In my article, I examine the relationship between the documentary and performance. I focus special attention on Maciej Sobieszczański and Łukasz Ronduda’s film The Performer, which blurs the boundaries between film genres. Oskar Dawicki is a performer, and the protagonist of both a creative documentary and a feature film – this balancing on the borders of film genres and art is the focus of my reflections. The film’s authors took inspiration from the creative documentaries of Wojciech Wiszniewski and the plots of Grzegorz Królikiewicz, in which characters play themselves – in both cases, creative elements reveal the truth about each character. The most important aspect to me is the presence of the performer, which determines the form of the film and its reception. In my article I follow several themes which are key for understanding The Performer, among them the motif of disappearance and the relationship between the master and the disciple. I also deal with the problem of documenting performances – using the example of The Performer and the recording of Marina Abramović’s activities (Seven Easy Pieces by Marina Abramović, 2007). I also refer to the documentary film on Marina Abramović, The Artist Is Present, in which the performances recorded from 2010 go beyond the documentary formula.
PL
In my article, I examine the relationship between the documentary and performance. I focus special attention on Maciej Sobieszczański and Łukasz Ronduda’s film The Performer, which blurs the boundaries between film genres. Oskar Dawicki is a performer, and the protagonist of both a creative documentary and a feature film – this balancing on the borders of film genres and art is the focus of my reflections. The film’s authors took inspiration from the creative documentaries of Wojciech Wiszniewski and the plots of Grzegorz Królikiewicz, in which characters play themselves – in both cases, creative elements reveal the truth about each character. The most important aspect to me is the presence of the performer, which determines the form of the film and its reception. In my article I follow several themes which are key for understanding The Performer, among them the motif of disappearance and the relationship between the master and the disciple. I also deal with the problem of documenting performances – using the example of The Performer and the recording of Marina Abramović’s activities (Seven Easy Pieces by Marina Abramović, 2007). I also refer to the documentary film on Marina Abramović, The Artist Is Present, in which the performances recorded from 2010 go beyond the documentary formula.
The opinion refers to the legal problem of admissibility of holding remote Sejm sittings. Due to the epidemics of SAR-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-2 disease, the Standing Orders of the Sejm have been amended so as to enable holding Sejm, committee and subcommittee sittings with the use of electronic means of distance communication (Part IIIa of the Standing Orders of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland). New provisions are based on the so-called parallel modes model, which means that Deputies are free to make a choice to participate in the sittings in the debate hall or remotely. Deputies participating in the sitting in the debate hall and De- puties participating remotely have equal rights, particularly as regards taking the oor, submit- ting formal motions and voting. The model of the Sejm’s works included in the Constitution does not preclude such a formula of holding sittings. The requirement of Deputies’ “presence” during voting is ful lled not only in case of their physical presence, but also in case of voting via electronic means of distance communication.
The article explores the paradox of simultaneous coexistence in two worlds. It raises questions concerning Martin Heidegger’s notion of dwelling understood as constructing, building and managing both virtual and real spaces. The main thesis of the article is that it is impossible to reconcile the world of being with the virtual presence in the world of video games arising from human finitude: being toward death. The article also attempts at answering the question about the manner in which (in the framework of virtual dwelling) the narrative identity is constructed in games and about the role of imagination in media theatrics of game players’ activities.
The eponymous hero of this little-known play by Jean Anouilh is perceived by other protagonists as absent. Nevertheless, his presence is becoming more and more vivid with the development of the plot, which is illustrated by the analysis presented in the article. It shows the process in which the absent hero transforms into a character fully present in the text. The detailed analysis of the character’s presence in particular space-time dimensions, as well as the actant analysis prove that the main character pretends to be absent from the beginning of the play in order to achieve a definite goal.
