Agnieszka Kaniewska-Płocieniak is a curator at the Mazovian Museum in Płock and the coordinator of the interdisciplinary art project titled “Stories. The world is more complicated than our truths about it”. The project is an outcome of the collaboration with the Kunstbaknken Center for Contemporary Art in Hamar. It revolves around the works of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson.
Katarzyna Boch: The “Stories” project, co-organised by the Mazovian Museum in Płock and Kunstbanken Center for Contemporary Art in Hamar, Norway, ended in March. What did this collaboration look like?
Agnieszka Kaniewska-Płocieniak:The collaboration was strong. Kunstbanken was prominently involved in co-creating the project’s programme. Its premise was devised in a small circle through discussions between Leonard Sobieraj – director of the Mazovian Museum, Ingrid Blekastad – director of Kunstbanken, and Małgorzata Sady – curator of the project. I was a witness and participant of this process, one carried out energetically and with great dedication. Our timeline was short and our ambitions quite high. The outcome was an elaborate programme that accounted for the potential of both institutions, aimed to foster it, but also bring to light the work of outstanding avant-garde artists, Franciszka and Stefan Themerson. It was then implemented in Płock and Hamar. In both places, the biggest event was the International Festival of Performing Arts; Hamar has been organising similar festivals for 19 years, but for our museum, it was a novelty and a unique adventure. The same can be said about the multimedia exhibition “In Praise for Happy Chance”, similarly presented in both locations: from November to December in Płock, and from January to March in Hamar. An exhibition of Norwegian handicrafts at the Mazovian Museum called Handmade Stories. Nine Norwegian artists was another valuable outcome of the Polish-Norwegian cooperation. It let us display exceptional glass, ceramics, textiles and jewellery by outstanding Norwegian artists (the works of some of them is on view at the National Museum in Oslo) whose rank approximates them to the so-called high art, so to speak – after all, to divide arts into fine and applied may now be a slight anachronism. To sum up, the Kunstbanken was an exceptionally dedicated institution and that makes all the difference – partner participation like this is often more marginal.
KB: For the Museum in Płock this was the first undertaking on such a large scale. What was the biggest organisational challenge?
AK-P: Indeed, it came with its share of challenges, beginning with elaborate bureaucratic procedures, through cross-institutional cooperation, to the organisation of numerous events carried out within a budget of over 2 million dollars. We devoted most effort to the Performing Arts Festival. For our museum, to organise such an event was new and it entailed some difficulties to do with the institution’s character. The scale of the project was also of note – we planned to invite nearly 50 artists from across Europe and the world, we had to arrange their stay and travels, which required a lot of effort, as we had to tender all flights, generating little flexibility in our approach to, for example, dates, luggage size, etc. We offered artists 5 museum spaces – an attractive feature of the programme that added additional meanings to individual performances. The festival lasted 4 days and offered 49 distinct performances to the visitors. The intensity of the event necessitated pitch-perfect organisation. The post-festival evaluations demonstrate we succeeded. Even today, artists reach out and ask when they can come to Płock for the festival again. Apart from the high quality of the event, we also achieved an atmosphere of friendliness and openness. We owe a lot to everyone involved in the organisational work, but I wanted to especially credit the volunteers from the Płock Volunteering group. They were invaluable to us. The Festival featured distinguished and prominent performers such as Nigel Rolfe, Marilyn Arsem, Joanna Rajkowska and Jolanta Krukowska, but also younger adepts. The artists’ generational range supplied us – the participants – with a multi-faceted view on our existence, the world, everyday life, as well as matters important and trivial, covered by the artists in their speeches. I cherish this time as beautiful, colourful, and full of mutual kindness, in spite of the difficult situations and conversations that also took place.
KB: The subtitle for the project is “The world is more complicated than our truths about it”. What did you want to evoke in artists and audiences with this slogan?
AK-P: We wanted to encourage them to look at the world from a new angle, because that’s ultimately the only way to begin to understand it better. Theorising about life and people inherently leads us to realise that the world is more complicated than we thought. Living, we can’t get our head around it. The subtitle is an extension of the main title – “Stories”. We wanted for storytelling as a non-superficial form of communication between people to provide patronage for our activities. For our events – the festival, shows, and workshops – to become such stories that sometimes resemble fairy tales, wise parables, or a casual chat between two friends. That way, they could demonstrate the wealth of human paths and experiences. They should also impress on us the universality of existence – regardless of the languages we speak, and regardless of our individual struggles, we essentially experience the same things, the same ups and downs in our lives. “The world is more complicated than our truths about it” is Stefan Themerson’s thought expressed in one of his literary works.
