Context:
The problem with most small towns is that few people know where they are. Even Poles have difficulty finding Szubin on the map. And as it happens with small towns, they get the attribute “nearby” and in the case of Szubin it is Bydgoszcz.

There is no train connection to Szubin, and it is not a particularly beautiful town, but sometimes you find real gems in such places, and Szubin has such gems. These are people who were born or grew up there. Grzegorz Pleszynski, for example, or the curator of the Fonomo Festival Artur Mackowiak and many other active and well-known artists. Szubin was a centre of artistic exchange and a place for experimental art and music events, which often took place in the local “Dom Kultury” (House of Culture).

To remind Szubin of its artistic significance and heritage and to reactivate the artistic activities in the House of Culture, the curator of the Fonomo Festival, Artur Mackowiak, organised a “Prologue” event with performances, concerts and film screenings for the festival in Szubin, to which I was invited to present this performance.

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

– Sitting on a chair and coloring the white clothes in different shades of blue with slapping movements. [Increasing activity, first slow, then fast.]
– Taking two ends of the tablecloth, a moment of stillness, and then flap it with one stroke. [The yellow petals on the cloth fly up and fall gently to the ground.]
– Placing six long-stemmed roses in a doll’s dress and lay it on the floor.
– Climbing onto the table and lifting a branch to which a chair is attached with a coiled rope. [As soon as the chair is hanging, it starts to spin.]
– Dancing with the rose dress and place it on the table.
– Spinning white porcelain plates on the floor. [The spinning plates create a sound pattern. After a moment, the plates are placed on the table.]
– Taking a bowl filled with water and make a bell ring in it by moving it in and out of the water. [The sound of the bell changes when it touches the water.]
– Making a music stand spin on its legs. [A rhythmic sound of the music stand is heard and wooden letters that were on the music stand fall to the ground.]
– Tying a book to the face, moving the pages with the hands and head, and gradually tearing the pages out. [The sound of the pages being torn out is audible, the pages flutter to the floor.]
– Tying the doll’s dress around the neck like a bib and sitting down on a chair at the laid table.
– Slowly but steadily, lifting the table. [The plates on the table move slowly to the edge and finally fall off the table onto the floor and break into pieces.]
– Placing the doll’s dress on the music stand.
– Painting three orange, drop-shaped forms on the shirt.
– Shooting five roses with a bow in the direction of the dress on the music stand.
– Shooting the last rose in the direction of the audience.