The article is an analysis of the presence of Africans in France from ancient times to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Its main thesis is the claim that Africans were present in France in all historical periods and their role in French society was not marginal. The presence of the population of sub-Saharan Africa in Europe is much earlier than the slave trade and colonial conquest. The occupation by the Arabs of a big part of Europe in the eighth century took place with participation of African knights from sub-Saharan Africa. In the literature, the presence of Sub-Saharan Africa population in the history of France, was not present until the first decade of the twenty-first century. Among the recent publications one should pay attention to the collective book edited by Pascal Blanchard, La France noire, trois Siècles d'histoire des Noirs en France, published in 2011. The publication remains a major historical source with documents, photographs, newspaper clippings and iconography, that materialized the presence and undeniable merits of Africans in French history. However, official French history textbooks remain silent on the subject.
Our text presents the theoretical approach to the problems of body and technology in stage performance. The starting point is the status of the categories such as presence, ephemerality, immediacy of the (theatre) performance, radically undermined in the texts of performance studies scholars such as Rebecca Schneider, Amelia Jones or Philip Auslander. Utilizing examples of performances from young Polish theatre: Krzysztof Garbaczewski (b. 1983) and Radosław Rychcik (b. 1981), we juxtapose two functioning models of the body-technology relation on stage. The first – represented by Garbaczewski – is based on an understanding of the body as always mediated. It multiplies (undermines) the body's presence by use of audio-visual means. The second – Rychcik's case – is to push the theatrical presence of the body to the absolute maximum. In this case, the audio-visual layer is used to build a strong opposition to the actor's stage presence. The two examples are used to propose a new theoretical approach. We show that such stage phenomena are not only a sign of a (technological) reality shift, but also, a very important theoretical input in the understanding of theatre. We state that every single body on stage (no matter if consciously, as in Garbaczewski's case, or unconsciously as in the Rychcik's case) is already mediated and the use of technological tools is a way to play with this specific character of theatre corporeality. This broader perspective also incorporates elements of the political dimension of annexing media-mediated and media-manipulated corporeality, for it will follow the apparently transparent and natural dimension of such actions, whereby once again it will turn, as postulated by Jacques Rancière, aesthetic considerations into political considerations.
Gernot Böhme’s original proposal regarding an aesthetic as a philosophic theory of perceptual knowledge could, in our opinion, be usefully compared with certain aspects, historical-theoretical and methodological, of Gestalt psychology. From an historical point of view there is the attention commonly paid to the work of the 18th-century philosopher, Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, considered as an important precursor of the study of sensitive knowledge, while the subsequent basic themes of the perceptualcognitive approach, of the expressive qualities, of the distinction “physical reality /actual reality,” of the physiognomic problem, to cite but a few, recall nuclear questions, although perhaps not traditionally included in the “major canon”—to use a terminological proposal of Rocco Ronchi’s—of philosophy and specifically of experimental phenomenology.
Within the social sciences, some ways of understanding the concept of representation are particularly important. In my article I have chosen three of them: representation understood as a substitute (of the thing, of the fact, of the event); representation understood as the real presence of the absent; representation understood as the image of reality. Representation understood as a substitute of the absent can be analysed in relation to the problem of memory. Representation as the real presence of the absent introduces the problem of the objectivity of knowledge. Representation as the image of reality is closely associated with the problem of the narrative.
The question about a desirable relationship between theology and philosophy needs to be placed in a specific cultural context. Today, there are philosophies whose cooperation with theology brings tangible and unquestioned mutual fruits. On the other end of the spectrum there are proponents of philosophical systems that are quite remote from recognizing the articles of faith proclaimed by the Catholic Church, and from theological schools of thought that examine and explain them. Between these opposites there exists a vast area for a development, where one can find such types of a philosophical discourse, which, while trying to reach best possible correspondence with the present views of the world, resulting from a cultural absorption of scientific enquires, nevertheless remain opened to a religious thought. There are currents that propose potential solutions in defining practical tasks of theology concerned with the needs of a pastoral dialogue with the man being shaped by the contemporary civilisation. Therefore, it is worthwhile to cast a closer look at the anthropological descriptions of man as seen through the eyes of the contemporary philosophy, as well as examine the ways of the interpretation of the constitutive cultural texts, including the Bible, the latter being one of the most important sources of our knowledge about God and the most essential articles of the Christian faith. The place of the Bible in the culture, however, is submitted to changes. Taking up a dialogue with such philosophical systems that propose, for example, F. Ebner, J. Derrida, E. Levinas, E. Havelock or A. Gawroński – among other thinkers – we may see many problems concerning the function of the word and scripture as the intermediaries between God and man in quite a new light.
