Polish Performance Archive

Description by Filmoteka Muzeum

State Art Gallery, Sopot, in collaboration with Jarogniew Milewski.

The performance accompanied the prize awarded to Piotr Wyrzykowski as the most talented student of the State Higher School of Visual Arts (PWSSP) in Gdańsk by the then director of the State Art Gallery in Sopot, Ryszard Ziarkiewicz.

The work consisted in an audiovisual experiment in which the artist played basketball while creating at the same time an improvised musical piece made of samples from a symphony by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki by throwing balls at transmitters installed in the wall. Wyrzykowski played a double role – he formed part of an instrument which the gallery turned into during the performance, but the artist was also the author responsible for the final form of the piece. Wyrzykowski's game compelled the viewers to seek safe positions which protected them from being potentially hit with the ball. Breaking the barrier between reality and the artificial performance situation is one of the artist's goals in this and many other actions.

The performance also betrayed a provocative aspect as it took place during an official ceremony, which the artist turned into a sporting game. Wyrzykowski established his own rules of engaging with competition in sports and the division between winners and losers, which is perpetuated by the art world in the form of artistic contests.

(KK)