We invite you to read the newest English-language issue of “Didaskalia. Gazeta Teatralna”: https://didaskalia.pl/en/issue/english-issue-2022.

„Didaskalia. Gazeta Teatralna” is a critical reflection of phenomena from various areas of theatre and art. In addition to the first nights of dramatic theatre, we regularly discuss events in the fields of dance, performance, visual arts and opera. Information about current life in theatre is intertwined with reflection on the history and tradition of theatre and performing arts, seeing them as mutually illuminating and explaining spaces. The events of current theatre life are inscribed in the wider context of contemporary humanistic thought. An important element of the journal are thematic sections dedicated to selected theoretical, political and philosophical issues, which broaden the field of interpretation of theatre and its presence in social life.

 

In “Didaskalia. Gazeta Teatralna” you find articles mainly in Polish but since 2020 we present one issue with selected and translated articles in English only. In 2022 we present peer reviewed articles on following subjects:   

Choreography for Families, Research-Artistic Practices, Local Cultures, Institutional Critique, Herstory. 

Please, find more issues on: https://didaskalia.pl/en

 

CHOREOGRAPHY FOR FAMILIES

Hanna Bylka-Kanecka. The Politicality of Choreography for Families from the Perspective of Performance as Research

The aim of the paper is to provide a reflection on the choreographic practice in the field of dance performance for families in the context of related fields of politicalness, from the perspective of performance as research. The author describes some important moments in the global and Polish cultural policy concerning dance for children and presents an understanding of politicalness after Ana Vujanović and Mark Franko. The text undertakes reflection on the usefulness of the language of posthumanism (Chikako Takeshita, Karen Barad and Donna Haraway) in research into choreography intended for families. The author gives an insight into the creative practice by analysing the dimensions of politicalness in three performances by the Holobiont collective which she co-founded.

 

Alicja Müller, Karolina Wycisk. Soft Choreographies. On Experimental Dance Performances for Families

The article discusses characteristic dramaturgical and ethical strategies that appear in the field of experimental dance for families. It describes selected works of Anna Wańtuch (Contact Families Show) and the Holobiont collective (_on_line__) in which children and their guardians are invited to participate in a creative process. Moreover, kids do not imitate adults, but are encouraged to act and perform according to their own wishes and conditions. Both projects practise care and affectionate relations, value the process as an element of production, and are inspired by change. The article argues that these interactive performances can be described as examples of what Mette Ingvarsten calls ‘soft choreography’, i.e. a choreography that produces a safe space for a dialogical meeting and particularly stresses the importance of being attentive and responsive to the different needs of others. It proves that dance works that embody non-hierarchical social systems and do not objectify young audiences have enormous emancipatory potential and can be treated as speculations about possible, more inclusive futures.

 

RESEARCH-ARTISTIC PRACTICES

 

Tercet ¿ Czy badania artystyczne ? (The trio ¿Artistic Research?)  Paulina Brelińska-Garsztka  Zofia Małkowicz-Daszkowska  Zofia Reznik. Riots in Performing Arts Research: a Close-up of Dance, Movement and Choreography

The article addresses the issue of badania artystyczne (BA; literal translation: artistic research) in the field of performing arts, with a particular emphasis on movement, dance, and choreographic practices, and set in the Polish context. The authors aim to identify and describe examples of artistic research processes in the field defined above; to explore the specificity of BA practices and the contexts in which they are realized; to share tools, methods, and knowledge about them at the level of the BA practices themselves and of studies on BA. The paper is divided into five parts: 1) a definition of artistic research; 2) an auto-choreo-ethnographic reflection; 3) a spider-map of BA practices; 4) an in-depth analysis of three artistic research processes (I: Przyszłość Materii (The Future of Matter) by Magdalena Ptasznik; II: Badanie/Produkcja (Research/Production) curated by Maria Stokłosa; III: a continuum of practices by Ania Nowak); 5) ‘interlacing’ – a cross-sectional reflection. The structure of the narrative is based on two orders: a) a textual order – the main axis of the article; b) a graphics-mapping order – a complementary collection of visual-textual materials presented on the Research Catalogue platform.

 

Dorota Ogrodzka. Provocateurs of Experiences, Practitioners of Traps

This article is a self-analytical description of the work of the Laboratorium Teatralno-Społeczne (Social Theatre Laboratory), an artistic collective based in Warsaw. It mainly focuses on the Theatre’s audience/participant involvement strategies and their ways of constructing theatre experiences and telling stories in a participatory style. The author discusses examples of performances, performative actions, ways of creating the dramaturgy and the type of relationships that performers establish with the audience in the work of the Laboratorium Teatralno-Społeczne collective. At the same time, she examines what kinds of challenges are faced by groups and artists who declare their willingness to create participatory art. She seeks to propose interpretative notions for naming and describing these challenges.

