Dziwne jest ten świat

Performance cycle: It ain’t over until it’s over #1
Ostromecko, Poland 2020
Oko nigdy nie spi art festival, Ostromecko Palace
Invited by Fundacija Czarny Karzeł, Grzegorz Pleszynski and Beata Opic
Duration: 22 minutes
Photographs by Monika Deimling

Context:

The Polish Art Association “Czarny Karzeł” organizes each year the art festival “Oko nigdy nie spi (The eye never sleeps)” in different locations around the city of Bydgoszcz. The festival presents exhibitions, performances, concerts and art talks with Polish and international artists.
In 2020 the festival took place at the remarkable Ostromecko Palace, that is surrounded by a big and beautiful parc. A bus shuttle brought the audience to this remote place from Bydgoszcz to attend the selected program.
The performance took place on the large lawn on the backside of the palace. The audience was seated on the stairs leading from the palace to the parc, from where they had a good overview.

Description of actions:
A collage of performance images and sounds is created by executing the following actions with selected material.

On the lawn, near the audience, there are four wooden ladders, each with a white shirt hanging on them.

– Sitting far away from the audience with a megaphone and a several empty silver cans connected to a rope.
– Walking slowly towards the audience and shaking the silver cans. [The clattering sound of the cans is from afar hearable.]
– Stopping at random points of the walk, talking through the megaphone the sentence: “Uwaga! Uwaga! Dziwne jest ten świat! (Attention! Attention! The world is strange!)” [People strolling through the parc get also aware about the performance.]
– Gently moving colorful feathers with the arms while hiding behind the shirts and ladders.
– Taking the four shirts from the ladders and placing them in a form of a petal on the grass.
– Pouring milk into a violin. [Inside the violin is blue pigment.] Gently shaking the violin over the four shirts. [The milk mixes with the blue pigment, which drips onto the flour shirts.]
– Taking the ladders and throwing them into the air.
– Placing a terracotta pot on my hand and bang it several times with a hammer. [At first there is a bell like sound hearable until the pot cracks and the shards fall down to the ground.]
– Binding a long red beak on my face, walking around and lightning the beak at one point.
– Pecking the beak into grass. [The beak deforms but each peck.]
– Arranging the four, blue sprinkled shirts on an umbrella.
– Lighting up a white smoke torch. As soon as the smoke appeared, walking slowly away from the audience into the parc. [The smoke leaves a trail behind.]

Members of the art association “Czarny Karzeł” with audience members after the performance.