‘It is a symbol of my respect for this artist, painter, sculptor, man of the theatre and genius who created such unique and excellent works. Kantor initiated a new form of theatre, brilliant and surprising,’ said Dani Karavan on the occasion of his exhibition “Makom. The Essence of Place” at the International Cultural Centre. The artist, famous for his site-specific objects, created an installation for this occasion that engages in an original dialogue with “The Dead Class” and the memory of Tadeusz Kantor.
Dani Karavan. Napięcia fantomowe / Phantom Tensions
Exhibition open from 26.02.2025
Galeria Szatnia, Cricoteka ul. Nadwiślańska 2–4, 30-527 Kraków
Curator: Magdalena Link-Lenczowska
The artists met in Florence in 1979, where Karavan had created the installation “Two Environments for Peace” and Kantor was beginning rehearsals for his play “Wielopole, Wielopole”, looking for an assistant and translator. He was then put in touch with Hava, a journalist born and raised in Poland, who was also Dani’s wife. In the end, they did not collaborate, but Hava, fascinated by Kantor’s creative method, began to attend the rehearsals regularly. This meeting can be considered the beginning of an artistic dialogue between Karavan and Kantor – artists who, apart from their Galician roots, artistic imagination shaped by their studies in painting and the beginnings of their careers in designing theatre scenography, share a total approach to art.
The exhibition presents the work “Hommage à Tadeusz Kantor”, donated by the artist to the Cricoteka collection a decade ago. The current exhibition positions the installation in the most recent context and relates it to Karavan’s involvement in the fight for human rights and peace.
In 2015, Karavan rewrote the iconic object of Kantor’s imaginarium, the school desk, into his characteristic language of modernist in spirit, and geometric minimalism, which served the Israeli artist as a carrier of pure ideas. At the same time, the work creates a clear, formal and conceptual parallel with another of the sculptor’s works, the Berlin “Mifgash”, which commemorated the 1927 meeting of Berlin scientists, artists, and politicians in Villa Lemm, making it a symbol of the times before the rise of Nazism, when equal conversation was still possible, regardless of nationality. In the centre of the circle of white, stone chairs, the sculptor placed a quote from Albert Einstein’s Letter to Minister: ‘Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.’ This sentence was also one of the central ideas of Karavan’s entire creative work, his art consistently seeking to redefine the narratives imposed by political powers, which were harmful to individuals.
The exhibition held at Cricoteka places the work in the context of the Middle East, showing the nonconformist commitment of the Jewish artist to defending the basic human right to exist, live, and have dignity. Through his art, public statements, and civic engagement, including as part of B’Tselem (in Hebrew: in the image of) – an organisation defending human rights in the territories occupied by Israel, Karavan consistently took a stance on the right of Palestine to exist, opposed Islamophobic discourse towards Palestinians and, despite the policies that annihilate coexistence, was an ambassador for the binational state project, in line with the slogan ‘If we do not talk, it will never end’.
In “The Dead Class”, Kantor used children’s chatter as an expressive sound effect that makes absence present. Karavan’s deserted bench is accompanied only by the sound of the Gaza Strip’s street sonosphere from before the Israeli intervention in October 2023. The exhibition is complemented by Karavan’s reflections on the imperative of the political nature of both art and the act of consciously being in space and participating in it, which the artist understood as a tool for communicating with the environment, memory, and ourselves.
Curator: Magdalena Link-Lenczowska
Graphic identity: Andrea Nikolov
Cooperation: Mariusz Gąsior, Noa Karavan, Agata Klakla, Kamil Kuitkowski, Anna Lejtkowska, Kateryna Marchenko, Aldona Mikulska, Agnieszka Oprządek, Małgorzata Paluch-Cybulska, Bogdan Renczyński, Tomasz Stefaniak, Aleksandra Treder, Michał Warmusz, Natalia Zarzecka
Promotion: Małgorzata Kmita-Fugiel, Zofia Mikołajska
