Contexts 2012 – The 2nd Sokolovsko Festival of Ephemeral Art
The programme of Contexts – The 2nd Sokolovsko Festival of Ephemeral Art is focused on Zbigniew Warpechowski, his artistic practice and approach to art. He is the key to all references in the festival and the unifying element of its structure.
When one thinks “Warpechowski” one cannot overlook some of his performances, including “Nothing”, “A Dialogue with Fish”, “Closing the Darkness in My Hands”, “Emptiness – Quotations from Tao Te Ching of Lao-Tse” and “Shofar”.
Almost every paragraph in Warpechowski’s books can be used as a motto for “Contexts”. One of them is: “The acts of true art in all its manifestations are unpredictable, that is we cannot force the Giver to offer us new gifts, plead him for them or demand them from him. We are not able to train ourselves to be creative in a planned proportion or at a given time”.
Each invited artist is equally important at the festival. What matters is all of us getting together and what can result from it, sharing the space, practice and thoughts. It is important to create a platform for communications between well-established artists and young beginners. As Warpechowski says “novelty in art, the true one is not an enemy of “the old”. It brings out, emphasises, explains and establishes. The old completes and resounds. It cannot be threatened by any novelties. The youth that is the novelty of art also benefits from it, when the old is noble, weighty and behaves with dignity with respect to the youth. It is the best test for both parties. The standards go up, forward and backwards.”
We believe that the accumulation of so many people, ideas and approaches will not only bring out artistic acts, constituting a new place will be constituted. This situation will open space for the unknown and unsaid.
Apart from presenting performance art the festival programme features:
• The Urge to Create Visions (continued), an exhibition presenting the selected areas of Franciszka and Stefan Themersons’ rich and versatile oeuvre. It focuses on the relationships between images and words, images and sounds, and explores the triad photogram –photograph – film. The exhibition is accompanied by cinema screenings, including theThemersons films, reconstructions of their lost films, documentaries about the Themersons and feature films.
• The exhibition documenting Zbigniew Warpechowski’s oeuvre consists of video and photographs of his most recognized performances that he has realised worldwide for almost 50 years. During the festival the artist will be building an art object in the park.
• The oeuvre of the late Andrzej Partum is presented through talks, video documentation and photographs. Images, sounds, words and objects as well as memories convey the unique poetic and conceptual qualities of his art.
• Other Places in This Place – several well established art places present their activities in Sokolovsko, a new art place,still in its formative stage. Artists and art curators provide us with information about their places in different ways, sometimes in a form of documentation, sometimes – discussion and sometimes – creative acts.
• „ The Archeology of Meeting”, a pottery workshop run daily by Tomasz Niedziółka. This worskhop is a place of sculpting a ceramic object and „preserving” it. Everybody is invited to join in, the festival participants, students, local people. One of the festival concepts is to return to the roots of performance art, ceremonies, gathering around fire (hence the kiln and firing objects) where activities come into being.
• SzaZaZe ( Szamburski, Zakrocki, Zemler) perform live to the Themersons’ films. They created an original soundtrack to the amazing cinematographic experiments of Franciszka and Stefan. The sounds generated by percussion, clarinets, violin, marimba complement and add another dimension to the films.
• Perforations Artistic Encounters – a series of workshops and lectures run by the practicioners and theoreticians of performance art – Janusz Bałdyga, Marcin Berdyszak, Colm Clark, Sibylle Omlin, Nigel Rolfe, Ewa Zarzycka) targeted at art students
Workshops coordinator: Marta Bosowska
August 18 (Saturday)
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul. Główna 36, Sokolovsko
11.00-18.00 The Archeology of Meeting – a pottery workshop run by Tomasz Niedziółka
16:00 Opening Cremony
Zbigniew Warpechowski, Andrzej Partum, an exhibition from the collection of Andrzej Ciesielski’s My Archive
Performance
1. Zbigniew Warpechowski (inauguration)
2. Ewa Zarzycka
3. Janusz Bałdyga
4. Roland Miller
19:00 Miejsca w miejscu
Other Places in This Place
IN SITU – Bożenna Biskupska, Zuzanna Fogtt i Zygmunt Rytka
20.30 Screenings
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul. Główna 36 Sokołowsko
Franciszka & Stefan (reż. T. Pobóg Malinowski) – 30 min.
