Stanisław Dróżdż: Text Paths
Stanisław Dróżdż’s work in the public space of Wrocław
Stanisław Dróżdż: Text Paths is a poetic-visual project carried out in the public space of Wrocław. Its main aim is to acquaint the general public with the practice of Stanisław Dróżdż – a poet and artist from Wrocław, who was the driving force behind the Polish current of concrete poetry.
The form of the event is varied. The first part comprises a series of murals on the walls of two tenement buildings located in the city centre (68-70 Legnicka Street, 35 Hubska Street). They feature large-scale reproductions of works titled optimum and Forgetting, whose graphic forms were prepared by poet and painter Stanisław Kortyka in 1967, and Temporally-spatially, a 1969 piece graphically designed by conceptual artist Barbara Kozłowska.
The second part of the project consists of a reconstruction of an artistic installation prepared on the basis of Barbara Kozłowska’s sketch from 1970, in which she interpreted Dróżdż’s poem under the title Loneliness and endowed it with a third dimension. This work will become a permanent element of the landscape of Popowicki Park.
The third element of the event concerns the publication of Stanisław Dróżdż’s first volume of verse under the title INWARDS BEYOND THE WORDS BETWEEN, which comes from 1969 and has never been published before. Compiled and edited by Małgorzata Dawidek and translated into English by Krzysztof Bartnicki, the volume will be published by Warstwy in September 2016. Simultaneously, in September and October, reproductions of selected pages of the publication will be featured as city light posters at 42 tram stops all over Wrocław as well as in the street gallery Szewska Pasja in Szewska Street.
As part of the project, we will prepare a map-guidebook to historical and contemporary places in Wrocław connected with the concretist movement and Stanisław Dróżdż’s practice.
Moreover, educational actions will be carried out in schools in Wrocław that will acquaint the youngest inhabitants of the city with the life and work of Stanisław Dróżdż.
The opening of the exhibition Stanisław Dróżdż: Text Paths will be accompanied by a concerto Essay for Voice and Double Bass “Before / Behind”. Stanisław Dróżdż: Theology of Prepositions (performers: Tadeusz Sławek – lyrics – vocals; Bogdan Mizerski – music, double bass; Joanna Kściuczyk-Jędrusik – soprano; BestremyDuo: Bożena Mizerska – harp, Fryderyk Mizerski – trombone)
The project Stanisław Dróżdż: Text Paths addresses the postulates of text materialisation and exceeding the confines of page by literature, both of which were present in Dróżdż’s work. The curator of the project intends to present Dróżdż’s pieces of poetry in an overscaled form, matching the dimensions of architecture and thus becoming part of the urban structure embedded on the city map. Consequently, the inhabitants’ interaction with the physical elements of text will become another step towards changing the reading habits started by the artist’s work.
Concrete poetry is a current which uses linguistic notation as a visual material in a way that brings out the function of its materiality, i.e. uses its visual properties. The English term “concrete poetry” is often translated literally as “poetry made of concrete”. The versions of works featured in the Stanisław Dróżdż: Text Paths project are made of concrete or transferred directly onto walls of buildings, and therefore literally fulfil the postulate of materiality.
Stanisław Dróżdż (1939-2009) was one of the most notable artists of the Polish avant-garde in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1967 he began making works formally situated at the intersection of poetry and the visual arts. Defined by him as “concept-shapes”, they combined linguistic symbols with mathematical systems. Dróżdż was considered to be the driving force behind the Polish current of concrete poetry. He represented Poland at the most important exhibitions of conceptual art in the world, including ?sound text – concrete poetry – visual texts at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1970-1972), the 50th Venice Biennale (2003), and Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form 1940s-1970s at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2004). He lived and worked in Wrocław.
Project curator: Małgorzata Dawidek
Opening: 6.09.2016
5 PM – official opening
7 PM – Concert: Essay for Voice and Double Bass “Before / Behind”. Stanisław Dróżdż: Theology of Prepositions
(performers: Tadeusz Sławek – lyrics – vocals; Bogdan Mizerski – music, double bass; Joanna Kściuczyk-Jędrusik – soprano; BestremyDuo: Bożena Mizerska – harp, Fryderyk Mizerski – trombone)
Klub Proza, Przejście Garncarskie 2, Wrocław
Venues:
Murals: ul. Legnicka 68-70, ul. Hubska 35, Wrocław
Artistic installation: Popowicki Park, Wrocław
Pieces of poetry in the city space: line 33 tram stops, Szewska Pasja (ul. Szewska, Wrocław)
more: www.sciezki-tekstu.pl
Organisers: Art Transparent Foundation, European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016
The project is prepared as part of the visual arts programme of European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016, curated by Michał Bieniek. The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.