Artistic action following the plein air in the Valley of the Five Polish Lakes
From the Valley of the Five Polish Lakes to Eye of the Sea in Warsaw
An artistic action following the plein air
24 June 2017, Saturday, at 4.00–8.00 p.m.
Pond in the Morskie Oko Park in Warsaw
In May, seven artists from Warsaw went to a plein air to the Valley of the Five Polish Lakes. However, they took no easels, brushes or chisels with them. The essence of the plein air in the Tatras was to experience the mountains personally and, on that basis, carry our artistic actions after coming back to Warsaw.
On the 24th of June, the participants of the plein air will meet again – this time at the pond in the Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea) park, Mokotów district in Warsaw, in the midst of urban greenery and buildings.
Katarzyna Krakowiak, Grzegorz Stefański and Piotr Urbaniec will carry out an action using a 17-storey residential building located near the pond in the Morskie Oko park. Inspired by Tatra goats, they will present a bold performance defying the laws of gravity, entitled Brave or Stupid. This synchronic action of the three artists will make reference to the feats of high mountain climbers, who believe that mountains exist in order to be conquered. A similarly exotic stunt, accomplished on a modernist building instead of a mountain, will acquire a completely different meaning that can be read through such traditions of performance art as the architectural interventions of Gordon Matta Clark or Man Walking Down the Side of a Building (1970) of the New York artist Trisha Brown. The Internet is full of amateur videos showing people who undertake various, often absurd challenges that require courage and break conventions and taboos. During artistic actions at the Morskie Oko park, the viewers will experience a live event of this kind.
Dobrawa Borkała will invite the audience gathered in the park to participate in a Breathing Symphony she composed analysing the process of acclimatization, while climbing to 1670 m a.s.l. – to the Valley of the Five Polish Lakes. Agnieszka Brzeżańska will connect two banks of the pond in the park with a funicular that everyone will be able to use to send any object or message they want. Charlie Dance will share his experiences from the plein air through his own publications and short, funny videos.
Katarzyna Korzeniecka perceives mountains as the result of catastrophic events that are taking place all the time below and above the Earth's crust. Geological layers contain proof that 12 million years ago the region of the Tatras was a sea island with almond trees. Through a hypothetical model of a rock from the future that may contain fossils in the form of synthetic polymers, the artist is looking for an answer to the question: What kind of human traces will be present in the structure of rocks within 100 million years?
Artists: Dobrawa Borkała, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Charlie Dance, Katarzyna Korzeniecka, Katarzyna Krakowiak, Grzegorz Stefański, Piotr Urbaniec
Artistic supervision: Zbigniew Rogalski
Photos: Jan Wierzejski
The artistic plein air in the Valley of the Five Polish Lakes and at the Morskie Oko park in Mokotów (Warsaw) is part of the exhibition "Connection Warsaw – Zakopane”. Seven participants of the artistic field trip were chosen out of almost 100 applications, in an open call. The plein air lasted from 7 to 12 May 2017. The artists hiked mountain trails together with the best guides: Paweł Skawiński, a retired director of the Tatra National Park, and Jan Krzysztof, the head of the Tatra Mountains Volunteer Rescue Service. They reached the biggest Tatra waterfall, and they found gigantic rocks in the fog-veiled Pusta Valley. At the frozen Wielki Staw (Great Pond) they listened to Krzysztof Trebunia-Tutka who played a traditional highlander horn. Jan Wierzejski accompanied them with a camera in his hand and skis on his feet. The evenings were an opportunity for long talks about art. All of that was possible thanks to the invitation from Marta and Marychna Krzeptowski, who manage the shelter in the Valley of the Five Polish Lakes. Just like you have to limit yourself to the most necessary things when you are packing for a mountain hike, similarly the post-plein-air show in Warsaw will focus not on newly produced objects, but rather on movements, sounds and temporary installations, inviting local residents and passers-by to join.
Cooperation: PTTK Mountain Shelter in the Valley of the Five Polish Lakes.
The plein air has been co-financed by the capital city of Warsaw
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