JANUSZ BAŁDYGA, GENERAL CENTER, 1981 (1-8/8)
Performance of Janusz Bałdyga with exhibition, video and a meeting took place at the Workshop Dziekanka on 7 December 1981 - 6 days before martial law in Poland.
„My state of owning underwent another change, I became an owner of a general’s image.
I have marked this area, unknown to me before, not trying to know, with the image of the general. Memory after the general, faded due to unconditional ban, exists, transforming into a legend full of mysteries.
There is an unjustified suspicion that the general’s image has magic power.
It can be assumed that he was an authentic figure, born somewhere far away, probably in one of the Balkan countries. Upon loosing, he was inscribed in history by his conquerors as a negative figure. Hierarchy of values, used for segregation of deeds into good and bad, definitely disqualifies him. This does not mean, of course, that o the contrary to his enemies degraded at that time, in the result of re-evaluation of the same hierarchy, he would be acknowledged as a positive figure, a distinguished statesman, loving piece or, if needed, duly striving for return of the grounds taken unrightfully.”
[Janusz Bałdyga, 1981 [in:] Pracownia Dziekanka 1976 – 1987, ASP w Warszawie,1990]
