Show XVI Od Nowa group
(Izabella Gustowska, Bogumił Kaczmarek, Wiesław Krzyżaniak, Wojciech Müller)
Galeria Teatru Studio, January 10, 1976
The years 1975–78 at Galeria Studio, then still called “Galeria Teatru Studio,” were passed under the banner of “Free Saturdays.” Like Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, which ran their “Sunday at the Museum of Art” campaign in the 1970s, in 1975 Teatr Studio inaugurated cultural activities for the benefit of Warsaw residents at rest from work. The period of Edward Gierek’s leadership in the Polish People’s Republic saw a gradual approximation of the customs and work culture of the West. Saturday was ultimately to be a free day. In 1973, two Saturdays were given over to working people, and in 1974 six. One free Saturday per month was introduced in 1975, and that’s when the idea of a series at Galeria Teatru Studio was conceived. It was initiated by the gallery’s manager, Andrzej Ekwiński, a young energetic art critic invited in January 1975 by Teatr Studio director Jozef Szajna to lead the gallery’s program.
At 3:30 pm on Saturday, December 27, 1975, the rock band Maanam, consisting of Marek Jackowski and Milo Kurtis, performed at Galeria Teatru Studio, and afterwards an exhibition opened by Od Nowa, an artist’s group from Poznań. It was a documentation show, very much in the spirit of 1970s conceptualism: the study of artistic processes, methods, theories and practices rather than the presentation of objects and artworks. The Od Nowa group was founded in 1970 by young artists, students of the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Poznań: Izabella Gustowska (b. 1948), Wojciech Müller (1947–2018), Bogumił Kaczmarek (b. 1948) and Wiesław Krzyżaniak (1947–2015). They collaborated with composer Lidia Rydlewicz-Zielińska and with the Nurt Student Pantomine Theater. Od Nowa was active between 1970–1978 and performed spectacular ephemeral projects calculated for mass audiences, primarily at student festivals such as the Nowa Ruda festival (in 1971 and 1973) and Fama in Swinoujscie (performing there in 1972, 1973 and 1974). They also performed in Poznań, Wrocław, Lublin, Gdańsk, and Warsaw. In 1973, they performed a show at Wawel Castle to celebrate the Days of Kraków. Gustowska recalled in an interview with Dwutygodnik:
“In Kraków, we were supposed to do spatial forms made of plastic sheeting on the Wawel Castle for the occasion of the city days. Sigismund Chapel, we’ve inflated huge plastic forms with helium in the Renaissance courtyard. They grow and grow and get bigger and bigger. No one seemed to realize how dangerous this was. We threw the cylinders, just like that, on the stones. Well, and now such a situation—we released the 30-meter-long forms, the wind blew and they flew straight to the Sigismund Chapel. I thought I was going to die of fright. They touched the end and flew further. Into the sky. I have a photo somewhere. The Wawel Castle, and above it there are these two big triangles flying up high.”
Od Nowa also undertook artwork for mass outdoor events. At the 1978 World Festival of Youth and Students in Havana, they created the setting for the gala show of the Polish national team, directed by Krzysztof Kubiak and titled “Polish Flowers.”
Od Nowa group’s Show XVI was held on January 10, 1976. Composer Lidia Rydlewicz-Zielińska and the Nurt Student Pantomime Theater collaborated. The audience, and there were quite a few of them, saw a huge tent made of translucent film in the gallery room. The space pulsated with the lights of projectors and the music and poetry of John Cage. Inside the tent was another, smaller one, filled with air and illuminated with colored lights. Veiled by the plastic, actors from the pantomime theater performed, and films were projected onto the tent walls. Among these, a discerning eye can spot a projection by Izabella Gustowska, who had just introduced her series Relatively Similar Features with its distinctive figures of twin models. The screening lasted a short time and had its own—rather dramatic—narrative. When the actors ran short of breath, they began violently jerking the walls of the tent to get out. The whole huge structure fell to bits, into scraps of plastic. The lights came on.
Show XVI was carried out as part of Galeria Studio’s “Free Saturday” series of activities. These were performative events aimed at activating audiences, consisting of meetings, lectures and workshops, to launch a new, more democratic connection with viewers. These included, for example: a screening of British art films on the occasion of an action by Stuart Brisley in August 1975; a meeting with Ruth Wolf-Rehlfeldt and Robert Rehfeldt together with a presentation of East German art publications and films in September 1975; the Wiwidram action by Malgorzata Maliszewska and Jerzy Kalina in October 1975; the Action Workshop by Ryszard Winiarski in February 1976; and a bravura performance by Jorge Reina Miccahuitl on November 13, 1976, when crowds of spectators attended the Mexican Day of the Dead ceremony.
Dorota Jarecka
