An Anti – Exhibition, or a Popular Exhibition

I keep coming back to my Inferno to cast the last glance
at that “battlefield”.
If the final touches to my picture “Inner self – Inferno”
spelled out a setback, if each of my creative endeavours
petered out in a “finished” and dead form,
wouldn’t it be right to DROP THE PICTURE?
OR TO LEAVE  OFF WORK THAT COULD PRODUCE NOTHING BUT DEAD FORM?
In other words, to produce something that would not be a material
irritant of the picture.
A VOID…
ZERO…
DEATH…
I take out of my “memory cabinet” some faded sheets:
A MANIFESTO OF AN ANTI-EXHIBITION. YEAR 1963.
A WORK OF ART,
AN ATONOMOUS COMPOSITION,
IMMOBILIZED
AND CLOSED IN
ITS  STRUCTURE AND SYSTEM
UNABLE TO CHANGE AND LIVE,
IS FAKE CREATIVITY.

 

"A Popular Exhibition," the Krzysztofory Gallery in Cracow 1963, photo: Tadeusz Chrzanowski

“A Popular Exhibition,” the Krzysztofory Gallery in Cracow 1963, photo: Tadeusz Chrzanowski

THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURE OF  CREATIVITY
IS A STATE OF FLUX,
CHANGE,
TRANSIENCE,
EPHEMERALITY and PERPETUITY –
THE QUALITIES OF LIFE ITSELF.

THE STATUS OF CREATIVE ACTIVITY
SHOULD BE GRANTED TO ALL THOSE THINGS THAT HAVE NOT YET BECOME
WORKS OF ART,
THAT HAVE NOT YET BEEN IMMOBILIZED,
THAT STILL CONTAIN DIRECT IMPULSES OF LIFE,
THAT ARE NOT YET “READY”
                             “FIXED”:
JOTTINGS OF URGENT PROBLEMS,
IDEAS,
DISCOVERIES,
PLANS,
PROJECTS,
DESIGNS,
SCRIPTS,
MATERIALS,
SIDELINES,
ALL THAT MIXED UP
(BUT SO FAR ARTIFICIALLY SEPARATED)
WITH THE PULP OF LIFE:
FACTS,
INCIDENTS,
PERSONS,
LETTERS, NEWSPAPERS, CALENDARS,
ADDRESSES, DATES,
MAPS, TICKETS,
MEETINGS…

Looks as though I wrote it today!
Now you know, don’t you?

 

Tadeusz Kantor, “Intimate Comments”, 1986-88, typescript in the Cricoteka Archives, p. 11-12.

 

No title, from the series: "Informel towards the Figurative," the 60s, in a private collection

No title, from the series: “Informel towards the Figurative,” the 60s, in a private collection

For the first time
I became painfully aware
of the notion:
Nothing.
The whole immeasurable reality of life
was full of developments,
which could become
works of art
at any moment.
I felt I was
the Lord
of that
N O  M A N’ S  L A N D
NOTHING AHEAD!

 

Tadeusz Kantor, “Intimate Comments”, 1986-88, typescript in the Cricoteka Archives, p. 13.

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