 

 

LOCAL CULTURES

Ewa Bal. From Servitude to Cognitive Sovereignty. Research Perspectives on Contemporary Knowledge-Creative Practices of Local Cultures

In this paper, the author attempts to outline the cognitive benefits of studying contemporary knowledge-creative practices of local cultures. She perceives such practices as a response to the demands formulated within decolonial studies and the new humanities to remedy the epistemic injustice typical of the Western world. Beginning with Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s concept of epistemicide and its specific relevance to the Polish cultural context, the author shows how it can be opposed within the framework of various models of situated and relational cognitive practices developed within decolonial, feminist and performance studies. At the same time, she enquires what modifications must be made to these models in the context of Central and Eastern Europe to foster the development of humanities, both locally and in a broader global context. Analyzing the recent performances in the cultural milieu of Upper Silesia and Dąbrowa Basin, i.e., Teatr Śląski (Silesian Theatre) in Katowice, Teatr Korez (Korez Theatre) in Katowice, and Teatr Zagłębia (Zagłębie Theatre) in Sosnowiec, the author proposes her concepts of local knowledge, which she calls ethno-nostalgia and ethno-futurism. She treats them as examples of micro-utopias which can, firstly, have an apotropaic function in the face of contemporary challenges and, secondly, be an alternative to the various versions of ‘folk histories of Poland’ that are currently emerging, and thirdly, develop the idea of pluriversum put forth within decolonial studies. Furthermore, the paper presents the author’s future research agenda at the Laboratory for the Study of Knowledge-Creative Practices of Local Cultures that has been recently opened at the Jagiellonian University.

 

 INSTITUTIONAL CRITIQUE 

Marta Keil. Work Is Always Elsewhere: Instituent Practices and the International Performing Arts Field

The article, which is a revised and expanded version of a chapter of the doctoral dissertation Devising Institutions. Institutional practices in contemporary performing arts, applies institutional critique as a perspective for reflection on modes of production and distribution of the international performing arts circuit. Based on an analysis of hypermobility as the prevailing political condition among artists and artworkers active in this field, the text introduces the notion of situated instituent practices as a tool to reflect those artistic approaches that challenge the prevailing modes of production and distribution. The examples of works by Sarah Vanhee and Benjamin Verdonck are presented as a gesture of ‘active withdrawal’ from the dominating working modes and rhythms that opens up for a political potential of the process of ‘home making’.

Witold Mrozek. Ms Ula and Ms President. Censorship as a Mechanism of Local Theatrical Life; the Case of Ula Kijak’s ‘Nieskończona historia’ at Teatr Nowy in Zabrze

The article highlights an attempt at modifying the performance Nieskończona historia (Unfished Story) by Ula Kijak at the Teatr Nowy in Zabrze in 2012 – after a protest by some local Catholic and right-wing activists, and also by the sponsors of the theatre. Jerzy Makselon, the managing director of the theatre, tried to organize a special non-public performance of the play with the Mayor of the City as an expert in order to decide on the future of the performance. The author of the play, Artur Pałyga, declared that the Zabrze case is just the tip of the iceberg because the problem of censorship is very present in Polish theatre, and often generates conflicts between managers and local politicians on the one side and artists on the other side. However, the strategies of censorship and mechanism of power are usually not as apparent as in Zabrze. The research approach applied in the article combines institutional analysis, legal aspects and reflection upon the social significance of the artistic phenomena described.

 

HERSTORY

Agnieszka Wanicka. ‘They were devouring her with their eyes’. Some remarks on the Warsaw experience in the life and work of Helena Modrzejewska

This article concerns the Warsaw period in the life and work of Helena Modrzejewska. The years 1869-1876 are the least researched and described period in the entire career of this actress. The article refers to Zbigniew Raszewski’s essay ‘Modrzejewska-warszawianka’ (‘Modrzejewska the Varsavian’), debating the significance of the experience of the Krakow theatre in Modrzejewska’s work. In the light of a factual analysis, he presents the actress as a Drama Artist of Warsaw theatres, posing questions about the evaluation of the experience of working on the Warsaw stage in the context of her career. The methodological framework of the article is an attempt to see the principles of realistic idealism, i.e. the model style of the art of acting in the nineteenth century, not only in the actress’s stage performance, but also in social life and the iconographic material based on Jan Mieczkowski’s photographs.