Draft translation. The original material is available above.
Exhibition of Mirosław Bałka’s Pracownia Działań Przestrzennych, Warsaw, 2014
O. Ch. led people into the square along Kanonia Street, throwing a white-and-red baton that had been part of the safety barriers around excavations taking place there as recently as the previous day, owing to work on the sewer system. The baton, resembling the Polish national flag, landed in various places, and the author first went to those places himself before calling over the group of viewers. In the square, writing the text “rise, come out, walk” in the air, he used small bells to “set ringing” the bell standing as a monument where the oldest cemetery in Poland’s capital once was, next to crypts in which great Poles were buried. Then, together with three volunteers, he spread a square white tablecloth the size of the monument’s plinth above the bell, and threw one of the small bells onto it, the one most sensitive to vibration, allowing it to ring freely for a while under the influence of the movements of those holding it and the movements of the air. Later, writing “return” in the air, he rang for a little longer before finally throwing the baton again. After several throws he led those gathered out of Kanonia Street. This was a continuation of performance tourism, which he organised for the second time, previously together with Przemysław Kwiek at Wawerska Strefa Kultury, this time along Kanonia Street in Warsaw.
(photo by Anna Jochymek)
(photo by Anna Jochymek)