Year of Kantor celebrated worldwide

An exhibition devoted to Kantor’s legacy opens at the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture in Edinburgh on 25 July. Arthur Watson, President of the Academy, told a press conference in Warsaw that it will document Kantor’s links with the Edinburgh Festival, where his Cricot-2 Theatre was invited by the Scottish artist and arts promoter Richard Demarco in the 1970s. It will feature, among others, a film version of the 1972 performance of ‘The Water Hen’, which was recently discovered in the Demarco Archives.

Another highlight of the Kantor Year is a major exhibition entitled ‘Tadeusz Kantor Machine: Theatre+happenings+performances+painting+other modes of production’ which will be held in Sao Paulo (18 August -14 November). Based on the artist’s ideas and manifestos, it will include a wide selection of Kantor’s paintings, drawings, installations and objects, as well as photos and films documenting his theatrical experiments and artistic activities. The event is organized jointly by the Warsaw-based Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the Museum of Art in Łódź and Servico Social do Comercio Sao Paulo, Brazil’s leading cultural institution.

The programme of the Kantor Year also includes an exhibition ‘Between structures’ in Edinburgh and Berlin, a symposium and workshop at the University of Kent, an exhibition of photos from Kantor’s productions in Rome and the exhibition ‘Homage to Kantor – Theatre of Death’ at the Kyoto City University Arts Gallery.

Cricot 2 Theatre, which was founded in 1955, first gained wide international reputation for its performances of plays by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) – ‘The Cuttlefish’ and ‘The Water Hen’. ‘Dead Class’, Kantor’s personal evocation of the past, premiered in 1975, proved an unprecedented success, with over 1, 500 performances in Poland and many countries. (mk/jh)