COURAGE

seotud kollektsioonid

After a few months break, when the journal was coming close to its end, the restart of “World in Move” with its double issue of March–April 1981 seemed to be not just a positive sign of survival, but a real promise of a rebirth. The newly designated chief editor, Ferenc Kulin, together with his very much tried and tested editorial team, managed to get rid of direct censorship from the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and was offered another chance by the main cultural commissar, György Aczél himself, “to prove their talents.” No doubt they tried to do their best on the 224 pages of the book-sized double issue.

On the first two pages there was an editorial addressed to readers briefly summing up the recent changes in and around the paper, and drafting further plans for the future. As it was stated, a long decade passed since the start of “World in Move,” and after a prolonged period as a “youth paper,” it was high time to become a forum for adults with full responsibilities. It is true that in two short paragraphs one can be read the obligatory ideological “loyalty statement” of all legally published papers (“engagement with socialism, dialectical and historical materialism,” etc.), but more important is the list of radical claims for free public debates in all fields of life: in politics, culture, arts, literature, science, education, and so on.

These ambitions are well reflected by the content of the double issue: finely written poems, short stories, plays, essays, studies, reviews, and critiques of contemporary books, films, music, and theater performances, experimental art pieces, passionate public debates (on schools and higher education), a series of socially authentic photographs (like teenage kids at rock festivals). The world seemed to be moving dynamically, and the journal “World in Move” did too – at least for a few years to come … until the end of 1983.

"Rewolta" was an anarchist magazine published in Warsaw by Piotr Rymarczyk and Piotr Salwowski (initially also by Adam Ryć) since 1989. Paper was associated with the Alternative Society Movement and Anarchist Intercity organization (Międzymiastówka Anarchistyczna), however it was substantially different from the Tricity’s RSA. Besides addressing the issues of anarchist, anarcho-syndicalist, and anti-war nature, it also discussed women’s rights, homosexuality, animal rights or vegetarianism – the problems which were not obvious part of freedom discourse for the elder activists of anarchistic movement.

The 3^rd issue of “Rewolta” from December 1989 is distinguished by an attractive cover with the portrait of Piotr Kropotkin. Inside one can find texts about e.g. anarchism in USSR, Black Cross activities, having sex in prison, critiques of parliamentary democracy and a biography of Edward Abramowski. Broad thematic scope, brilliance and brave style of “Rewolta’s” authors made this magazine one of the most interesting anarchistic publications of the time of transformation.

The Centre of Theatre Practices concentrates on volatile activities as spectacles and performances and on the education of young artists, therefore we can observe the artistic value of Gardzienice, while looking at photographs and video recordings of Gardzienice's theatre actions. Some of the photographs were donated to the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute - others are in the possession of Gardzienice, and are accessible on the website and in the Theatre's Archive.
The photographs witness the process of introducing avant-garde theatre into Polish village landscape and the creation of paralel artistic sphere during the final stage of state socialism.

Machines Trembling, Chimneys Smoking... (Maszyny drżące, kominy dymiące...) is a film that concludes both the activities of The Attic — the informal meeting place and the site of parties, exhibitions, and festivals — and the Pitch-In Culture, which gave in to atrophy not long afterwards, torn apart by conflicting aesthetics and ambitions. The Attic was shut down by its owner Włodzimierz Adamiak in 1986, while 1987 is usually indicated as the end of the Pitch-In Culture.

The film was shot by Józef Robakowski in collaboration with Witold Krymarys, two neo-avant-garde multimedia artists from Łódź, specialised in photography, film, and video art. The film shows the happening organised by Łódź Kaliska, i.e. Marek Janiak, Adam Rzepecki, Andrzej “Makary” Wielogórski, and Andrzej Kwietniewski, with whom Robakowski did not share the views on the meaning of the Pitch-In Culture (the founder of the Exchange Gallery used this term to cover the entire independent art movement of the 1980s) or on the aesthetics, in which he often referred to the legacy of the great avant-garde, rejected in turn by the members of Łódź Kaliska. This provoked a conflict regarding the authorship of the film: was it the camera operators (Robakowski and Krymarys) or the Łódź Kaliska members, who performed in front of the cameras. In 1988 Robakowski re-edited the original recording, slowed it down, changed the colours, added Witold Lutosławski’s music, and titled the picture Party mit Lutosławski. It is also worth noting that the film featured many other persons, apart from those already mentioned, i.a. Jacek Jóźwiak, Paweł Kwiek, Zofia Łuczko, Dariusz Kędziora, Jarosław Bogusiak, Andrzej Janaszewski, Zygmunt Rytka, Zbigniew Bińczyk, and Andrzej Wielogórski, the cousin of  “Makary”.

Paradoxically, the conflict illustrates the creative contribution of the filmmakers who participated in the events not only by recording them but also actively created them. “The expressive, if not dramatic, scenes clearly surpassed the original intentions of the filmmakers, whose initial idea was to edit a video clip in natural surroundings (i.e. on a city boulevard and inside The Attic, an extremely important spot for the artistic milieu) for a song, which was popular in Łódź at that time” wrote a critic, Jolanta Ciesielska. The artists initiated actions in the City of Łódź, in the streets and in the “Balaton” bar, and proceeded with a party at The Attic. By means of pitch-in they gathered funds for vodka and potatoes, as a snack, which well reflected a slightly poor and slightly decadent atmosphere of The Attic. In the finale of the film, the relative of “Makary” is heard saying his famous remark that “art requires sacrifice”. In that he refers to having his late father’s accordion, damaged by the artists. In the context of a farewell party for The Attic, the phrase seems to capture well the spirit of artistic underground with its “economic world turned upside down” (as Pierre Bourdieu put it in the Rules of Art)

The film is 17 minutes long, and it was first presented in 1987 during a video film festival in students’ gallery Dziekanka in Warsaw.

Sources:
Marek Janiak (ed.), "Kultura Zrzuty", Warszawa 1989.
Łódź Kaliska (ed. & elab.), "Bóg zazdrości nam pomyłek", Łódź 1999.
Jolanta Ciesielska, "Videoperformance", in: Piotr Krajewski i Violetta Kutlubasis-Krajewska, "Ukryta dekada. Polska sztuka wideo 1985-1995", Wrocław 2010.