The Impossible Theatre
dal 6/7/2005 al 3/11/2005
Segnalato da
6/7/2005
The Impossible Theatre
Kunsthalle Wien, Wien
Performativity in the Works of Pawel Althamer, Tadeusz Kantor, Katarzyna Kozyra, Robert Kusmirowski and Artur Zmijewski. Parallel to the comprehensive retrospective exhibition that Zacheta Gallery in Warsaw is dedicating to his work, this exhibition will be showing works by Kantor and contemporary Polish artists whose work belongs to the crossover zones between art, film, performance and theatre.
Performativity in the Works of Pawel Althamer, Tadeusz Kantor, Katarzyna Kozyra, Robert Kusmirowski and Artur Zmijewski
Tadeusz Kantor argues for a theatre that is not a direct copy of reality but rather tests out the realms of the impossible, the fantastic and the unknown where art and life overlap. Theatre “searches for an ancestry deeply rooted in the past that emerges from ancient customs, ur-rituals, the practice of magic, festivities, ceremonial celebration, games, pageantry and processions, popular and street theatre, political and agit-prop theatre – it searches wherever art is no longer a consumer product but an integral component of life.“
Parallel to the comprehensive retrospective exhibition that Zacheta Gallery in Warsaw is dedicating to the work of the remarkable figure of artist and theatre director Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990), the Kunsthalle Wien will be showing works by Kantor and contemporary Polish artists whose work belongs to the crossover zones between art, film, performance and theatre.
Like Paweł Althamer, Artur Zmijewski Robert Kusmiroswki or Katarzyna Kozyra, Kantor interprets everyday life as a space that artists occupy in the role of intermediaries, where they interact with the audience. In this way artists implicate themselves and others physically and approach the limits of tolerance and resilience. The evocation of the unknown, destabilisation, risk, adventure, unmasking and disrobing all serve as means to undertake an open journey without end, to attain the extraordinary states of consciousness that lie beyond everyday perceptions with the aim of activating the remembrance and cultural memory that alone make development possible and, “this being the nature of life itself“, of speaking to Kantor.
Alongside historical material of Kantor-performances – drawings, objects, photos and films – installations and documentations of performances and projects, which contemporary Polish artists created especially for the Viennese exhibition, will be shown.
The exhibition will be co-produced with the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw and will open there in May 2006.
Curators: Sabine Folie (Kunsthalle Wien), Hanna Wróblewska (Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw)
Exhibition Catalogue: The Impossible Theatre , Ed.: Kunsthalle Wien, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw.
texts by Sabine Folie, Jarosław Suchan, Hanna Wróblewska, foreword by Gerald Matt and Agnieszka Morawiska, 160 pages with numerous ill., G/E.
Information and photos: Barbara Ebeert, KUNSTHALLE wien, office: Museumsplatz 1, A-1070 Vienna
Phone.: +43-1-521 89-1221, Fax: +43-1-521 89-1217, e-mail: presse@kunsthallewien.at
Image: Tadeusz Kantor, “The Sea Concertoâ€, Osieki, 1967, photo: Eustachy Kossakowski, © Anka Ptaszkowska, Courtesy Foksal Gallery, Warsaw
Press conference: Thursday, July 7, 2005, 10am
Opening: Thursday, July 7, 2005, 7pm
hall 2
KUNSTHALLE wien
Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna
daily 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Thu 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., Wed closed