Jan Mukařovský (1891-1975) is a character who does not need to be introduced to Polish humanists. Recognized as a leading representative of structuralism, the so-called Prague School has its place in the history of literary theory, as well as the entire school of thought. Most of Mukařovsky’s texts, as well as those by others from Prague, which we know today as articles in magazines or books, were given at the meetings of the Prague Linguistic Circle as lectures. The presence of Czech structuralism, including the work of Jan Mukařovský, is not a closed issue in Poland. In the article, we will trace the Polish presence of his texts from the 1940s to the latest translations by Aneta Daszuta, which also contain critical studies and those are Zamierzone i niezamierzone w sztuce (Warsaw 2014) and Studia semiologiczne (Warsaw 2017).
CS
Jan Mukařovský (1891-1975) je postava, kterou není třeba polským humanitním vědcům představovat. Uznávaný za předního představitele strukturalismu tzv. pražské školy má své místo v pracích o dějinách literární teorie, stejně jako celý směr. Většina Mukařovského textů, i jiných Pražanů, které dnes známe jako články v časopisech nebo knižní publikace, byla jako referáty přednesena na shromážděních Pražského lingvistického kroužku. Přítomnost českého strukturalismu, včetně prací Jana Mukařovského, v Polsku nepředstavuje uzavřenou otázku. V článku budeme sledovat polskou přítomnost jeho textů od 40. let 20. století po poslední překlady Anety Daszuty, které jsou vlastně kritickou edicí, jde o Zamierzone i niezamierzone w sztuce (Warszawa 2014) a Studia semiologiczne (Warszawa 2017).
PL
The subject of the analysis is the presence of Jan Mukarovsky’s texts in the field of Polish literary theory and aesthetics. The achievements of Czech structuralism, of which he was an outstanding representative, seem to be indisputable, since to this day they are a more or less conscious element of modern knowledge about literature. The Czech structuralism heritage still amazes and intrigues with its scale, and it undoubtedly continues to be a grateful object of research by Polish theoreticians and translators.
Hrabal often emphasizes that his work is firmly anchored in reality. He says that it is based either on what had happened to him, or what he had heard from other people and had identified with to such an extent that he merged in with it. This emphasis on the indivisible link between literature and real life is strongest in his later autobiographical and essayistic texts in which he writes directly about himself and not through narrators or literary characters as he did previously. In these texts he also thinks more systematically about what it means to be a writer, how he himself developed as a writer and what his objectives were in writing and in life in general. Characteristically, these texts cannot be reduced to what Hrabal says to us in them, as he frequently stylizes himself in various forms and makes use of a number of other typically literary techniques. What Hrabal writes about and how and why he keeps coming back to the problem of the relationship between literature and life is a sign of his efforts to come to terms with what is weighing him down. For him literature becomes a kind of adaptive strategy to deal with his chronic inability to be in the present moment.
Artykuł dotyczy problemu obecności – dostępności dla artysty i odbiorcy jego dzieł subiektywnej prawdy o świecie zapośredniczonej w języku – w rozumieniu zaproponowanym przez Zdzisława Łapińskiego, który dookreśla sens „obecności” za pomocą formuły „naturalny supranaturalizm” pochodzącej z książki Meyera Howarda Abramsa „Natural Supernaturalism. Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature”. Przywołane w artykule recenzje Josepha Hillisa Millera oraz Morse’a Peckhama zostały potraktowane jako punkt wyjścia do dalszej dyskusji na temat problemu obecności w polskiej literaturze modernistycznej w kontekście pytań o sekularyzację zachodniej tradycji teologicznej oraz o polityczne konsekwencje wyborów estetycznych.
