Polish Performance Archive

Description by Filmoteka Muzeum

As of 1992, Witkor Gutt has enriched the format of “child’s initiations” with the aspect of joint-activity, organising painting sessions in the group of his own and his friends’ children, and in 2005 and 2007 with the children from Dom Małego Stasia – kindergarten run by Saint John’s of Jerusalem Foundation. The presented material is a photographic documentation of the latter event. The floor of the room where the action was held was covered with white protective fabric, paints and clay were delivered, there was also a mirror – the inextricable element of children’s visual conversations. As always, the children were absolutely free to do what they wanted. They used clay and paints to explore and mark an unknown space. The materials enabled them to engage in acts of self-creation as well as meaningful but safe transgressions – the kids covered their whole bodies in clay and paints as if during a „primitive” ritual. They developed communication on the most basic level, replacing language with visual expression.

References: Dzikość dziecka. Kreacje dziecięce – Malowanie ciała 1972-2008, exhibition catalogue, Królikarnia, Department of the National Museum in Warsaw, 2008.
 

(ŁM)