Music show ”5x” at the Foksal Gallery, 1966 (1-50/112)
The "5 x" show took place between September 19 and 23, 1966. Among the authors of the show were a composer Zygmunt Krauze and artists (graduates of Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts) such as Grzegorz Kowalski, Henryk Morel, and Cezary Szubartowski. The event consisted of five audio-visual evening shows whose course of action depended mostly upon the participants. Such open art form, which included the audience’s direct involvement, was on the one hand, similar to composer’s practices (like Cornelius Cardew) and on the other hand, embedded in Oscar Hansen’s idea of the open form (in whose studio all three artists had previously studied).
The gallery was filled with scrap metal, drums, iron rims, wires, a net and other materials that had been scattered and hung. The viewers were encouraged to tinker with those objects in any way they wanted, producing different sound effects. Different musical instruments were used every evening. The first show featured members of Warszawska Jesień Muzyczna: Cornelius Cardew, David Bedford and John Tilbury who performed "Poem La Monte Young." Their music was in tone with interventions carried out by the participants of the show.
In a catalogue the artists wrote "Our goal was to create a machine and not a closed form work of art. Its mechanism depended on audience participation (an excerpt of an invitation: "this paper allows participation and co-creation"). We would like to create unexpected situations and emotions by integrating visual and auditory experiences with the viewers’ direct participatory action."
(The event was accompanied by a catalogue in both Polish and French.)
