FÜR ALLE, DIE BÜCHER LIEBEN
von Hanna Wroblewska
Kunsthalle Wien, 2006
Hardcover
€35,55
(inkl. MwSt.)
Kurzbeschreibung: Kantor envisioned a theatre that would not repeat reality, not attempt to represent, but rather an anti-illusionistic theatre that would penetrate the deeper layers of human existence and delve into the everyday existence: into the trash of society. The actors empty themselves completely of their individual qualities and act as automatons, puppets and projection screens for rhetorical, almost archetypal figures and procedures. Kantor is considered a brilliant, ecstatic figure, a demiurge of the world of theatre, and a profound but also speculative thinker who touched on countless themes confronted by artists: What role does the artist play? What do artists transport? Is the reality that they produce of social or general human relevance? The attempt to bring this loved and hated 'father figure' together with younger artists was seen as a provocation by some critics and in part by the artists themselves. Yet this unusual mesalliance itself was not thought of as a provocation: rather, we intended a fruitful, if not explosive, juxtaposition of different artist personalities: Kantor, a theatre-maker who through his happenings and painting certainly crossed borders, borders also crossed by Althamer, Kozyra, Zmijewski and Kusmirowski - the borders between art and life. "One does not view a play in the same way that one sees a picture to gain aesthetic feelings: [those] are experienced directly. I feel only a great responsibility to the time in which I live and to the people living around me." This Kantor's statement can also apply to the sociographic approaches of young artists today: Zmijewski's merciless view of the depraved in our society, Kozyra's unsparing expose and the metamorphoses that speak through her person, Althamer's exploration of others' levels of consciousness and his observations of the obscured mechanisms of power that are at the base of our social interactions, and Kusmirowski's meticulous studies of reality - in its manifestation as original or copy.
