POTLATCH

In his ‘general theory of economy’, Georges Bataille compares accumulating goods to attempts at storing solar energy. According to the laws of nature, it is not possible to store it and therefore it must be lost. War is one of the most extreme forms of squandering the surplus of energy accumulated by societies. According to the philosopher, classical economics does not recognise the significance of economic systems of primitive communities that were based on gifts, considering them only in categories of barter exchange. However, the actual meaning of such systems of exchanging gifts was not to acquire them, but to give. As the instance of ‘potlatch’, the system used by the native tribes of North America, suggests, this could lead to the exaggerated squandering or to ritual destruction of goods. Bronisław Malinowski was the first anthropologist who described a community based on the culture of the gift. In his “Argonauts of the Western Pacific” (1922), he described a famous ritual called ‘kula’, consisting in the circular exchange of valuables of symbolic and ritualistic meaning. Thanks to this practice, the inhabitants of islands of the Pacific Ocean freely and safely moved between distant islands.

As Marcel Mauss indicated, the traditional ‘potlatch’ was a spiral of mutual gifts of the giver and the receiver. Often it led to the humiliation of the receiver who, struggling to retain his position, had to repay with a gift of equal or higher value than the one received. In return, the giver was bestowed with prestige and power. Traces of this ritual, practiced in various forms by the tribes from North America to Australia, can be found in contemporary European culture.

“Potlatch” is a philosophical and performative project organised with the participation of children and adolescents, taking as its starting point Sławomir Shuty’s fairy tale titled “Cinderella Goes to War, or, History Runs in Circles”. The heroine refuses to accept gifts and to participate in the story on its normal conditions. With her double refusal, she is able to suspend the fairy-tale reality (provoking a strike in the world of fairy tales), but, above all, she can inspire a reconsideration of the mechanisms that structure children’s imagination. Let us consider: in the world dominated by consumerism, what could the reversed economy of the gift mean today?

In the contemporary commercialised world of excess, we are still struggling with poverty, while social inequality has reached extremely high levels. When it became clear that, contrary to what economists had promoted up to recently, namely that “a rising tide lifts all boats”, economic development and free market will not automatically solve the problems of poverty and social disproportions, increasing numbers of researchers have emphasised the necessity to go back to the culture of the gift. What is needed is such form of giving that would provide a new paradigm of relations of exchange, as well as a foundation for a reconstruction of social bonds and the development of society based on open exchange.

The titular ritual works as an inspiration for children to search for alternative social systems. We understand it not only in cultural, anthropological or economic categories, but also in its visual dimension – after all the ritual of “potlatch” was a very spectacular ceremony. The project will take place in the scenery of an exhibition that takes the form of a monumental installation – a mobile playground – consisting of elements that will be developed by the participants. We shall treat it as a kind of model for social behaviours, provoking thus questions about to what extent children recreate models acquired from the world of adults, and to what extent they are able to suggest their own solutions. This comes with a belief that children are capable of articulating their own needs, which often differ from those adults expect of them, as well as with the conviction that they can tell us about the world much more than we can see for ourselves.

The installation designed by Dagmara Latała and Jacek Paździor refers with its form to the tradition of ‘adventure playgrounds’, popularised in the 1940s in Scandinavia (yet never widely introduced in Poland). Very often, they were constructed illegally, and in the most radical cases they resembled open construction sites more than coherently designed and equipped playgrounds. The project will provide an impulse for the participants to construct their own social models. We would like to encourage children and adolescents to fantasise about reality based not on accumulation of goods, but on their exchange – material or otherwise. Would and what children will exchange? Are they capable of developing an alternative to the prevailing economic system? In the course of the project we shall offer children an opportunity to engage into a mass exchange of all kinds of goods.

At the closing of “Potlatch” the installation constructed by the participants will become a stage set for the performance prepared by children together with Iga Gańczarczyk.

BRACIA Duo. Aga Klepacka and Maciej Chorąży – the duo was founded in 2011. BRACIA create costumes for performances, installations, and performances. They transfer solutions developed for stage into the field of visual arts, exploring, among others, the capacity of the notion of “costume”.

Iga Gańczarczyk – a dramaturge, director, and editor (at Korporacja Ha!art she runs the theatre series). As a dramaturge she collaborated with Krystian Lupa, Paweł Miśkiewicz, Bruno Lajara, Agnieszka Holland and Anna Smolar, Maciej Podstawny, Ewelina Marciniak and others. She directed Dea Loher’s “Das Letzte Feuer” [“The Final Fire”] at Teatr Nowy in Krakow, Witkacy’s “A Little Manor House” [“W małym dworku”] at J. Kochanowski Theatre in Opole, with Dominika Knapik, Aleksandra Gryka and Marta Pajek she developed “Not I” by Samuel Beckett, which received the main OFF prize during the 32nd Review of Stage Songs in Wrocław. Together with Bartosz Frąckowiak and Anna Zaradny she produced the project “Katastronauci” [“Catastronauts”], co-produced by HOBO Art Foundation and Nowy Teatr in Warsaw. For children, she directed “Winter Tales” by Hans Christian Andersen in Teatr Polski in Bydgoszcz (the performance received the H.Ch. Andersen International Prize in Odense), and two performances with children at Teatr Łaźnia Nowa: “Piccolo Coro dell’ Europa” and “Najwyraźniej nigdy nie był pan 13-letnią dziewczynką” [“Clearly, You Have Never Been a Thirteen-year-old Girl”]. Recently, she directed Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” in Teatr Polski in Bydgoszcz.