EN
The paper refers to the problem of presence—accessibility of subjective truth about the world immersed in language to the artist and their works—in the meaning proposed by Zdzisław Łapiński, who disambiguates the sense of presence with the formula “natural supranaturalism,” adopted from Meyer Howard Abrams’ book “Natural Supernaturalism. Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature”. Rewievs by Joseph Hillis Miller and by Morse Peckham referred to in this paper are seen as a starting point to a further discussion about the problem of presence in Polish modernist literature in the context of questions about secularisation of Western theological tradition and about political consequences of aesthetic choices.
The article discusses human subjectivity from the perspective of Christian personalism. There are three complementary respects in which human subjectivity is examined: (1) its main source which is God, (2) its place of actualization which is the encounter of persons, and (3) its way of implementation which is the love of persons. Integrally understood, human subjectivity appears as a key parameter which facilitates properly shaping the individual development and social relationships of persons.
The presented article deals with the biblical expression “spirit of Wisdom” (cf. Wis 7:7) and examines its relation to the figure of The Holy Spirit as revealed definitively in the New Testament. After a short presentation of the relation between spirit and wisdom in the Old Testament, we analyze some aspects of wisdom’s activity, based on the text of Wis 7-9, and then compare those characteristics with selected passages from the New Testament, showing the activity of the Holy Spirit. The article presents some analogies and similarities between these two realities, wisdom and the Holy Spirit. Both are depicted as a spiritual gift which guides people’s choices. The aspect of continuous presence is underlined, as well as the connection with joy and fulfillment of human life. These similarities seem to derive from the spiritual nature of both realities, their coming from the same source – from God, and from the historical contexts in which the book of Wisdom and the New Testament books were written.
PL
Artykuł zajmuje się biblijnym wyrażeniem „duch mądrości” (por. Mdr 7,7) i bada jego relację do osoby Ducha Świętego, ostatecznie objawionego w Nowym Testamencie. Po krótkiej prezentacji relacji między duchem a mądrością w Starym Testamencie zostaną przeanalizowane niektóre aspekty działania mądrości na podstawie tekstów z Mdr 7-9, które będą następnie zestawione z wybranymi fragmentami z Nowego Testamentu, ukazującymi działanie Ducha Świętego. Artykuł prezentuje analogie i podobieństwa w działaniu tych dwóch rzeczywistości. Zarówno mądrość, jak i Duch Święty są ukazywani jako duchowy dar, który kieruje wyborami człowieka. Podkreśla się aspekt ich ciągłej obecności w życiu wierzącego, a także ścisły związek z radością i osiągnięciem życiowego spełnienia. Te analogie wydają się wynikać z duchowej natury obu rzeczywistości, pochodzenia z tego samego źródła – od Boga – oraz z kontekstu historycznego, w którym powstają – Księga Mądrości oraz teksty nowotestamentowe.
“From image to voice” is a metaphor of the artistic biography of Mira Rosenthal, the translator of two poetic books by Tomasz Różycki: The Forgotten Keys (2007) and Colonies (2013). Through an analysis of translations and self-commentaries by Rosenthal, the author of the article also indicates the possibility of completing the traditional conception of “implied author’s/ translator’s image” with the concept of “voice”, taking into account non-semantic aspects of a translated text, especially those connected with its sonic structure (the inspiration for such an approach may be found in H. U. Gumbrecht’s works). “Voice” is understood as something more than just a textual representation, an image or a semantic figure of the extratextual creator – it is a material, somatic presence of the translator in the poem.
PL
„Od obrazu do głosu” to metafora twórczej biografii Miry Rosenthal, tłumaczki dwóch tomów poezji Tomasza Różyckiego: The Forgotten Keys (2007) oraz Colonies (2013). Analizując przekłady i autokomentarze Rosenthal, autorka artykułu wskazuje również na możliwość dopełnienia tradycyjnej koncepcji wewnątrztekstowego „obrazu autora/tłumacza” pojęciem „głosu”, uwzględniającym pozasemantyczne aspekty dzieła tłumaczonego, związane zwłaszcza z organizacją brzmieniową (inspiracji dla takiego ujęcia dostarczają pisma Hansa Urlicha Gumbrechta). „Głos” jest rozumiany jako coś więcej niż tekstowa reprezentacja, wyobrażenie, figura semantyczna pozatekstowego twórcy – jest materialną, cielesną obecnością tłumacza w przekładanym dziele poetyckim.