Documentation
Shirley Cameron
22.00 Performance
Roland Miller
August 19 (Sunday)
11.00 – The Urge to Create Visions (Take 2), Franciszka and Stefan Themersons, an exhibition introduced by Małgorzata Sady
11.00 The Archeology of Meeting – a pottery workshop run by Tomasz Niedziółka, Park
12.00 – 13.00 Performance off festival
Michał Bałdyga, Oskar Chmioła, Tomasz Drewicz, Monika Szydłowska
12.30 – 14.00 Other Places in This Place
Dawid Radziszewski – Galeria Pies
Galeria Wymiany – Józef Robakowski, Iza Robakowska
16.00 – 18.30 Performance
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul. Główna 36 Sokołowsko
1. Jerzy Bereś
2. John Newling
3. Shirely Cameron
4. Alistair MacLennan
21.00 Screenings
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul. Główna 36, Sokołowsko
Reconstructions of the Themersons’ lost films – 25 min.
21.30 Documentation
John Newling
August 20 (Monday)
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul.Główna 36, Sokołowsko
11.00 – 13.00 – Performance off festival
Jagoda Kiciak, Magdalena Kita, Petra Filipowska, Paweł Korbus, Karolina Kubik, Giulietta Ockenfuss, Przemysław Przepióra
15.00 Other Places in This Place
Alicja Jodko i Mariusz Jodko – Galeria Entropia
16.00 – 19.30 Performance
1. Ines Amado
2. Maria Wrońska
3. John Newling
4. Colm Clarke
20.00 Screenings
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul.Główna 36, Sokołowsko
Andrzej Partum presented by Sophie Jocz and Małgorzata Dawidek Gryglicka
Stefan Themerson and Language (dir.E.Van Zuylen) – 50 min
Documentation
Marcin Mierzicki
August 21 (Tuesday)
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul. Główna 36 Sokołowsko
11.00 – 12.30 – Performance off festival
Katerina Olivova, Natalia Sekuła, Katerina Sudolska, Tomasz Koszewnik, Natalia Sekuła, Łukasz Trusewicz
14.30 Other Places in This Place
Adam Klimczak, Jerzy Grzegorski – Galeria Wschodnia
16:00-19.30 Performance
1. Nigel Rolfe
2. Nenad Bogadanovic
3. Anna Płotnicka
4. Jiří Surůvka
5. Adina Bar-On
6. Florian Feigl
19.30 – SzaZaZe (Szamburski, Zakrocki, Zemler)
Live music to the Themersons’ films
21.00 Screenings
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul.Główna 36, Sokołowsko
Themerson &Themerson (dir. W. Szymańska) 70 min
Documentation
Andrew Spira – lecture
August 22 (Wednesday)
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul.Główna 364, Sokołowsko
11.00 The Archeology of Meeting – a pottery workshop run by Tomasz Niedziółka, Park
10.30 Other Places in This Place
Marcin Polak – Actions in the public space in Łódź
11.00 – 14.30 Performance
1. Angelika Fojutch
2. Andres Galeano
3. Adina Bar-On
4. Bogusław Jasiński
17.00 – 19.00 – Performance off festival
Dawid Szuwarski 313, Loic Bertrand, Jakub Słomkowski, Michelle Yom, Tomasz Koszewnik
21.00 Screenings
Kinoteatr Zdrowie, ul.Główna 36 Sokołowsko
The Mystery of the Sardine (script based on Stefan Themerson’s novel, dir. Erik van Zuylen)
22.00 video-art screenings
WRO Alternative Now On Tour
showcase by Zbigniew Kupisz
* the programme may change
Curators:
Małgorzata Sady, Ewa Zarzycka
German section curator:
Georgi Begun
Coordination:
Antonii Burzyński, Zuzanna Fogtt
