A scene from the first version of a performance Unusual Wedding. Of course: the Market Stall Bishops: Lesław and Wacław Janiccy photo A. Callari
“(…) I felt it was a fulfilment
of my obstinate thought
to the time of youth,
the time of “boyhood”.
(How many pictures did I make,
always with that image of
“a boy”.)
There was my home.
The real one.
I shall be dying without admitting
I am old.
Death and Love…
A scene from a performance Charon’s Boat A group scene photo Jerzy Borowski
The moment came
when I could not tell
one from the other.
I was enchanted by both.
Nights came,
because nights were my time of creation,
the nights came when death
carefully guarded the entrance
to my Poor
Little Room of Imagination.
I understood
that the time of victory had come.
Unfortunately out of this world.
To enter the stage –
no more as a “guardian” of a fortress,
which I protected from the admission of “playing” ,
but as
the real “I”,
needing no “play”,
no performing,
no pretending etc. …
I need
two methods.
The first:
not to say a word, t
o remain mute and empty
as a grave.
So Death advised me.
The second resulted
from my conviction
about the reaction of the audience,
the public;
the so called world
whose cynicism
has no parallel
I knew I could expect nothing
but derision
and mockery.
It was necessary to forestall this reaction.
I keep everything
in my hands.
Indifference,
derision,
malice of the world
I put in charge… of the actors,
the deplorable characters of the past.
They will do it better and more openly…
To make public
what in the life of an individual
has been most intimate,
and what contains
the highest value,
what to the “world”
seems to be ridiculous,
something small,
“poverty”.
Art brings this “poverty” into daylight.
Let it grow.
Let it rule.
This is the role of Art.”
Kantor, Tadeusz. Guide to the performance “I Shall Never Return”: Kraków 1990, p. 18-19.
