*An InstitutionalOpera inThree Acts

S P O K E N E X

H I B I T I O N S *

C O N T E N T S

S P O K E N E X H I B I T I O N S

5TOOLS FOR PROVOKING ART AND OTHER POLISH TALES

Sebastian Cichocki

25IF YOU CAN’T BUILD IT, BLOW IT UP

Grzegorz Piątek & Jarosław Trybuś

35THE TAPE NEVER LIES

Michał Libera

5

S e b a s t i a n C i c h o c k i

T O O L S F O R

P R O V O K I N G A R T A N D O T H E R P O

L I S H TA L E S

C a s t :

S o u n d t r a c k : Wojciech Kucharczyk

O . H . (A R C H I T E C T )

T . M . (A RT I S T )

J . Ś . (A RT I S T ) P. P. (A RT I S T )

D . J . ( J O U R N A L I S T )

S . C . (C U R AT O R)

J . L . (H I P N O T I S T )

S C E N E I

Slide with following text: Backdrop reveals the action The entire scene is played via a tape recorder. The tape is partly damaged, and elements of the conversation are un-clear or completely inaudible. In the first few seconds, the mi-crophone is positioned too far from the speakers’s lips – only the noise from the helicopter cabin can be heard.

…so this is where your museum is going to be? Our museum, the museum of our team. It will rise up as

an expression of solidarity with a nation touched by tragedy. Look, it will be right there, not far from the mosque. On the hill, on the outskirts of the city. A wonderful spot. You see, evidence of the earthquake is everywhere, but the city is coming back to life. The museum will be a new symbol of the new city. Can you imagine a better proof of its immortality!

Could you clarify why this building is so unique, why it is so different from other new centres of modern art?

The museum we are proposing will be assembled and disas-sembled, like a row of parasols visible above the hill. At times it will be visible on top of the hill, and at other times it will not be visible at all. The museum will only exist intermittently, becoming a background for exhibi-ted events. It will be the same backdrop as the sky, a cliff, a wall of forest, and possibly even like a screen in a travelling cinema.

6

C I C H O C K I

How is it supposed to actually look?We have proposed dividing the building up into two sec-

tions: in the first section, which is not particularly im-portant for us right now, there would be a permanent exhibition, while the second section, the larger part of the building, would support the emergence of art that doesn’t yet exist! And here I see a great opportunity for the future museum models, with one section posessing a conventional structure, based on Euclidean geometry, the other, a quintessential modern art museum. The new museum will also have an additional, situational dimen-sion – existing in contrast to the idealistic expression of the static form of the mosque situated on the same hill.

In what way will this second part of the museum be so atypical, how is it going to be the “quintessence of modern art”?

The structure will be constantly evolving, controlled elec-tronically by the artist, starting from the underground warehouse in the figure of moving trapeze supports car-ried by circular telescopic…

A fragment of the tape is erased....and this open, modular structure ensures, even provokes

its own expansion. The museum and its specific form will only take shape once the exhibition is in place; af-terwards, unless there is a proposal for new art, the gal-lery “will go underground” and the dome of the mosque will dominate the hill once again until the time comes to seek new forms

7

T O O L S

S C E N E I I

Slide with following text: Time to consider physical matter

It seems as if words, the rocks, the earth and the sand, the gravestones and the waste from a slaughterhouse all create a language the syntax of which is ruled by cracks and ruptures. Look at any old word for a long enough time, and you will see how it opens up and changes into a series of errors, breaks down into ele-ments, each carrying a certain emptiness.

Might this be open to derision? I have always gone in for neglected but ‘living’ Polish city

suburbs instead of the corpse of Western Europe. To me, the West is one big heap of ruins. Its sentimen-tal affections for centuries’ old architectonic wrecks it condemns itself to an endless adoration of the rem-nants. I think that conceptual art, which operates en-tirely on the written word, is only half of the story. You have to attend to more than ideas. You have to attend to physical matter. There is no escape from physicality. And no escape from thought. These two things, I believe, are on a constant collision course. So we can say that my work is an artistic misfortune. A silent catastrophe of the mind and physical matter.

8

C I C H O C K I

S C E N E I I I

Empty Slide.

First telepathic session The selected person (one of the actors on stage or a member of the public) picks out one envelope from several dispersed on the table. The person opens the envelope, takes out the sheet of paper and tries to remember the sentences written on it. They sit down, close their eyes and try to telepathically convey the memorised information to the audience. The sentences con-tained within the envelopes are instructions for the execu-tion of performances and happenings by Polish artists in the 1960s and 1970s, the realisation of which have never been documented.