The paper discusses the benefits of conceptualizing correspondence as an interpoetic medium. It presents an analysis of textual and visual ways of constructing the presence of the addressee and the sender in letters, and the disruption of constructing this presence caused by interrupting the writing process by a phone call. The paper indicates the fictionalizing role of the addressee and the sender as the condition for creating the “virtual reality” of a letter. It presents basic figures and topoi for acknowledging the presence in correspondence based on the collections of correspondence between: Wisława Szymborska and Kornel Filipowicz, Maria Pawlikowka-Jasnorzewska and Stefan Jasnorzewski, Stanisław Barańczak and Lech Dymarski, and Zofia and Kazimierz Moczarscy.
PL
Artykuł omawia korzyści płynące z konceptualizacji korespondencji jako medium interpoetyckiego. Analizuje tekstowe i wizualne sposoby uobecniania adresata i nadawcy w listach oraz ich zakłócenia powodowane przerwaniem pisania listu przez rozmowę telefoniczną. Wskazuje na rolę fikcjonalizacji odbiorcy i nadawcy jako warunku wytworzenia „wirtualnej rzeczywistości” listu. Przedstawia podstawowe figury i toposy uobecniania w korespondencji na podstawie zbiorów korespondencji: Wisławy Szymborskiej i Kornela Filipowicza, Marii Pawlikowskiej-Jasnorzewskiej i Stefana Jasnorzewskiego, Stanisława Barańczaka i Lecha Dymarskiego oraz Zofii i Kazimierza Moczarskich.
This article is devoted to intratextual, auto-intertextual, and intertextual research on rhetorical figures of literary repetition from the perspective of the 'emotional turn' in contemporary literary studies, based chiefly on the research of Gernot Böhme (b. 1937) and of Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (b. 1948). A key concept of repetition here is textual strategy, how to evince the latent, concealed, and elusive elements of the text. The staarting point of the text consists not only in the latent phenomenon of atmosphere as a phenomenon of perception, but also, indeed in particular, in the question of the production of the atmospheres of the means of poetic language (the 'textual atmosphere' aspect), the question of the reproduction or quotation of the textual atmosphere (the 'intertextual atmospheres' aspect), and the question of 'intermedia migration' of atmospheres amongst the spheres of music and literature (the 'intermedia atmosphere' aspect). The article seeks to demontrate the operative potential of the proposed concepts first in an analytical part, which considers research on one 'atmospheric' verse from the poem 'Homesick Blues' by Langston Hughes (1902-1967) and its individual repetitions in the lyric verse of Ivan Blatný (1919-1990), Josef Kainar (1917-1971), and Miroslav Holub (1923-1998). The last part of the article focuses on problems of repetition as seen by adherents of structuralism and deconstruction, and proposes to understand repetition more broadly as oscillation not only between the poles of iterativity and iterability, but also between sense (Sinn) and presence (Präsenz).
During the last two decades the People’s Republic of China has been extensively developing its naval forces. The fleet characteristic for the Mao Zedong era – which consists of very numerous, but de facto deprived of serious combat capabilities, small ships and craft, has definitely become a thing of the past, as well as the strategic concept that the navy will lead a „people war” on coastal waters. Currently, the Middle Kingdom is evidently building an „anti-access fleet” whose main task is to deprive the potential opponent (US Navy is being deployed) of the possibility of effective operation in the northwestern part of the Pacific (primarily within the so-called „first chain of islands” from the northern Borneo, through Taiwan and Okinawa, to the southern island of Japanese „mainland”, or Kyushu). In addition to expanding its naval forces, Beijing is not limited to the waters adjacent to the Chinese coasts. In January 2009, Beijing, making great use of the pretext of threats posed to Chinese ships and sailors by Somali pirates, began maintaining a team of ships in the western Indian Ocean. The Middle Kingdom decided to take a substantially different course: in January 2016 it was announced that China would build an „installation of logistic support” in Djibouti. The paper discusses a wide spectrum of consequences of this decision.