Dominika Knapik – a dancer, actor, and choreographer. In 2007 she received a scholarship from DanceWeb Europe and Art Stations Foundation (solo “Jak wam się podobam?” [“How Do You Like Me?] presented during the Polish Dance Platform in 2008). Together with a dramaturge and sociologist Wojciech Klimczyk, she started an art collective Harakiri Farmers. She regularly works with dramatic theatres in Poland as a choreographer. She worked with Radek Rychcik (“Versus” by B. Brecht and R. Barthes’s “A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments”), Maja Kleczewska (“Babel” by E. Jelinek), Iga Gańczarczyk (“A Little Manor House” by S. I. Witkiewicz, “Winter Tales” by H.Ch. Andersen, “Piccolo Coro dell’Europa” and “Najwyraźniej nigdy nie był pan 13-letnią dziewczynką” [“Clearly, You Have Never Been a Thirteen-year-old Girl”]), Anna Smolar (“Bullerbyn. O tym jak dzieci domowym sposobem zrobiły sobie las i co z niego wyrosło” [“Bullerbyn. How Children Home-Produced a Forest and What Grew There”] according to A. Lindgren), Paweł Łysiak (“The Cherry Orchard”), and Ewelina Marciniak (“Morfina”[“Morphine”]).

LATALAdesign – art and design studio founded by Dagmara Latała and Jacek Paździor in Krakow in 2009. Their experience includes a long-term work for design studios Arup and Universal Design Studio, recognised studios active in London, Dubai and Singapore. The studio was started with the mission to develop a new design language through taking up experimental, often ephemeral projects. As their research ground their chose the dynamic Polish design and cultural scene. The combination of various interests inspires the group to search for new experiences. They are interested in design, art, and architecture. LATALAdesign engages in designing objects that can adapt to new functions depending on processes and phenomena taking place in given space. The studio collaborates with cultural institutions, galleries, and producers. Dagmara Latała and Jacek Paździor are lecturers at the Faculty of Art at the Pedagogical University of Krakow.

Agata Kula and Agata Kluczewska – co-founders of the Democratic School in Krakow. Agata Kula is an author of texts and interviews published, among others, in “Tygodnik Powszechny”, and a teacher and mentor at the Krakow Unschooling Group. Agata Kluczewska is a founder of the democratic Punkt Przedszkolny Mali Odkrywcy [Little Explorers Kindergarten] and a mentor at the Democratic School in Krakow.

Dr. Monika Nęcka – works at the Faculty of Arts at the Pedagogical University of Krakow and as an assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. She teaches pedagogy, methods of art education, methods of artistic workshops and art therapy: art work as an element of therapy, visual creation of interpersonal relations. Author of a programme of art history for early school education and of a set of exercises for cultural identification. Member of the Board of the Polish Committee of International Society for Education through Art InSEA and member of Forum-Kraków. She is a permanent collaborator of Bunkier Sztuki, the International Cultural Centre, the Małopolska Institute of Culture, Gaudium et Spes Society for Social Services, and School without Barriers Foundation for Education of Children and Youth with Combined Disabilities.

Agata Otrębska – coach and project manager with a long-term experience. An initiator and manager of numerous research, training, and development projects. She was a member of All Different – All Equal campaign of the Council of Europe for equality, tolerance, and participation of young people in social life. An initiator and manager of Korba Project – a programme for the development of young leaders (13–19 years of age) in Southern Poland, realised annually since 2009. A director of two editions of the Festival of Women’s Personal Development PROGRESSteron in Katowice. For many years she has worked for various NGOs, including in the Main Board of SIEMACHA Association – Poland’s largest organisation working systemically with children and adolescents. Member of the Social Council for Youth Policy of the City of Katowice. At present, she works on opening a democratic school in Katowice.

Polpo Motel – the band consists of two musicians who represent two opposite worlds. Olga Mysłowska is a singer with classical education. She has performed in prestigious concert halls (the Warsaw Philharmonic, S1 Studio of the Polish Radio) and works as a solo artist with numerous baroque music ensembles, as well as takes part in pre-performances of contemporary music. For Polpo Motel she uses her non-opera voice, as well as writes songs. Daniel Pigoński was a keyboard player for Pustki and he is a co-founder of Elektrolot, in which he worked with Bartek Weber and Maria Peszek. He composes music scores for the theatre. He worked for directors including Piotr Cieplak, Michał Borczuch, Arkadiusz Tworus and Piotr Lachmann. In Polpo Motel he plays small Casio keyboard.