through the absurd in the search for alternative normality

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SOMETHING OLD…
SOMETHING NEW…
SOMETHING BORROWED…
SOMETHING ORANGE
THROUGH THE ABSURD IN SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE NORMALITY
- A CASE STUDY OF ORANGE ALTERNATIVE’S HAPPENINGS -
INTRODUCTION
The definition proposed by Oxford English Dictionary contains the following
explanation for the meaning of absurd: ‘Out of harmony with reason or propriety;
incongruous, unreasonable, illogical. In modern use, esp. plainly opposed to reason, and
hence, ridiculous, silly.’ 1 Absurd, expressed in the idea of the possibility of the impossible,
and the hopeless but dedicated search for the ideal forms of independence of thought and
expression accompanied Poles through the partitions, World War I, and into the interwar
period. A note of absurd that accompanied Polish artists can be seen through the literature of
artists ranging from Juliusz Słowacki to the makings of Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński,
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Bruno Shultz, Wojciech Fangor, Zdzisław Beksiński, among
others. During Communism, this absurd was well expressed through the plays of Tadeusz
Różewicz and Sławomir Mrożek and filmic creations of Stanisław Bareja and Marek
Piwowski. 2
This mode of thinking was carefully cultivated within the Polish psyche for
generations of occupations. It resulted in creation of abstract wishes of homeland regaining an
almost anarchistic independence (for which one of the most common symbols was the
memory of the days of the Golden Era of the Polish kingdom, when one senator could dismiss
1
Simpson, J.A., Weiner, E.S.C., The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1989), p. 57,
2
For basic information and examples of their works, see appendix, p.42-45
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a law with a single vote – the famous liberum veto 3), and has grown into an unreachable ideal.
Throughout the years of struggle for freedom first in Romantic period and similarly in the 20th
century, national uprising has often been a priority for Poles. It was only after World War II,
that the Communist system imposed on Poland by the Soviet Union (in the post-war
conferences held in Yalta and Potsdam) brought these ‘Platonic’ dreams of greatness into an
area of revision. The very structured and controlled makeup of the Communist system and the
one-way philosophy was meant to direct Poles (used to personal individualistic values but
also with an ever strong sense of national belonging) to a single objective of following the
Party’s central planning. What was once believed, now has seemed to turn into a certain kind
of social schizophrenia, where normality, as seen through Socialist lenses was contradicted
with an ever-present, but blurred and confused by Communist mind game image of an ideal.
The particularities of the Polish psyche gave way to a very specific brand of
Communism that developed in Poland. The Polish romantic ideals were substituted with
Communist propagandistic notions of ‘independence’ and ‘equality’, which within four
decades turned to be a tiring reality of a man living in People’s Republic of Poland, fed with
propaganda of ideals that did not find its equivalent in the ‘real world’. The endless search for
an exit from social and psychological control led to a feeling of lost hope and certainty of
life’s meaninglessness. The life of Poland in the 1980s could be compared to the absurdist
plays such as Adamov’s Invasion or even Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. People felt that ‘the
quest for meaning in life is hopeless and that any search for a sense of direction is a waste of
time.’ 4
3
Liberum veto, from Latin means ‘free not to agree’, as according to Norman Davies in Heart of Europe: A
Short History of Poland (1984), it was ‘the right of any one man to reject the legislation of the Diet.’ It was
introduced by Prince Radziwiłł and voted legal in 1652 by the Polish Diet. This notion became a symbol of
Polish, almost anarchistic democracy.
