Description by Filmoteka Muzeum
“For me, Hansen himself is less important than Zofia Kulik and Przemysław Kwiek, who were students of Jarnuszkiewicz and Hansen. At the end of the 1960s, they translated the specific language of the open form into visual arts. This brought words and concepts that had never been used in the world of art before, such as “Activity” (…) Contrary to Grzegorz Kowalski’s studio, which operated under the banner of “Common Space/Individual Space”, where one uses content and specific topics, my idea of Open Form – closer to the original Hansen’s practice, as I believe – is based on certain purely formal skills if I may say so. It is about the activity, and activity knows no other content than its very self. The topics may result from activities, and not the reverse.”
Three posts for activities are created inside the studio. At the first one there is a male model, at the second a female model with a child, at the third there are only objects. The students’ task is to make their way through the three posts, carrying out their activities at each of them. Only one person could act at one post at a time. Initially, students take the three subsequent posts individually, but they eventually start to act parallel. Like with the activities of KwieKulik, the point here is to react spontaneously and create reasons for others to perform subsequent activities.
The models’ bodies become elements of artistic activities equal to objects such as clay or rope; they are like ordinary props passed from hand to hand, and subject to transformation on an ongoing basis. This kind of approach to the human body is inspired by such activities as Game on an Actress’s Face (1971), Activities with Dobromierz (1972–1974) or Activities on the Head] (1978) by KwieKulik, who only acknowledged the existence of objects and relations between them.
References: Ł. Ronduda, Zbigniew Libera: Open Form Studio, Prague 2011; Jedyny dyplom jaki mam to zwolnienie z więzienia. Zbigniew Libera interviewed by Janek Sowa, in: I. Illich, Odszkolnić Społeczeństwo, Warsaw 2010.
(MK)