9

T O O L S

S C E N E I V

Slide with following text: New, open meanings Radio noise, changing frequencies, fragments of popular songs from the 1970s. A fragment of a radio programme can be heard. Voice on the radio:

…both artists hold that as a result of their actions, it will be elevated to a new, hitherto unknown level. We can treat their declaration literally. The rocket with cargo and a three-man crew will launch the day after tomorrow, Au-gust 14th, 1972. By October 1st, we can expect to find all the objects in orbit – five large-scale sculptures of steel, brass and titanium. This is an historic moment of celebra-tion for Polish technical ingenuity, as well as for the native tradition of the artistic avant-garde. As we can read in the most recent editions of the fine arts magazine Materiał we read that, 'there are artists, who dwell on telepathy or lies, such as the pseudo-avant-gardists from the United States, whereas our artists reach for the stars, hand in hand with scientists, workers, neighbours from the block'. The sculptures, which will be sent into earth’s orbit, weigh over four tonnes. The largest of them, entitled New Open Meanings is made of pipes welded together, covered in lay-ers of melted plastic, assembled during the artist-workers workshop in the Chorzow Steel Mill. It is reminiscent of the work of Adolph Menzel, well known to fans of pop-music for his cover of an album by the band Porosty. The

1 0

C I C H O C K I

sculptural form is reminiscent of the giraffe such as can be found in front of the entrance to the Gen. Jerzy Ziętek Park of Culture and Leisure in Chorzow. Even though this artistic action – the first exhibition of contemporary art in earth’s orbit – is garnering praise amongst artists and art lovers, there are also plenty of critics. One of our listeners stated, during yesterday’s phone interview with the duty editor, that if other artists pursued this idea, cosmic space would become a huge pile of trash, and that the famous steel giraffe will be a threat to the sputniks collecting data... Interference …will flaunt its ideas... Interference …of the American artist Walter de Maria with his congratulatory fax... Interference Noise Noise Noise …contextual and not conceptual… Noise.

1 1

T O O L S

S C E N E V Empty slide. Second telepathic session The next person (one of the actors on the stage or someone from the audience) chooses envelope from among a few left scattered on the table. They open it, take out the sheet of pa-per and try to memorise the words written down on it. They sit down, close their eyes and try to convey the memorised information to the audience telepathically.

1 2

C I C H O C K I

S C E N E V I

Slide with following text: Can we be understood with such a complicated message? Sounds of the forest, birdsong, the sound of a light breeze rus-tling the leaves. Summer. The noise of people wandering through the forest, branches breaking, dry wood cracking.

So, my dear colleague, please try to imagine what this mo-ment means. We have waited for this for so long. Tomor-row we will be sending our sculptures into space. Just like that! An intergalactic exhibition, such as has never been seen before!

You don’t even know how happy I am. The cosmos is on our side, it generates significance, just like that, all by itself.

But John, aren’t we getting too over-excited now? Will some meaning really be generated out there? And will it be generated all by itself? In that galactic silence?

There are no objects devoid of meaning and there is no meaning devoid of objects, I would say in such a solemn moment… Please forgive my pompous tone. But Peter, please excuse my childish enthusiasm about the fact that our exhibition will levitate so freely into the cosmos, making me truly proud! Let’s forget about all earthly limitations for a moment. We are simply protecting these unfortunate objects from oblivion; they will no longer be cursed, independent objects of aesthetic contemplation.

And what if someone does wish to contemplate them?

1 3

T O O L S

Who, the American or Soviet astronauts? I was thinking of somebody or something from another

galaxy, you know, from another civilization… Oh, please don’t bother your head with such ideas. The

reality that we are producing depends on our concept of reality, and our concept of reality depends on the concept of the reality that we produce...

You know, I dreamt for a while that we might reach an entirely new audience with our exhibition. That we would manage to reject the canons that always retain meanings that lose their significance. The question of whether our complex message can be understood...

Again, it does not have to be so convoluted. One and the same object can have different meanings and different codes; one and the same meaning can be ascribed to different objects. Full stop.

The birdsong gets louder, sounds of a forest in the summe. The men, wandering for some time, do not speak to each

other.

I think about what awaits us, what a challenge it is for every generation. I wonder what this rush means, what it will lead to? Do you think that the meanings that we are pro-ducing will fade away completely, lose their value?