4
‘Deciphering the Indecipherable’ in: Bert Kardullo & Robert Knopf, Theater of the Avant-Garde: 1890-1950, A
Critical Anthology (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2001), p.468
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Absurd, expressed artists such as Adamov and Beckett in the post-war existential
expression of the loss of values, however, has prolonged its stay in Poland much further,
making it a part of everyday reality. In Poland, the destruction of values never finished and,
under a totalitarian system, changed into their constant mutation. Therefore, it came natural,
almost inborn, for Polish artists to use absurd in their means of communication. As Martin
Esslin puts it, ‘While the absurdist writers of the West could abstract themselves from an
immediate political presence, the Central Europeans confronted an existential anguish
transmuted into the daily madness of living in an artificially distorted daily reality.’ 5
Overall, people in the 1980s’ Poland felt oppressed and tired by constant struggle with
the government of paradoxical values. The normality they experienced neither paralleled the
normality they were longing for nor the normality they were convinced to believe in by the
government. Life resembled a constant poker game, where the faces of reality did not
correspond with the status quo. The invasion of government into every aspect of life plunged
the absurdity of Polish paradox even deeper, constrained the free expression and fixated the
Poles in their schizophrenia. As Janine Wedel expresses it in her book Unplanned Society, in
1980s ‘“normal” had two meanings in Polish life: the way things are, and how things really
ought to be.’ 6 This schizophrenic search for freedom as well as the deformation and loss of
ideals can be well seen through literature of, earlier mentioned, Sławomir Mrożek, 7 who uses
‘deadpan irony to probe searchingly the incongruities of contemporary life. […] He believes
that humor immunizes against both the harshness of everyday life and the historic
reminiscences so full of bitter, tragic memories.’ 8
Esslin, Martin “Mrożek, Beckett, and The Theatre of the Absurd”, New Theatre Quarterly. vol. X (40), 1994.
p. 379
6
Janine Wedel, The Unplanned Society: Poland During and After Communism (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1992), p.16
7
Stanisław Mrożek is a Polish playwright and prosaist (born in 1930). To read ‘The Elephant’ – a short story by
Mrożek, which portrays the disintegration of ideals, see appendix, pp.46-47
8
M.K. Dziewanowski, Poland in the 20th century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977), p.240
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Through the disappointment with the status quo a strong opposition was born. An
independent Trade Union Solidarity9 formed soon to constitute one-third of the country’s
population, and together with the Church protested against the governmental tactics.
However, something was missing in this serious battle against the authorities, who, with a
poker face, managed to put all attempts of reform to naught. The peak of this game was a
declaration of martial law 10. Thousands of people were interrogated, arrested and interned.
Curfew was induced and food was rationed, among others. With a degrading economy hidden
within the cards, the government managed to cheat the people once again into a mindless
scare. An alternative, distant view at the system was necessary to show these people the
emptiness of the proclaimed ideals and expose them to the system’s ‘rules of the game’.
Orange Alternative, not willing to join this power-struggle, instead of joining as
another player in the game, decided to add a little humor. Bringing out a mirror into the poker
table, Major and his peers showed what this game really was about, and meddle with the
contestants.
Disagreeing with the government, but not keen on the fight on the side of the
structured makeup of the Opposition, a group of students with a leadership of Waldemar
Fydrych aka ‘Major’, have decided to take a different stance – an alternative road to freedom.
Picking ‘orange’ as their representative color, they tried to show that the reality lies outside of
the authoritarian, closely censored life of Communism (red) and structured, reactionary
Opposition of the Church and Solidarity (yellow stands for Catholic Church). They searched
for their way through spontaneous action that could draw inspiration from the surroundings,
but fought for completely new ideals and not the spent wishes of the past generations.
Solidarity in Polish: Solidarność, was a first self-governing independent trade union in a Communist state. It
was founded in September 1980 in the Gdańsk Shipyard, and originally led by Lech Wałęsa, who, in 1990
became the first president of independent post-Communist Poland.
10
Martial Law is a system of rules, which gives the controlling power to the military, usually imposed during
wars or occupations. In Poland martial law was declared by General Jaruzelski on December 13, 1981 and
lasted until July 22, 1983, and was a government’s attempt to crash the opposition. Series of restrictions were
imposed as well as thousands of arrests and internments of oppositionists took place.