KB: What events took place as part of the project?
AK-P: I have already mentioned the Performing Arts Festivals held in Płock and Hamar – the biggest part of the project. Both events were preceded by week-long workshops for young performers led by the acclaimed Italian-German duo VestAndPage. In addition, we presented two exhibitions: “Handmade Stories. Nine Norwegian artists”, a showcase of Norwegian handicrafts, and the multimedia “In Praise of Happy Chance” exhibition inspired by Themersons’ film work. It was shown both in Poland and Norway. So were screenings of Polish and Norwegian animation, including Anita Killi’s. The events were accompanied by an exciting educational programme that consisted of workshops and guided tours for children, young people, adults, immigrants, the Norwegian-Polish community and Płock Roma. The project concluded with a wonderful Nowosielski Audiovisual Trio concert performed by Artur Dutkiewicz and supported by live visualisations by Andrzej Wąsik.
KB: What means of expression did the artists use to tell their stories?
AK-P: There were many. Within the Festival itself, we witnessed a range of performative activities: traditional chamber performances, spectacular acoustic events (e.g. Tanja Brueggemann’s performance), concerts (e.g. John Farah’s concert in the Płock Cathedral), Laura Bartolomei’s puppet theatre, Sylwia Hanff’s butoh dance theatre, and activities created with the help of artificial intelligence (Weronika Lewandowska, Dominik Jałowiński). Of course, the most important means of expression was the artistic gesture, but also improvised music, words, etc. The multimedia exhibition, in turn, featured a multi-channel installation by Victoria Sarah Davis titled “Traces”, interactive audiovisual installations by Grzegorz Rogala and Joanna Krzysztoń, and a cinematographic essay edited from Tomasz Pobog-Malinowski and Stanisław Furman’s Serafiński Studio resources. The artists mainly used images, edited either deliberately or “accidentally”, sometimes juxtaposed and sometimes poetically aligned with words, adding up to a type of retrospection. Grzegorz Rogala’s “Couple” was an interesting one – a painting created with the help of artificial intelligence. The exhibition of Norwegian craft showcased various applications for artisan handicraft and mass production techniques (glass, jewellery, ceramics, textiles), resulting in visual effects inspired by Scandinavian flora and fauna.
KB: The project centers on the work of Franciszka and Stefan Themersons. Why specifically their work?
AK-P: Stefan Themerson was born in Płock and spent his youth here. Franciszka had familial ties locally. Their oeuvre deserves recognition because of the universality of the messages present in their works. They explored film, literature, painting, drawing, and stage design, to roughly enumerate the disciplines of their practice. Together, they harmoniously bridged the intersection between art and life, and remained ever persistent in doing so. Their work can remain a continuing inspiration for us: it comfortably situates itself in the current art trends, while holding on to an independent, distinctive identity. Ours is the only permanent Polish exhibition dedicated to the Themersons. We are indebted to Małgorzata Sady who curated the entire project. She was their friend and she has assiduously championed their artistic activity for more than 40 years. The multimedia and interdisciplinary nature of their work sets the Themersons up as naturally fitting spiritual patrons for such a multifaceted project as “Stories”.
KB: What will do you cherish about “Stories” especially?
AK-P: The Performing Arts Festival was at once the most wonderful, and the most challenging, part of the project. I will never forget the influence it had on revitalising museum spaces and us – the employees. A museum is a space where one has to follow a set of rules of conduct to protect the exhibits. The festival was refreshing, in that sense, but it required a great deal of vigilance on the part of employees looking after the exhibits. They were diligent and kind, which contributed to the atmosphere of the event. Evening meetings with artists – opportunities for friendly chats – added to it too. Summer was in full swing, the nights were warm and you could meet exciting people – it doesn’t take much more. The second event that mattered to me a lot was the exhibition of Norwegian crafts. It was a gorgeous collection inspired by the Nordic landscape and its raw charm. I will also remain grateful to my colleagues and the curator Małgorzata Sada for our collaboration – their help, and practical and spiritual support. Above all, I thank Leonard Sobieraj, director of the Mazovian Museum, for the opportunity to coordinate this ambitious project.
