ZBIGNIEW WARPECHOWSKI
Sandomierz, Poland
Untitled
20 minutes, 9/09/2001atPall Mall Club

by Victor Petrov
The art of Zbigniew Warpechowski, a world pioneer of performance, places high importance on his relationship with his own work. Preparation for a performance is an important part of artistic creation. The performer examines the various categories of performance. The presentation of the material is highly significant here, i.e. the dramatic art of the process, the concept, the props - all the elements which affect the image and style.

The performer is dressed in an old overcoat and red sports hat. His face is made up with black paint. He plays some old records of classical music, then nails them to a table. The playing of classical and pop music from the repertoire of a past era, noise, movement, shocking sounds, and whistling "The Internationale" are accompanied by a war against clothing, and a war against sound, music and its historical, social and political contexts. He catches these contexts, and delivers some worthy results from such a tiring process in the form of fishes' and human teeth.

The red foot of the performer's falling figure shines with the unfading light of ideology, of which nothing remains but the empty teeth of a once predatory, aggressive system. A system in which forms of the free independent art of personality appeared and were banned, and have thus remained inside their art, confirming their significance and strength.