9
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Overall, one might argue that the Communist rule in Poland resembled a poker game.
The authorities were experts in bluffing. To win the psychological battle they set up, it was
essential to stop taking their threats and promises seriously. The opposition, first expressed
through art, literature and theatre (developing its own form of language, where the meaning
was portrayed through metaphors and symbols that only Polish people were acquainted with
and so only they could understand) 11 constituted a worthy opponent, however, their actions
were always a response to the government’s game. A set of new ‘tricks’ had to be made to
surprise a rival and bring a game to another level – an alternative normality, where this time
the Party can be beaten by their own weapons.
In this essay I will examine the suppositions of Orange Alternative – an alternative
theater movement that developed in the midst of the absurdist chaos of decaying totalitarian
regime in Poland. My aim will be to portray how, through the synthesis of two paradoxical
normalities existing in contemporary Poland: the ideal and the real, “Major” exposed people
to an alternative normality which could potentially bring an end to the social schizophrenia as
well as brought smiles on the faces of tired, passer-by figures of decaying Communism. In
order to pursue my argument, I will first describe the socio-political circumstances of the
1980s Poland, exploring the aspects of social dissonance introduced by the Communist
government that led to social schizophrenia. Once the background has been laid, I will
describe what Orange Alternative movement was, its beginnings and suppositions. Following,
I will describe four chosen happenings that portray the way in which Orange Alternative has
decided to play the ‘Communist game’ and explain the ‘tricks’ that were used in order to
distance the spectators and make them look at the system with a fresh eye. Ultimately, I will
11
Aezopian language consists on formulating a discourse in a particular way so that its contents are suggested to
the reader in a secretive manner, indirectly, so that they could be interpreted in multiple ways, also through
filling in the meaning, decoding metaphors and allusions. This kind of language implies the use metaphors,
periphrases, and parabolas. Polish writers came to use this language under occupation, when means of
communication were censored. Aezopian language is also common in jokes, especially on the subject of the
oppressors.
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explore what circumstances and methods determined Orange Alternative’s success in the
struggle between the tricky faces of reality. I will conclude with an evaluation of the impact of
Orange Alternative on the 1980s society and an examination of its implications within the
transitioning society of decaying Communism in Poland.
CHAPTER I
POLAND IN THE 1980s: NEED FOR ALTERNATIVE NORMALITY?
In order to understand the notions brought up in this essay as well as follow the logic
of the argument, it is essential to comprehend the structures underlying the 1980s Polish
society. The life of the 80s, whether directly deriving from or as a result of opposition, was
dependent upon the Communist party, which, having to bring a compromise between Moscow
and the Poles, kept changing. Janine Wedel reflects on the process of development of
Communism in Polish reality:
Communism itself was in constant fluctuation. Each generation of change
gave rise to new policies and new rules, to attempted “renewal” and to
subsequent “crisis,” to which the weary nation was constantly forced to
respond, from the bitter Stalinist years, through the more enlightened but
still depressing decade and a half of First Party Secretary Władysław
Gomułka, to the euphoric expansion and consumer plenty of the 1970s
under First Party Secretary Edward Gierek. The economy’s sharp setbacks
toward the end of the decade and the overbearing “propaganda of success”
fueled an Opposition that forged links among the intelligentsia, workers and
peasants, groups that were previously separated, and this helped to foment
the Solidarity movement. 12
In the 1980s, following a series of worker’s strikes, an Independent Self-Governing
Trade Union Solidarity was formed, which, together with the Catholic Church formed the
main line of Opposition. In 1981, alarmed by the situation of massive protests and the
Opposition growing in strength, the government declared martial law, a ‘state of war’ against
12
Wedel, 1992, p.6-7
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its own people. Internments, arrests and interrogations of thousands of Solidarity members
took place. Solidarity, forced to go underground, kept expanding, culminating with over 10
million members.