If civilization continues to change as rapidly as at present, not even allowing time for a new meaning to solid-ify, it means just one thing for us: the ambiguity of

1 4

C I C H O C K I

objects of art. Today, perhaps everything is art? Yes, that is exactly what I meant. Everything can signify

art.But what about science and art, aren’t they destined for

each other? Peter, after all, we are not seeking solutions through science.

Science and art have the same difficulty in the face of the speed of change generated by modern civilization. I will tell you one more thing. The art that we wish to cultivate won’t have anything to do with science. For do you know what a scientist does with an object?

He studies it, describes it, analyses it, creates a hypothe-sis…

Maybe he does study it, maybe he does describe it, but in order to do this, first he has to immobilise the object. For after all, you can only give meaning to an immo-bile object. But our art appears to be outside the field of formal logic.

Sounds of the forest are now louder.

I carefully observe the decomposition of meanings; they collapse like dominoes. And do you know what? It doesn’t disturb me. Not in the least.

And why should it be disturbing? It is a constant process, the faster civilization changes, the faster that process progresses. I still dream of creating new, up-to-date

1 5

T O O L S

meanings for the objects that have lost their meaning. And in general, my dear colleague, we should think of our art as social practice. We shouldn’t be interested in generalities, or in the production of ready-made ob-jects. If the act of drinking a glass of water is to be art, the water has to be drunk in the right place, at the right time and in the right company.

1 6

C I C H O C K I

S C E N E V I I

Empty Slide. The third telepathic session The next person (one of the actors on stage or somebody from the audience) chooses one envelope from among a few enve-lopes scattered on the table. They open it, take out a sheet of paper and try to memorise the sentences written down on it. They sit down, close their eyes and try to convey the memo-rised information to the public telepathically.

1 7

T O O L S

S C E N E V I I I

Slide with following text: Down with the stabilisation of meanings! Deafening noise of the rocket launch. John and Peter shout to each other excitedly.

D’you know what? It has just occurred to me that we should seek at all costs to separate art from reality!

I entirely agree, especially as an independent object of aesthetic contemplation!

Down with the stabilisation of objects of art!Oh yes! And down with the stabilisation of meanings!

*

Sound of the steel sculptures levitating in space. Creaking, rattling, the knocking of the giraffe’s long, steel legs against the fuselage. Light banging of one sculpture against the other.

1 8

C I C H O C K I

S C E N E I X

Slide with following text: Art is unpredictable in its development The entire scene is played from a tape recorder. The constant hum of a helicopter can be heard in the background.

So we are dealing with what you call Visual-Stimulation Equipment?

Yes, it’s an example of VSE. I wanted the architecton-ic space to be created by the sculptor in real time. I dream of architectonic visual concerts. We don’t want to build a sarcophagus to art, we want to stimulate artists – to let them confront the challenges that this kinetic structure presents them with.

I understand that you are assuming that we could quite simply be out of ideas for new interesting artworks or exhibitions?

Yes, we may simply run out of good concepts and at the same time the art we house in existing museums may cease to have any meaning for us. That is likely.

And do you have any premonitions, or do you sometimes imagine how art might look in the future?

Art is unpredictable in its development. I would like to underline that today there is no way whatsoever of predicting how art will develop.

Then what is the role of newly-built museums, if we cannot anticipate what form it will take in the future? Maybe

1 9

T O O L S

it will turn out that in fact we do not need all these walls, ceilings, storage rooms. What do we need solid buildings for – when art dematerialises before our eyes, slips away, no doubt soon to resurface as some hypnotherapy session...

We have assumed that the role of a modern gallery or museum should be confronting what is not known in art. Not only exhibiting it, but also encouraging and provoking the birth of new art...

You mean in contrast to art which...…in contrast to art which represents possession, domina-

tion, disintegration. New art must, in turn, become like the building itself, which can be hidden under-ground at any time, the backdrop exposing the event - recognition, a bold creation, collective activity, aware-ness of the presence of other people, nature.

So what is the task and duty of an architect who wants to erect buildings for art?

The architect or artist should not create a finished work, but build a system and backdrop for manoeuvring and presenting such space to various users of those spaces. The task of the architect is to exhibit authentic events…

Excuse me for interrupting, but can you feel this turbu-lence? Is it normal?

Hold on tight, it happens.It’s worrying me. A lot.

2 0

C I C H O C K I

Please focus your attention on the backdrop, on the backdrop exhibiting the events! It will calm you down!!

The noise gets louder (the dictaphone falls to the ground).

Several seconds later, the recording breaks up.

