PRZEMYSLAW KWIEK
Warsaw, Poland
"SUPER, HYPER, BEAUTIFUL AND THE GENTLE TRANSITION"
40 minutes, 9/09/2001atatPall Mall Club

by Victor Petrov
The performer makes what he calls an "appearance". "Appearance is performance, but not only that. This form is created step-by-step over a longer period of time, like a process. Appearance is when I (being constantly involved in the creative process) "come out" and show myself to the spectator and the public. Therefore, this moment should be personal and corporal in front of the audience, and should show, exhibit, construct, and explain something." - PRZEMYSLAW KWIEK

A pioneer of "critical art" in Poland, Przemyslaw Kwiek described a true "appearance" performance as being the comparison of several contexts of Belarusian reality as the artist imagines them. One of the major aspects which stands out here is the situation in Minsk, a city so unlike any other in Europe because of its enormous population of pretty girls, that it immediately catches the eye as being its distinguishing feature. Secondly, there is the simultaneous contrast between living people, the megalomania of the Stalinist architecture (broad avenues, monuments and columns), and the hyper-officious side to Europe's last Communist stronghold.

The artist invites six young girls from Minsk to take part in the event, and positions them in rubber car tyres to act as symbols of beauty and sexuality. After this, he invites any volunteers to close their eyes, then appears naked in a bath, circled by six attractive young assistants. The performer then proceeds to expound his theory in the context of the action and everything taking place inside the process. Before the performance, the hall was covered with large black-and-white photographs of Minsk architecture and symbolic fragments of it. Surrounded by a crowd of young people, the performer sprays stencils of his own texts and thoughts about the situation depicted in each picture onto the photographs with an aerosol.

Generally, the spectator is given wide scope to penetrate the essence of the artist's idea, by moving gradually from one part to another, they become fully engaged in a large interactive exhibition act-cum-process, which is the point behind the idea of "appearance" as a process.