PL
Chińska Republika Ludowa od co najmniej dwóch dziesięcioleci intensywnie rozwija swoje siły morskie. Charakterystyczny dla epoki Mao Zedonga obraz floty składającej się z bardzo licznych, ale de facto pozbawionych większych możliwości bojowych zespołów lekkich okrętów odszedł zdecydowanie w przeszłość, podobnie jak strategiczna koncepcja zakładająca prowadzenie przez marynarkę „wojny ludowej” na wodach przybrzeżnych. Obecnie Państwo Środka buduje ewidentnie „flotę antydostępową”, której zasadniczym zadaniem jest odebranie potencjalnemu przeciwnikowi (w tej roli obsadzana jest US Navy) możliwości skutecznego działania w północno-zachodniej części Pacyfiku, przede wszystkim w obrębie „pierwszego łańcucha wysp” (od północnego Borneo, przez Tajwan i Okinawę, do południowej wyspy japońskiego „mainlandu”, czyli Kiusiu). Rozbudowując swoje siły morskie, Pekin nie ogranicza się bynajmniej do wód przylegających do chińskich wybrzeży. W styczniu 2009 r., nader udatnie wykorzystując pretekst zagrożenia stwarzanego dla chińskich statków przez piratów somalijskich, Pekin rozpoczął utrzymywanie zespołu okrętów w zachodniej części Oceanu Indyjskiego. Państwo Środka zdecydowało się więc na przyjęcie zasadniczo innego kursu – w styczniu 2016 r. ogłoszono, że Chiny zbudują „instalację wsparcia logistycznego” w Dżibuti. Tekst omawia szerokie spectrum następstw tej decyzji.
Gernot Böhme defines meditation as achieving specific states of consciousness by concentration and “switching off” the attention usually paid to diverse areas of everyday life. Böhme goes on to discuss what he considers to be the main meditation-generated forms of consciousness, like non-intentional consciousness, empty consciousness (a stand-by state in anticipation of contentual fulfillment), consciousness of presence (e.g. of one’s own bodily presence in the here-and-now), the awareness of nonduality (the fading of all contradictions, e.g. between the object and subject), and self-awareness, which extends beyond the normal sense of identity and reveals the hidden, unconscious dimensions of the deeper self (Yi in Oriental meditation). Böhme anchors these reflections in his philosophical critique of today’s reified consumerism and postulates the inclusion of this inquiry path in classical epistemological analysis.
This paper focuses on the close examination of the notions of presence, participation, and time in the conceptual art of On Kawara, in which the rhetorical figure of art works through the spacing of time. In this way, this conceptual art becomes a symbol of absolute creation — the creation of time and the participation in the eternal present, according to Jean-Luc Nancy’s essay: The Technique of the Present: On On Kawara. Moreover, On Kawara’s paintings explore the theme of being and are structured around Martin Heidegger’s concept of “throwness” in the world, as they convey the sense of being carried along by the events and the impetus of the world. The materiality of the loneliness of the self, which is crucial for this artistic project, is considered with reference to Emmanuel Levinas’s thought and Samuel Beckett’s …but the clouds…
PL
Rozważania zawarte w artykule dotyczą pogłębionej analizy problematyki teraźniejszości, partycypacji i czasowości w kontekście sztuki konceptualnej On Kawary. Mamy w niej do czynienia ze swoistym „otwieraniem czasu” poprzez „rozsuwanie”. W twórczości artysty retoryczna figura sztuki uwidacznia się poprzez wymierzanie czasu. Sztuka konceptualna staje się w tym przypadku symbolem kreacji absolutnej – czasu i partycypacji w nieskończonej teraźniejszości, w nawiązaniu do eseju Jean-Luca Nancy’ego The Technique of the Present On On Kawara. Malarstwo On Kawary dotyka również problemu Heidegerrowskiego bycia i rzucenia-w-świat, uczestnictwa w jego wydarzeniach i ruchu. Materialność samotności “ja”, kluczowa dla opisywanego projektu artystycznego, rozważana jest także w odniesieniu do myśli Emmanuela Levinasa i dramatu Samuela Becketta … jak obłoki….
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