2 1

T O O L S

S C E N E X

Slide with following text: There is no escape from physicalityThe sound of water dripping from the leaking ceiling, fall-ing onto the floor of the Museum of Modern Art in Skopje, designed by Wacław Kłyszewski, Jerzy Mokrzyński and Eu-geniusz Wierzbicki.

G r z e g o r z P i ą t e k & J a r o s ł a w Tr y b u ś

2 5

I F YO U

C A N ’ T B U I L D I T , B L O W I T

U P

C a s t :

A R C H I T E C T

1

W I T N E S SP R O S E C U T O R J U D G E

P O L I S H N E W S R E E L R E P O R T E R

S o u n d t r a c k : Radek Duda & Michał Ścibior

A R C H I T E C T

3

A R C H I T E C T

2

Darkness. Telegraph.

P R O S E C U T O R . They raised their hand against the State!

R E P O R T E R . Special precautions are being taken around the court building in Warsaw, the capital of the Republic of Poland today, pending the sentenc-ing in the sensational trial of the Black Square group. On 11 November, 1958, the group is alleged to have carried out an audacious attack during Independence Day celebrations. Its target was the Temple of Divine Providence, the main building of the Marshal Piłsudski governmental district.

Sound of an explosion.

Telegraph.

P R O S E C U T O R . As a result of the attack, the Car-dinal of Poland, Vice President, Minister of Foreign Affairs and his wife, the Ambassadors to France and Rumania and several dozen soldiers taking part in the parade, were killed. Hundreds of celebrating onloo-kers were injured.

R E P O R T E R . The Temple, a national votive to the re-gaining of independence, has been emerging with inter-ruptions, since 1939 and despite significant state contribu-tions, has still not been completed. The first deadline for

2 6

P I Ą T E K & T R Y B U Ś

its completion (1944) was not met. A R C H I T E C T 1 . For a long time we were only able to see the foundations and a model placed beside the building site. As early as the mid-1950s, the Left began to call for the government to abandon the formidable construction.

Telegraph.

P R O S E C U T O R . After several months of inquiry, members of the Black Square (CK) group were identi-fied as comprising, it turned out, of a few architects who had been associated since the 1920s with the avant-garde Left. The group, linked with the Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne movement, had long been suspected of inciting anti-establishment attitudes among students and the young generation of architects.

R E P O R T E R . Today they stand accused. P R O S E C U T O R . The Black Square’s particular hatred

was directed at representatives of a group of pro-es-tablishment architects, headed by Pniewski, who had designed, ironically, the Magistrates’ Court building where they await judgment today.

R E P O R T E R . Public opinion was particularly directed towards the facts presented by the witnesses called upon.

A long moment of silence.

2 7

I F Y O U C A N ' T

W I T N E S S . “The political sympathies of the members of the Black Square were diverse, but they were unified by their urban vision for Warsaw. At the same time, they were aware that the condition for implementing their extensive programme was the nationalisation of land. That was one of the reasons why some of them put their hopes in the Polish Workers’ Party estab-lished in 1942.”

P R O S E C U T O R . Who was inspiring Black Square's activities?

A R C H I T E C T 1 . Mrs Helena.

Murmurs in the audience, and the sound of cameras can be heard.

P R O S E C U T O R . Please could you repeat that.A R C H I T E C T 1 . Our activities were inspiried by Mrs

Helena Syrkus.J U D G E . Quiet please.P R O S E C U T O R . Were further attacks planned? A R C H I T E C T 1 . Yes. On the same day, a few hours

later, Piłsudski’s statue was to be blown up.

Lud gasps in the court room, followed by the sound of camera shutters once again.

R E P O R T E R . This was not the first time the statue by

2 8

P I Ą T E K & T R Y B U Ś

the Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrovic erected in the 1940s had been subject to acts of aggression by ex-treme Leftists.

A R C H I T E C T 1 . After the leadership of Black Square was identified and arrested, the younger generation of architects established a militant group, Little Square, which may be preparing further attacks.

Sound of an explosion.

A R C H I T E C T 2 . It is important, and historic, that the first Polish television viewers were able to see live coverage of the explosion and the collapse of the tem-ple to the Polish government’s pride.

R E P O R T E R . As a reminder to our viewers, the parade organised at the Forum outside the Temple of Divine Providence on the 40th anniversary of the resumption of independence was also the first live transmission broadcast by the 2-year-old Polish television. In addi-tion to 40,000 spectators on site, the fatal explosion in the Temple was also seen by twice as many viewers gathered around their television sets in homes and in schools, common rooms and parish houses prepared especially for the occasion.

