On the Tip of the Tongue
Performance and the War of Words

  • On the Tip of the Tongue

    POPE.L "The Great White Way, 22 miles, 9 years, 1 street (Whitney version #2)" 1990, video still © Pope.L Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

“On the Tip of the Tongue: Performance and the War of Words” is a six-week program beginning at the end of September at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, entirely dedicated to performance and an “expanded” reflection on the issue of communication.

It seems that language has recently lost the ability to capture reality. And it is not only that the words are losing their meanings but they have also ceased to actually fit what they are trying to describe as a result of their many abuses, rhetorical games, or mockery. Instead of being a common area of a possible compromise, language has recently become very aggressive, egoistic, and inexpressive. It has thus lost its communicative function and, furthermore, it is unable to capture the dynamics of the current changes.

“On the Tip of the Tongue: Performance and the War of Words” is also an active take on these issues by means of references to a medium which is most sensitive to the here and now — performance. Performance enables communication with our surrounding reality, saturated with misunderstandings and conflicts. The invited artists — Cara Benedetto, Jeremiah Day, Wojciech Kosma, and Pope.L — resort to different contexts, practices, and activities. In so doing, they will be using performance as a tool that aims at capturing the changes by means of action, as language is no longer useful in articulating it.

A series of meetings and discussions with invited guests will accompany the actions of the artists. Moderated by Paweł Dobrosielski (Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw), the aim of these events will be to reflect on the devaluation of public debate in Poland, as well as on such notions as “gender,” “politics,” “pluralism,” “the nation,” or “the left/the right,” all of which have become commonly pervasive clichés that see to generate connotations with an obvious constellation of values and meanings. The participating guests will consider these words in an attempt to restore their meanings and historical continuity, as well as their power in describing reality.

To coincide with “On the Tip of the Tongue: Performance and the War of Words,” the Performance Archive will be launched — a continually expanded online archive showing the wealth and the ambiguous tradition of the history of performance in Poland. The archive will be presented and problematized in a series of meetings moderated by Joanna Krakowska (Art Institute at the Polish Academy of Science) and Piotr Morawski (Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw), with invited guests. 

Cycle documentation:

On the Tip of the Tongue<br />Performance and the War of Words
Documentation

On the Tip of the Tongue
Performance and the War of Words
The Spot

The Spot
Index of Banned Words Nation

Index of Banned Words

Nation

See also:

Episodes 1-4: What emotional reality do you want to live in? Performance by Wojciech Kosma
Performance

Episodes 1-4: What emotional reality do you want to live in?

Performance by Wojciech Kosma
Meeting with Ewa Partum
Meeting

Meeting with Ewa Partum

Archival Events from that cycle:

DzieńGodzinaNazwa wydarzeniaMiejsce wydarzenia
20:30 Performance Anything Cant HappenCara Benedetto
In cycle „On the Tip of the Tongue”		 Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Small Auditorium
Pańska 3, Warsaw
Cycle Performance ArchiveIn cycle „On the Tip of the Tongue” Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Small Auditorium
Pańska 3, Warsaw
18:00 Lecture Lecture on Art and Performance by Zbigniew Warpechowski
In cycle „Performance Archive”		 Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Small Auditorium
Pańska 3, Warsaw
18:00 Lecture Conflict archive / Utopia archiveTwo meetings dedicated to the history of performance art
In cycle „Performance Archive”		 Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Small Auditorium
Pańska 3, Warsaw
Cycle Index of Banned WordsIn cycle „On the Tip of the Tongue” Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Small Auditorium
Pańska 3, Warsaw
18:00 Performance The Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness and MAQUISPerformances by Jeremiah Day
In cycle „On the Tip of the Tongue”		 Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Small Auditorium
Pańska 3, Warsaw
18:00 Performance MAQUISPerformance by Jeremiah Day
In cycle „On the Tip of the Tongue”		 Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Small Auditorium
Pańska 3, Warsaw
18:00 Meeting Meeting with Teresa MurakIn cycle „Performance Archive” Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Small Auditorium
Pańska 3, Warsaw
19:00 Lecture Performance in Poland 1968-1988Lecture by Tomasz Sikorski
In cycle „Performance Archive”		 Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Small Auditorium
Pańska 3, Warsaw
Filming THE SPOTPOPE.L
In cycle „On the Tip of the Tongue”
ul. Nowogrodzka 84/86,