The society, threatened by the terror of martial law (even after it has been lifted in
1983) was forced to join the schizophrenic system again. The same people, who were
involved in some kind of communist organization through fear of the system or due to
advantages that a membership in a certain organization offered, would join Solidarity feeling
the internal protest against the country politics. Not forgetting that almost 90% of
contemporary society in Poland declared to belong to the Catholic Church, which was
Communism’s permanent opponent. Overall, it could be said that people were involved in
many different realities, which reflected the mentioned dissonance of Polish normalities.
It could be said, as Mirosław Peczak noted, that ‘Contemporary life in Poland [was]
defined by a specific type of experience, which contains both fear of the elimination of
traditional values and a hope for change.’ 13 These feelings, without a possibility of
expression, became another reason for distress and resignation. The apathy and lack of
initiative was a cause of the dissonance existing between the gray and depressive reality,
which people had to live in and the Communist propaganda, which proclaimed with great
positivism that everything was at its best: economy, life standards, even the overall mood. The
Party preached economic stability, whilst people stood in the queues for basic products,
everyday, for hours, sometimes with no result. The Party assured of high life standards, whilst
people had one bedroom apartments to share with their whole families, not to mention the
troubles with attaining such delicacies as hygienic pads for women. The streets were filled
with newspapers, pamphlets and posters, whilst it was impossible to access toilet paper. And
Mirosław Pęczak & Anna Wieczorek, “The Orange Ones, The Street, and The Background”, Performing Arts
Journal, 13, no.2 (1991), p.50
13
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not forgetting the militia 14 - the Party’s apparatus, who proclaimed to keep the streets safe
from violence and crime, whilst it was the police that people feared the most.
And so, the ‘Poles developed an elaborate terminology to explain and to euphemize
the world of transactions that operate in the twilight between the society’s self-image of
dignity and the day-to-day imperatives of survival.’ 15 A certain kind of language of
terminology and imagery was developed in the minds of individuals and the society as a
whole that could be understood by contemporary Pole only. Films such as ‘Rejs’ (‘Reis’),
‘Hydrozagadka’ (‘Hydro-riddle’), ‘Kingsajz’ (‘King-size’) and ‘Miś’ (‘Teddy bear’), for
example, depict a world of absurd slogans, ideas and situations that someone detached from
the Polish reality would find almost impossible to read.
Bronisław Misztal defines two of the realities present in the 1980s in Poland and the
dissonance, which resulted as the clash between them. According to him, the ‘first world’ is a
product of ‘official communist propaganda. It is fake, full of empty symbols and meanings
and yet for the past forty years it was proclaimed the only valid state-licensed reality.’ 16 The
‘second world […] is the one which stems from everyday experience, where the socialist
values look much less gleaming, the gray reality negatively verifies every statement of the
official propaganda and where people learn the emptiness of signs and symbols displayed by
the ‘first [world].’ 17 His hypothesis is that ‘social life is split between two different worlds,
neither of them being able to provide the individual with a consisted vision of social reality.’ 18
I have supplied the following images to portray these two functions: the
propagandistic and the practical one, which, through its contrast explain the dissonance
between the two worlds explained by Misztal:
14
Militia or rather Civic Militia was a state police in Polish People’s Republic. It was created in 1944 by Soviet
authorities, replacing the pre-war police. As Poland gained its independence in 1990, the name turned back to
“police”, however Poles still use the two alternately.