A R C H I T E C T 3 . The idea of a desperate attack on the Temple came about when it transpired that in order to continue construction, the State had to withdraw funds for cheap council housing financed by English

2 9

I F Y O U C A N ' T

and American reconstruction loans after the War. Our objective was: “Ensuring optimum housing conditions and low rents.” Is that a crime? Nobody would listen to us! Gradually, we were edged out from governmental commissions and as we know, there are no others. Pri-vate commissions do exist, but they are either financed by the State Bank, or commissioned by the elite with strong ties to the government. At a certain moment we came to the conclusion: if we can’t build it, we’ll blow it up! My friend Le Corbusier always said: a town has to be built on sacred ground. So we are purifying it!

P R O S E C U T O R . The wretches standing before you, blinded by their desire to construct a new order on the ruins and fighting against the construction of the new showcase building, raised their hand against the State. That very same State that educated them and provided them with sustenance as academic teachers and architects of public buildings.

R E P O R T E R . The prosecutor proved that the ar-chitects from the Black Square wanted to threaten the political system of the republic. As evidence, he presented a letter discovered during a search of the accused Syrkus’s house: “The design is only a means to the ultimate end, and that is the construction. Construction, in the common sense of the word, means not only erecting new structures, but the systematic construction of a new physical and spir-itual environment, the building of new economic,

3 0

P I Ą T E K & T R Y B U Ś

social, demographic and physiographic conditions.”P R O S E C U T O R . The materials gathered show ir-

refutably, that the Black Square collaborated with the international architectonic CIAM, with the aim of damaging the unity of the Republic of Poland.

R E P O R T E R . Not surprisingly, their good friend, Le Corbusier, currently living in exile in Brazil, hurried to his comrades’ aid.

The contents of a typewritten telegram appears on the screen.

'Curitiba, 24 April 1960

It is with great anxiety that I have been following the trial of my honourable colleagues accused of terrorist acts. Those are acts of desperation and not of empty aggres-sion; these are voices of those fighting for a better world, rather than madmen overcome with a mania for power. On behalf of the international society of architects, I appeal to the President of the Republic to pardon my architect-colleagues, who have often expressed both their dedication to humanistic values as well as their devotion to the wellbeing of Polish society.

Le Corbusier'

Darkness.

3 1

I F Y O U C A N ' T

R E P O R T E R . The defendants have pleaded guilty to the charges.

A R C H I T E C T 3 . We wanted architecture to give people joy and to assure them a better life. The gov-ernment confiscated our modernistic form and filled it with smug, bourgeois, nationalist content. They turned the great idea of modernism not into a tool for modernising but into a petrification of the country, re-inforcing social inequality and cementing the hierarchy. It is ironic that the only public buildings expressing the modernist aspirations are a handful of cheap residen-tial districts constructed by cooperatives from foreign loans. Foreign loans, because national funds are being spent on an extravagant caprice in the form of temples, government and military buildings. Although ostensibly modern, they reinforce the old order and the imperial illusions of the thousands-strong elite. “And we need to raise better types of people, develop finer forms of social life, act together to create a new culture.”

P R O S E C U T O R . They raised their hand against the State!

A R C H I T E C T 2 . There was no other option for an architect with a social passion!

J U D G E . Such ingratitude will be punished and held up as an example!

Sound of an explosion.

3 2

P I Ą T E K & T R Y B U Ś

***T E M P L E O F D I V I N E P R O V I D E N C E

Construction designed by Bohdan Pniewski began in the summer of 1939. The Temple was to dominate the new governmental district in Warsaw. The II World War interrupted construction. However the plans for con-struction of the district were abandoned, the idea of the Temple was reanimated after the fall of communism. The construction, in an entirely new form and space, began again in 2002. Final date for completion of the Temple remains unknown.

B O H D A N P N I E W S K I

Continued to work as an architect after the War, creating buildings for the new, communist authorities, including the parliament, the National Opera, the National Bank of Poland and Polish Radio buildings. He died in Warsaw in 1965.

H E L E N A S Y R K U S

Worked in the Architecture & Urbanism Studio (PAU) set up by the German occupying powers during the War, and continued her studies in modern residential construction. After the War she took part in the work of the Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM), but as a theoretician and academic teacher, she sowed ideas of the social dimension of construction among the new genera-tion of architects. She died in Warsaw in 1982.

