and mysticism. The smoke slowly rising in the hall accentuated equally the absurd and natural character of the situation in which the witnesses of the performance participated. At the same time Duintjer was approaching the limit of his wandering. Moved by the performance. I was not capable to differentiate between the result of artistic activity and pure human experience of the contact with personalities of the two performers. The moments immediately following the end all performances in Bytow were the culminating point of such impressions. We were vibrating and filled with intellectual presence of the participants. The art was some where further in the background. It is a special privilege of meeting of performers, the privilege of various presentations, in which the presence of artist in particular place is very active, Specific combination of their aspirations and anxieties connected with the specific reality extremely invigorates the consciousness to a maximum tension. That particularly extra artistic part of artistic performance should not be treated marginally only. It contains unusually necessary experience of integrity and coexistence of artistic and daily shaping of personality. During the meeting whose basic aim is art, it is possible to experience the presence of its creators. It is the simplest value in itself for which the art cannot be reduced and without which it becomes a nearly dead construction - likely to loose its identity. The castle itself with its body and atmosphere was another issue of the Meeting. It frequently combined or entered the performances held in it. Giovanni Fontana's performance in a narrow corridor of the became more theatrical partially in opposition to its intellectual score. The character of a wandering performer inevitably brought into mind a castle ghost speaking with a foreign but understandable tongue. The art of Seiji Shimoda revealed its timeless character. In a hall with an arch ceiling and little windows we were excitedly following the slowly changing forms created by the artist's body. Such a performance could take place in the same place 200 or even 300 years ago. The same was true for a miracle performance Brian Connolly, which lasted for some hours since the sunset along with other performances. One could only in it 3 - 4 person groups for several minutes to move in a moment to another hall and time. Yes, one could find energy full of contemporaneity, the energy defeating the historical construction in Miroslaw Filonik's installation, performance of the Clock Live Art group or in performance Raul Kurvitz from Estonia used the sound by the microphone connected with the slide projector without films. That sound resembled the clatter of the train wheels. Rectangles of projector light slowly moving along the wall more accurately accentuated that suggestion. The light emerged in different ways: clear and changeable compositions made of the shade empty bottles (vodka bottles) and the glasses. That subtle and rhythmically developing simple performance of sounds and pictures without the anecdote caught from the high regions of clear imagination and post Soviet reality of alcoholic route - Moscow - Pietushki. The Teutonic castle at the height of its glamour resonated most probably with more grave tones. Chary installation of Jurgen Schneider - an artist, gallerist and publisher from Berlin referred to it. It consisted, besides "Festung" logo, of mussels a row of brand new, clean brooms. Raw behavior performance of Wladyslaw Kazmierczak belonged to the same stream. First, the shades of crossed axes and huge rod appeared in the point light. In the course of events the rod was cut into pieces and its remains appeared in the piece cloth forming something like a sack. The tools appeared again in the light of a reflector. The shade of the axe was crossed with the shade of sack (slightly deformed). We knew what was inside and what it had been before. The light turned off and the hall was lit by a sole glass ball-an effective gadget borrowed from the castle bar for tourist - invitation to contemporary Bytow by night.
Grzegorz Borkowski