15
Wedel, 1992, p.16
16
Bronislaw Misztal, ‘Between the State and Solidarity’: One Movement, Two Interpretations – the Orange
Alternative Movement in Poland, The British Journal of Sociology, 43, no.1 (1992), p.67
17
Misztal, 1992, p.67
18
Misztal, 1992, p.67
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Image 1 19
Image 2
Image 1 is a Socrealist propaganda poster of early communism portraying the
militiaman as an assurance of safety. Its inscription reads: Militiaman – your friend and
guardian. Image 2, on the other hand portrays the victims of the reality of militiamen, who
have no scruples in violating the basic human rights. ‘As the result of their contempt for the
common man, and their disregard for the law which they are supposed to uphold, the Militia
are widely regarded as the true enemies of society.’ 20 The dissonance portrayed between the
two pictures portrays the earlier mentioned gap between the values proclaimed by the Party
and its corresponding normality, where the ‘official talk of “socialist morality” rings very
hollow indeed.’ 21
The dissatisfaction with the government, at first manifested with full eagerness and
initiative, crippled by the martial law, became simply another unaccomplished dream. The
more reasons there were for popular dissatisfaction, the more Communist propaganda tried to
cover it up with made up celebrations and enthusiasm. ‘The socialist reality provides ample
possibilities for schizophrenic festivities: almost every profession has […] its ‘own’ day […]
not to mention longer celebrations which result either from the sad course of Polish history
such as the month of national remembrance, the day of fighter for freedom and peace […] or
19
For the list of images with explanations see appendix, pp.41
Davies, 1981, p. 617
21
Davies, 1981, p.617
20
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some early cultural policies of the socialist state […]. Finally, there is the pearl in the crown
of socialist surrealism: ‘Day of the Women’ (March 8), an absolutely meaningless
celebration.’ 22 Such ‘celebrations’ were an attempt to cover up the fact that there is nothing to
celebrate. However, people preferred to join them rather than to be accuse of ‘anti-patriotic’
attitude.
The dissonance between the enthusiasm of proclaimed values and the gray, hopeless
reality that people were faced with could be compared to the gap existing in the dissonance
between dreams and the waking state. The idealism of propaganda did not have its reflection
in the society. People were dumbfounded by the clash of opposing values and the dichotomy
of the two worlds that were supposed to run parallel, and there was no alternative to leave this
absurd. And so:
A generation of onlookers was bred, and the rank-and-file members became
involved in passive participation in the meaningless rituals created by the
[‘first world’]. This is the very segment of Polish society that became a
target for the Orange Alternative: the passive, the tired, the gray, the
mediocre passers-by who rush to get back home, burst into the stores to buy
anything whatsoever, try to avoid any confrontation with the militia. But if
they can’t, these same onlookers will participate in the ‘street politics. 23
Through humoristic approach, Orange Alternative aimed to pinpoint the alternative
way to the common experience of struggle between the government and the opposition. John
Wright quotes Mary Douglas in her claim that ‘A joke is a play upon form that affords an
opportunity for realizing that an accepted pattern has no necessity.’ 24 The bipolar reality of
1980s Poland, which led people into a certain kind of depression had to be fought with in a
form of active humor, which taken from the pages of absurd literature, could stimulate
activity among the spectator figures and turn them into a part of the spectacle that is life.
22
Misztal, 1992, p.65
Misztal, 1992., p.72
24
John Wright, Why is that so funny?: A Practical Exploration of Physical Comedy (London: Nick Hern Books,
2006), p.10
23
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CHAPTER II
THE DWARFS BEGIN…
Orange Alternative came to being as an artistic magazine circulating among the
students in Wrocław University during the strikes that were held in its establishments in 1981,
before the declaration of martial law. Its main emphasis lied on demarcating the surrealism
existing in contemporary Poland, which, as according to its editors, was a direct synthesis of
the dissonant values of the system and the society. The name of ‘Orange Alternative’ came
from the idea of a needed alternative between the Communist System and the Opposition. The
structure of both of these systems were rigid and did not permit a freedom of independent
action – the main factor responsible for change. The main prerogative of the magazine was to
increase awareness of the inseparability of the two notions: socialism and surrealism through
expanding on the idea of Socialist Realism. 25 For Socialist Realism, 26 demanding a close
adherence to the party’s doctrine, represented only one side in the dichotomous world of
Socialism. Socialist Surrealism, through portraying not only the party doctrines but also the
party’s reality was a synthesis of both: the ideals and their outcome.