3 3

I F Y O U C A N ' T

3 5

C a s t :

M u s i c :

Oryginalne kompozycje: Patryk Zakrocki

Soundtrack: Patryk Zakrocki,

Michał Libera, Taśma nigdy nie kłamie

Existing compositions: Krzysztof Penderecki, Psalmus /

Morton Feldman, Intermission VI / Muta, Driphlith / Alvin Lucier, Voice / Luc Ferrari, Cycles des Souvenirs /

Rinus van Alebeek plays Luc Ferrari Cycles des Souvenirs / John Tilbury, Psalmus

T H E TA P E N E V E R

L I E S

M i c h a ł L i b e r a

N A R R AT O R EUGENIUSZ R . E D G A R W.

O V E R T U R E

E D G A R W. The sound device will operate more or less as follows: upon hearing the music directly, the sound engineer will be able to create music scores of the same piece, each score being slightly different to the others

3 6

L I B E R A

S C E N E I

N A R R AT O R . The music devicethat Edgar W. wrote about in 1936

is in short a destructive machine used for stealing memories

This device can be constructed from any materials but in fact does not require any materials

It can also be of any size and shape but in fact it does not require any size or shape

For convenience we call it the “counter-phonograph”

because it steals not when it is recording somebody’s sound but when it plays sound to somebody

It does not need any stylus or tinfoil Its only instrument is the careful and precise emission

of sound

And each time a sound is emitted It marks the beginning of the next crime story

3 7

T H E T A P E

S C E N E I I

E U G E N I U S Z R . At least this is how the famous Polish specialist of new trends in international law Włodzimierz S., which by this time was already mani-festing first symptoms of his madness, understood its function in 1970.

Not a gratuitous loan certainly not a non-disclosure and definitely not an omission

His arguments

Firstly the injured party could be the man to whom we refer today as “the greatest Polish composer”

Secondly the injured party is a certain theoretical abstrac-tion which some sociologists dare to refer to as “society”

The order of events

At the beginning of the year, the composer received a commission for a piece to be recorded on tape

Over the next few weeks composer de-votes himself to working on a sheet of paper the music score we are particularly interested

3 8

L I B E R A

that he called Psalmus

For a few early-spring weekends of that year at Malczewskiego street in Warsaw the composer, to-

gether with his friend a sound engineer Eugeniusz R. worked on recording

the music score onto tape

April 10th 1961 the premiere of the composition in Stockholm

From the day of the Swedish premiere neither the cre-

ators nor the recipients heard any other rendition of the Psalmus composition

furthermore no one had even seen the music score it was replaced with the tape recording which turned

out to be the perfect execution of the piece and is still considered to be the composition itself today

– as a music score which is its own rendition

3 9

T H E T A P E

E N T R ’A C T E I

E D G A R W. Even back in the 1920s, I decided to name my compositions “organised sound” and not so much as a “musician” myself but as someone “working with rhythms, frequencies and memory intensities” – on tape

4 0

L I B E R A

S C E N E I I I

E U G E N I U S Z R . You think nevertheless that Eugeniusz R.’s deed is classified incorrectly

no – he is not innocent on the contrary his guilt is beyond any doubt every

time we listen to Psalmus but not because he is in possession of the music score

When Eugeniusz R. enters the radio building you can see him speaking with the person who is

remembered in the history of that institution as a psychiatric nurse

you are sitting in the corner and reading his lips

So you can see him say this when they say I have the music score they mean I did

whatever I pleased with it but it cannot be the truth because I have never made

a single copy of it and I have never dared to show the original to anyone so whenever this madman says that the appropriation

of the score is my crime indeed he underestimate me

The truly perfect renditions recorded on tape have this advantage in addition to others

that you can hear every single hesitation of the composer so perfectly

4 1

T H E T A P E

that you could write entire music scores based on that or in fact that is not necessary now – because

they are substituted by the perfect recordings you can hear all the gestures of the composer in them: when his hand trembledwhen he drew a thicker line

when his attack on the fermata was a little exaggerated Our interpretation of Psalmus is a complete execution – it is the perfect one-to-one rendition so I don’t understand why anyone would want to look at a sheet of paper if they can look at the music score while listening to the tape recording You say that the music score comes out differently each time just like the rendition of any other piece of music which is always slightly different from the others so that each time something is still not right so that each time you feel robbed of the earlier version of the music score? Possibly

But I feel completely innocent here

4 2

L I B E R A

E N T R ’A C T E I I

E D G A R W. Our current notation will be insufficient Its new version will likely be seismographic If not the seismography of the buildings It will definitely be the seismography of the internal

hearing organs

4 3

T H E T A P E

S C E N E I V

E U G E N I U S Z R . Psalmus

Music score

Part one

4 4

L I B E R A

E N T R ’A C T E I I I

E D G A R W. Today we can finally reveal to the listener the streams of noise and the heterogenic diversity of masses and planes. What’s more, such acoustic arrangements would allow us to identify what I call “zones of intensity”. They would vary according to hue or colour or loudness.

