Abstract
Wojtek Ziemilski is one of the most important contemporary Polish artists, whose main interest is the relationship network between the theatre, media, and society. In Prolog [Prologue] (2011), Ziemilski uses the mechanisms of Real Time Composition and devising theatre to explore the possibilities of social choreography in the age of omnipresent, interactive media and political crisis. The chapter describes how Ziemilski’s unusual performance contributed to the development of modern political theatre in Poland—theatre that can transform the awareness of spectators, activate, provoke, and emancipate them. Ziemilski’s performance is similar to a video game in which the people practice useful decision-making, analogous to real political life.
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Notes
- 1.
In Latour’s network theory, a medium—or, as he prefers, a mediator—translates and shapes the translation of forces from one point of reality to the next. See Latour 2005.
- 2.
See: Auslander 2008, especially the chapter ‘Is it live, or …?’.
- 3.
All translations from the Polish are those of the author.
- 4.
Real Time Composition has been developed by Portuguese choreographer João Fiadeiro since 1995. In the first stage, its main framework was the need to create a system of composition that could be shared by his collaborators in the creative process. In the second stage, it emerged as a tool to explore modalities of dramaturgical writing within the dance field, and was studied, developed and used by several artists and researchers. The goal of the Real Time Composition method is to put the maker in the position of ‘mediator’ and ‘facilitator’ of the events, blocking his temptation to impose himself by means of the will or the ability to manipulate them. His only ‘creative act,’ should there be any, amounts to the mastery with which he handles the tension, the balance and potential of the material he is dealing with, letting things happen—if they really have to—by themselves. Fiadeiro focuses on processes of taking decisions and making choices, asking questions: What criteria and parameters shall we choose to take one decision or another? How to share them in a group, not letting the conversation turn into a field of competition or resignation? See: http://joaofiadeiromenugb.blogspot.com, accessed 1 November 2016.
- 5.
See Hewitt 2005.
- 6.
Prolog; concept and direction: Wojtek Ziemilski; collaboration: Sean Palmer and Iza Szostak; video projection technology: Marcin Ebert; lighting direction: Karolina Gębska; production: Krakow Theatrical Reminiscences i Ochota Theatre w Warszawie; premiere at the Krakow Theatrical Reminiscences, 6 October 2011. While analysing this performance, I use, to a large extent, the detailed description-review I have made for Didaskalia . See Burzyńska (2011).
- 7.
All quotations from Prolog are from Ziemilski’s unpublished playscript.
- 8.
Examples: ‘Are you usually are late to the theatre? If so, take a step back. If not, please don’t move. During any performance, has it occurred to you that you had left the iron turned on or an open window in your home? If so, take a step back.’
- 9.
Initially, the sentence was used in its literal meaning: Kantor put in on the doors of the room where his The Return of Odysseus after Stanisław Wyspiański was performed. It was in 1942, during the German occupation of Poland—making and watching theatre in Polish was forbidden, artists were persecuted and Kantor’s ensemble had to perform underground. After the war it became a metaphor of artists’ and audience’s responsibility.
- 10.
Conclusions of the research of theatre audience in Poland (using sociological tools, like questionnaires, interviews, etc.) conducted between 2011 and 2015 can be found here: http://www.badanieteatru.pl/
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Burzyńska, A.R. (2018). Between Art, Society, Representation, and Subjectivity: Wojtek Ziemilski’s Prolog. In: Arfara, K., Mancewicz, A., Remshardt, R. (eds) Intermedial Performance and Politics in the Public Sphere. Avant-Gardes in Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75343-0_9
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