‘Orange Alternative’ continued to be ‘published’ during martial law. However, a more
direct form of expression of surrealism found its place soon after martial law was declared.
Namely, thousands of people started inscribing anti-government slogans on the walls of the
buildings in all Polish cities. Overnight, these slogans were painted over with multicoloured
paint. Major, one of the editors of ‘Orange Alternative’ and soon to become the initiator of
happenings, suddenly saw his vision in practice. He started painting dwarfs on top of the
stains.
Elżbieta Beszłej, ‘Phone interview with Waldemar Fydrych’ (London: April 2009) - unpublished
Socialist Realism is a style of realistic art. Its goal is to further and propagate the ideals of Socialism and
Communism.
25
26
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Image 3
Here is how he describes the beginning of dwarfs:
In 1981, right after the declaration of martial law, on the walls of the
Polish cities appeared a lot of inscriptions such as: “Long live Solidarity,”
“Away with Communism,”, […]. Those inscriptions quickly disappeared,
they were painted over 27. And so, multicolored stains were created on the
walls of the cities. I started to look at them, as a painter looks at fresh
canvas. An enlightenment came. I will draw dwarfs. In a short time, on the
walls of Wrocław, and soon on the walls of other cities one could see
colorful figures of dwarfs. 28
The dwarfs painted on the top of the stains which were covering up the antigovernment slogans, became a palpable synthesis of the reality of dissatisfaction and the
government of positive thoughts. They became a sort of dialectic painting, where the slogans
were seen as literal expression of dissatisfaction with the system, the stains covering up the
slogans were their specific anti-thesis expressed through abstract painting. The dwarfs were
the synthesis of those two. But why dwarfs? In my interview with Major, he explained that
dwarfs, with their positive, fairy-tale connotations were happy symbols. Apart from forming a
synthesis of slogans and stains, they also expressed an anti-thesis to the government’s tactic of
control through fear and the horrors of martial law. The authoritarian attempts to control the
society found its answer in the image of dwarfs: dwarfs will not accept threats, dwarfs are
27
28
By the police.
Gabriel Beszłej, ‘Interview with Waldemar Fydrych’ for: Libertas: independent underground newspaper
(Wrocław: 1988) – unpublished
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happy and will laugh. In this psychological war, it was the dwarfs who were winning, for he
who laughs is not afraid. 29
As the action of dwarf-painting spread around Poland, they acquired a specific,
political dimension. What was first meant to portray an artistic synthesis of abstract values of
the system became a political message, for in the 1980s Poland whatever was not ‘instructed’
by the Party, was considered to be forbidden. ‘Nothing [was] free and accessible except that
which [was] specifically prescribed.’ 30 And since painting dwarfs on the walls was for sure
not a government instruction, it became an anti-government demonstration. Soon, Major had
to face police interrogation. In Świnoujście 31, for example, together with a painting
companion, Wiesław Cupała, he was arrested and ‘forced to write an official declaration that
a dwarf was not a political symbol.’ 32 Overall, Major was arrested and interrogated many
times, on the basis that the dwarfs constitute a danger for the system. In an interview for
Libertas, Major recalls, having to parade with a bucket of paint, escorted by police, to the
nearest police station for a most surreal interrogation, which he describes as follows:
‘When we arrived at the police-station, the militia officer started to ask us
questions. Having told him that we draw dwarfs, he was clearly agitated. He
looked at the policemen, who brought us in. They silently nodded. To the
question: “what size were they?”, they took their hands off their machine
guns and indicated it with their hands. For the next question: “What color
were they?”, the answer was: “different colors”. We were released very
quickly.’ 33
In few months, the dwarfs become an integral part of Wrocław’s politics and a notion
symbolizing that the battle with Communism does not need to be its direct opposite, and as
serious and gray as Communism was. The dialectic painting became a sort of a systembreaker. Through mocking the practices of the apparatchiks within the police state (painting
29
Contemporary authorities have decided to commemorate the activity of Orange Alternative, placing figures of
dwarfs all around the city of Wrocław. To see some pictures of these figures, see appendix, p.48
30
Davies, 1981, p.593
31
Świnoujście is a city in North-Western Poland.