4 5

T H E T A P E

S C E N E V

E U G E N I U S Z R . The same story

Year 1830

The stethoscope placed against the front upper right-hand side of the ribcage and under the right armpit detected a separate pectoriloquy and hum-ming when the patient coughed spoke or breathed

A wet rattling and loud sputtering could be heard coming from the same places the wheeze during the breaths was sufficiently clear in almost the entire ribcage with the exception of the bottom of the right lung and the top of the left lung

I gave the following diagnosis an expansive tuberculosis cavity in the entire upper section of the lung carrying a small quantity of liquid tumours particularly in the upper left and the lower right lung

This is one of the artistic realisations of first sound-art piece in the history of medicine prepared by René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec in 1816

the French doctor entitled it Stethoscope

4 6

L I B E R A

as befits a conceptual art piece it has no original and is very straightforward to reproduce with the instruc-tions for use

The climactic moment of execution – once again

I gave the following diagnosisan expansive tuberculosis cavityin the entire upper section of the lungcarrying a small quantity of liquidtumoursparticularly in the upper leftand the lower right lung

Is the patient’s reaction part of the work titled Stetho-scope?And what was he supposed to say when Laennec was leaving his house?

1830 a village outside Paris a beautiful spring morning May 4th to be precise a 46-year-old man a bakerin his primeis in the middle of preparing breakfasthe is the father of three childrenhe is a husband

4 7

T H E T A P E

In turn a series of the following phrases

“Please take off your shirt.”“I will place the stethoscope on your back.” “You will feel an unpleasant cold device.”“Don’t be afraid.”

Laennec is one of the founders of conceptual sound-art, therefore he understood

– that he himselfis not necessary in this performance

– that he can go outand leave the man with the stethoscopebeing sure of the next renditions of his work

– that the man will use the stethoscope to listen to his lungs every day

so that every day he will hear something different so that every day his memories of the sounds from May 4th 1830 will be erased

expansivetuberculosiscavity

Signed by: René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec

4 8

L I B E R A

E N T R ’A C T E I V

E D G A R W. When new instruments allow me to com-pose the music I imagine, it will contain a clearly de-tectable movement of masses of sound and chang-ing planes that will replace the linear counterpoint. When those masses of sound collide with one another, it will seem as though the phenomena of attraction and repulsion take place – which always takes places in every room, and probably what also goes on in every space, including in our bodies. Certain transforma-tions occurring on some planes will create the feeling that they are projected onto other planes, moving at different speeds and in different directions.

4 9

T H E T A P E

S C E N E V I

E U G E N I U S Z R . Year 2010

Again

The Dutch writer Philip M. enters a small flat in the paris suburb of Montreuil

Instead of a stethoscope, he has a microphoneand he tells the woman at once to sit on the sofa and not to be concerned by anythingshe will surviveshe must survive

The writer has come to her house to rob her

His score

You will sit here in silenceand I will listen to the music of your dead husbandand I will wander around the flat wherever I wishand I will do whatever I want to in itI will hold the microphone in my left hand and in my right – a small tape recorderI will listen to his composition from the first to the very last secondand then I will do with it as I want

5 0

L I B E R A

you will sit there calmlyholding in your arms that little book with the memo-ries of your husbandand when I say so - you will read it out loudso loud that I will be able to hear it from the furthest corner of your home Do you think that at this stage of the story, the abom-inable pleasure of Philip M, that is an act of sheer thievery, can be revealed

He intends to come to the woman's flatregularlywithout leaving any trace behindtorturing the woman

That isto reproduceto herhis ownrecordingof the recordingof herhusband

until any traces of hermemories

5 1

T H E T A P E

of the recordingsof her husbandwill vanish forever

5 2

L I B E R A

E N T R ’A C T E V

E D G A R W. There are, in fact, three dimensions in music: horizontality, verticality and dynamic rising or falling – tremulous movements of things that occur in the physical as well as the psychic reality – when you listen.

I will add the fourth: the projection of sound – the general feeling that sound promises no hope of return. It is a feeling close to that of a beam of light given off by a strong torch – that impression, perceived by the ear and by the eye, of a projection, travel in space. The fourth dimension will be particularly clear in the case of a seismographic recording device that I have in mind – the-counter-phonograph.

Composers will now be able, as never before, to fulfil orders coming from the inner ear of their imagina-tions.

