ZDISLAW KWIATKOWSKI
Lublin, Poland
"OBVERSE-REVERSE"
about 60 minutes, 8/09/2001atatPall Mall Club

by Victor Petrov
In Zdislaw Kwiatkowski's performance, the importance of effort as a kind of motor component is a unique "thing in itself". A coin which has tactile contact with the object and the subject (the palm of a hand holding it against the back of a chair) seems to show unity and wholeness. The nature of things is active, and the main element of this action is the thing. The performer places two coins into his hands obverse- and reverse-side up, then presses them against the backs of two wooden chairs. Then he raises his palms towards the audience, and the performance shifts into a static gesture which lasts as long as is necessary. The coins fall naturally from his open hands.