32
Tyszka, 1998, p.314
33
Gabriel Beszłej, Wrocław, 1988
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dwarfs on top of the stains through which the police was trying to cover up the popular
dissatisfaction expressed in slogans), they functioned as anti-rites, bringing a distant view on
the ways that society was submerged in. In his book On Humor, Simon Critchley brings up
Milan Kundera’s statement: ‘Someone’s hat falls on the coffin in a freshly dug grave, the
funeral loses its meaning and laughter is born.’ 34 A clear parallel can be made between the
funeral and the decaying Communist system, and so, the hat, that fell on top of the coffin
could be represented in the figure of a painted dwarf.
Soon, Major saw that painting wasn’t enough to spread around his idea and initiative
towards an alternative normality. He has decided to take action that would stimulate people’s
minds into reflecting upon the dissonance of the two worlds and the absurdity, which could be
dealt with. And so, Orange Alternative embarked upon creating a series of happenings that
were to delineate the contrast of symbols and their actual value through taking these symbols
and values and passing them ‘through a new net’ 35 – a different, distancing lense. For
previously enslaved minds cannot be simply “freed”, they have to be made free in a process
that involves transformation of political thought. 36
CHILDREN’S DAY – JUNE 1, 1987
Image 4
34
Milan Kundera in: Simon Critchley, On Humour (London; New York, Routledge, 2002), p.5
Hugo Ball, “Dada Manifesto”: read at public Dada soiree (Zurich: July 14, 1916)
36
Nicolas Rose, “Towards Critical Sociology of Freedom: An Inaugural Lecture” (London: Goldsmiths College,
5 May 1992)
35
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Children’s Day was one of the holidays imposed on Poland by Moscow. In the name
of international, or rather Inter-Soviet friendship, the authorities have designed for the states
within the Soviet Bloc to celebrate common, universal days, such as Children’s Day or
Women’s Day (described later). During this day many festivities were organized for children.
Schools prepared special activities for these occasions, which in most cases involved sport
competitions, reciting poems and other ‘patriotic’ activities.
It was Children’s Day that inspired Major to bring the dream of painted dwarfs into
life. On the 1st of June on the streets in the center of Wrocław hundreds of dwarfs suddenly
appeared. The dwarfs danced, sang, created pageants, organized auctions, sold “the magic
pencil”, “Cinderella’s shoe”. Militia decided to get involved in all this fun every now and
then. Its men arrested the dwarfs and placed them in police cars. ‘The situation turned absurd:
Militia was arresting dwarfs.’ 37 The only explanation children could get from their parents as
the reason for dwarf celebration ending with mass arrests would be that ‘Dwarfs belong to
capitalism and not socialism,’ 38 and therefore they are illegal.
This happening, as one of the first happenings of Orange Alternative, was treated by
the militia as one of many political demonstrations. The dwarfs were considered a threat to
the system. Overall, about 200 militiamen participated in this outburst of enthusiasm, and
arrested about 60 dwarfs. However, after a series of absurd interrogations, the dwarfs were
left to go home within 2 hours. 39
However silly the happening was, the gathering of hundreds of people as well as the
response of the militia became factors, that managed to undermine the system. Firstly, the
gathering took place without major repercussions to its members, what reduced population’s
fear imposed by martial law to participate in any kind of major non-communist event.
Gabriel Beszłej, Wrocław, 1988
Waldemar Fydrych, Żywoty Mężów Pomarańczowych (The Lives of Orange Men) (Wrocław; Warszawa:
Pomarańczowa Alternatywa, 2001); see the appendix p. 52 to see the complete dialogue.