5 3

T H E T A P E

C O D A

E U G E N I U S Z R . John T. knew Eugeniusz R. well – from Warsaw in the 1950s.

In 2009 he came to his defencebut probably only so that Eugeniusz R. did not lose on his own

In the courtroomin the middle of the hearing he was silentalthough he brought his own music score of Psalmus recorded on a short piece of magnetic tape

The final judgment did not give any credence to his interpretationSome say that it was he himself who buried the chance of defending his friendWhen he sat exhausted in the corridor, leaning against the wall and whispered to his friend from Warsaw

His words turned into the oscillation of the airand the oscillation of the air turned into the trembling of the wallsand the trembling of the walls turned into the oscil-lation the airand the oscillation of the air created changes in the

5 4

L I B E R A

functional potentialsand the changes in the functional potentials changed into the words heard by the judges

The connections between the originals and my ver-sions seemed spurious

Arbitrary

The publisher reserves that while some of the characters presented in the Spoken Exhibi-tions texts have real prototypes, all the situations, events and dialogues are merely

literary fiction. The selection of these individuals was due to respect for their artistic heritage and willingness of the creative dialogue. Therefore on their basis can not be

build an opinion about anyone's actions, attitudes and behaviors.

In their works the authors have used fragments of the following texts: Robert Ashley, Outside of Time. Ideas about Music, Köln 2009.

Paul Cummings, Interview with Robert Smithson for the Archives of American Art/Smithso-nian Institution (1972), in Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, edited by Jack Flam,

Berkeley/Los Angeles/London 1996.Peter Geoffrey Hall, Cities of tomorrow: an intellectual history of urban planning and design

in the twentieth century, Malden 2002.Niels Gutschow, Barbara Klain, Vernichtung und Utopie. Stadtplanung Warschau

1939-1945, Hamburg 1994.Oskar Hansen, Proces i sztuka (1966), tekst towarzyszący zgłoszeniu na konkurs ar-

chitektoniczny w Skopje. Jerzy Ludwiński, Sztuka w epoce postartystycznej (1970), in Sztuka w epoce postartysty-

cznej i inne teksty, edited by J. Kozłowski, Poznań/Wrocław 2009.Jan Świdziński, Sztuka jako sztuka kontekstualna, Warszawa 1977.

Edgar Varese, Wyzwolenie dźwięku, in Kultura dźwięku. Teksty o muzyce nowoczesnej, edited by Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner, Gdańsk 2010.

The publisher has made every effort to contact all copyright holders. If proper acknowl-edgement has not been made, we ask copyright holders to contac:

bec@funbec.eu

Spoken Exhibitions. An Institutional Opera in Three Acts*www.spokenexhibitions.pl

*live audio dramas devoted to forgotten, overlooked or mythologised chapters in the history of Polish culture during the 20th century. This non-existent exhibition gathers

fictions and myths, "phantom" works and unverifiable eyewitness accounts, all related to the never-realised 20th century music, architecture and artistic pieces.

26.08.2011 Brussels, Wiels Center, wiels.org | 09.10.2011 Moscow, Garage Center, garageccc.com | 10.11.2011 Madrid, Reina Sophia, www.museoreinasofia.es | 26.11.2011 London, Southbank Cen-tre, www.southbankcentre.co.uk | 02.12.2011 Berlin, Archive Kabinett, www. archivekabinett.org |

09.12.2011 Kyiv, Foundation Center for Contemporary Art, www.cca.kiev.ua

scriptwriters: Sebastian Cichocki, Grzegorz Piątek & Jarosław Trybuś, Michał Libera

soundtrack: Patryk Zakrocki, Radek Duda & Michał Ścibior, Wojciech Kucharczyk

graphic design: Jakub Jezierski, jakubjezierski.com

production: Fundacja Bęc Zmiana, Warsaw, www.funbec.eu

Project co-f inanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republ ic of Poland

partners: Polish Institute in Brussels; WIELS, Brussels; Polish Institute in Berlin; Archive Kabinett,

Berlin; Polish Institute in London, Southbank Centre, London; Polish Institute in Madrid; Museum Reina Sofia, Madrid; Polish Institute in Moscow; Garage Center for

Contemporary Art, Moscow; Polish Institute in Kiev; Foundation Center for Contempo-rary Art, Kiev; PAUCI Foundation, Warsaw

media partners: Flash Art Czech&Slovak, www.flashartonline.com;

Piktogram Magazine, www.piktogram.org; COGO, www.cogo-news.eu; The 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, www.4th.moscowbiennale.ru