Tadeusz Kantor and Wielopole Skrzyńskie

Exhibition in frames of the project WHO INSPIRES US? TADEUSZ KANTOR!

July 22nd – November 24th 2013
Tadeusz Kantor’s Gallery- Studio
7/5 Sienna Street

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – 12 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesday – 12 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday – closed

The project entitled “Who Inspires Us? Tadeusz Kantor!” is aimed at showcasing Tadeusz Kantor’s work in the context of contemporary art – theatre, visual arts and music. The project, implemented in several stages throughout 2013 and 2014, will consist of exhibitions, performance art and publications.

2013 will see the presentation of two out of the three planned exhibitions and two performative events. Cricoteka will also publish three publications devoted to the life and work of Tadeusz Kantor.

Exhibition “Tadeusz Kantor and Wielopole Skrzyńskie”

Wielopole Skrzyńskie, where the artist was born and where he lived, was a Polish-Jewish town in the south of Poland – „on the one hand there was the church, the rectory and the cemetery and on the other we had the synagogue, some narrow Jewish streets (…). Both sides lived in symbiosis” – Kantor wrote about Wielopole. While presenting the history of the artist’s family and its relationship with Wielopole Skrzyńskie, the exhibition will also demonstrate the enormous impact that the childhood spent in Wielopole had on the work of Tadeusz Kantor. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Stanisław Berger (Uncle Stasio – Deportee from the performance “Wielopole, Wielopole”), who was the brother of the artist’s mother – Helena Kantor, and of Mira Rychlicka, an actress of the Cricot 2 Theatre (widow of the local photographer from the performance “Wielopole, Wielopole”). The exhibition will present a selection of documents and archival materials related to the Kantor and Berger families, photos and footage as well as Tadeusz Kantor’s work.

Curator: Józef Chrobak

The photos from the exhibition

Wielopole Skrzyńskie

Special offers on publications concerning the exhibition:

1. Programme for the Wielopole, Wielopole performance includes the cast, foreword by Franco Quadri and texts by Tadeusz Kantor: „Illusion and Repetition”, „General Reflections. Spiritualism”, „The Room of My Childhood”, „Dear Absent Ones Rental Service”, „Memory of a Child”, „From the Other Side of Illusion a.k.a. The Market Stall”, „Symbolism”. first edition, languages: English, Spanish, French and Italian

Special price: 5 pln

2. DVD presenting a unique recording of Tadeusz Kantor’s production Wielopole, Wielopole realised by Andrzej Sapija in 1983 during the performance in the parish church located in the artist’s hometown – Wielopole Skrzyńskie. Extras: selection of Tadeusz Kantor’s drawings and text for the performance, performance itinerary and bibliography, selections of Romano Martinis photographs, chronology of Tadeusz Kantor’s life and art plus bibliography. Subtitles and additional materials are available in English.

Special price: 23 pln

3. DVD presenting a recording of Tadeusz Kantor’s Wielopole, Wielopole realised by Stanisław Zajączkowski. The TV recording of the performance took place in the Sokół Hall in December 1983. The second – after The Dead Class – performance of Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatre of Death refers back to his childhood spent in a small town in eastern Poland. In the play, the past and traces of memory exist in the present and bring back the characters of his ancestors. The artist turns his personal history into a dream-like reality of art. „Grandma, Mother, Aunts, Uncles, Father who came on holiday. These were real scenes. But suddenly this room becomes the Mount of Olives, Golgotha, Capernaum – various places related to the life of Jesus… And the characters from this room played the Gospel characters, lowered in their rank, in accordance with the rules of the Dear Absent Ones Rental Service”. Subtitles available in English.

Special price: 23 pln

4. Poster for the performance Wielopole, Wielopole, Comune di Firenze, Teatro Regionale Toscano, 1982

Special price: 10 pln

The publications are also available on www.cricoteka.pl website (see: Bookshop).