39
Information from the interview with Waldemar Fydrych.
37
38
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Additionally, militia ridiculed itself through the mass arrests and interrogations of dwarfs.
Major’s often repeated reflection of militia’s behavior portrays this ridicule: ‘Can you treat a
police officer seriously, when he is asking you the question: “Why did you participate in an
illegal meeting of dwarfs?”’40
Through this form of a happening, the ‘first barrier between actors and spectators
[was] destroyed:’ 41 – all acted (including the militia), all were the protagonists in the action.
The passerbyes, that would try to get home from work without being noticed, where now
joining in the paegants and singing freely. Even the presence of the ‘radiculous’ militia did
not stand on the way to free expression. The spontaneous activity rediscovered an imaginative
response, redifining a power of the ‘child’s creativity’ that was restrained by the system of
strict rules. 42 People acted freely within a totalitarian state, and not as a response to a specific
governmental implemenation, but for the joy itself. This could be considered the first step into
the area of individual freedom.
THE EVE OF OCTOBER REVOLUTION – NOVEMBER 6, 1987
Image 5
Elzbieta Beszłej, London, 2009
Augusto Boal, Theater of the Oppressed, trans. A. and Maria-Odilia Leal McBride and Emily Fryer (London:
Pluto Press, 2000), p.ix
42
Clive Barker, “Games in Education and Theatre”: the function of play, and the dangers of institutionalization,
New Theatre Quarterly. vol. V (19), 1989. pp. 227-235, p.230
40
41
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November 1987 marked the 70th anniversary of October revolution. 43 Celebrated every
year in the Communist republics, it signified the unity of Communist states and victory of
socialism over the burgeoisie. Major celebrations were always planned for this occasion and
everyone was officially obliged to join in parades, speeches and the ‘overall joy of Bolshevik
victory.’ The ‘Orange Ones’ 44 decided to make this event trully joyous and even more
grandiose than it already was. For this the they drew from the Communist experience of
substituting religious holidays with the political ones. And so, just as Christmas and Easter
involves the celebration of the Eve, and so did the October Revolution. The government was
scheduled to have its fun on the 7th, and therefore, Orange Alternative came to act on the 6th.
The event, as informed in earlier distributed pamphlets 45, started at 16:00 pm on the
market square, on Świdnicka Street. The first thing to appear in the center square of the city
was the battleship Potemkin. 46 ‘The battleship was made out of cardboard, was 4 meters long,
and amounted to 4 members of the crew. It “sailed” from the technical bookstore and was
soon “torpedoed” from all over. Soon after the Cruiser Aurora 47 “sailed in” from the shop
nearby, and encountered the same fate.’ 48
The “torpedoing” was a ‘technical’ term used by Major to describe mitilia trying to get
the crew out of their ‘ships’ and transport them to police cars. But sailors resisted. In the
meantime many people dressed in red showed up. Soon, the police cars were all red from
within. Commends: ‘catch the red ones’ were heard. The crowd could not let the chance slip.
43
October Revolution succeeded in overthrowing the Russian Provisional Government. It took place on October
25, 1917 (according to the Julian calendar which corresponds to November 7, 1917 as according to the
Gregorian calendar) in Petersburg, as a part of the Russian Revolution. It was followed by the Russian Civil
War, which gave rise to Soviet Union.
44
A term to describe the members of Orange Alternative happenings used by Mirosław Pęczak and Anna
Wieczorek in their article “The Orange Ones, the Street, and the Background.’
45
To see the contents of the pamphlet for the ‘Eve of October Revolution’, see appendix, 53
46
Potemkin was a pre-dreadnought Russian battleship famous for the 1905 rebellion of the crew against the
exploitation of the Tsarist oppressive officers. It was later viewed as an initial step in the way to the 1917
Russian Revolution.
47
Aurora was a cruiser that was stationed it Saint Petersburg during the outburst of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
It was the blank shot from this cruiser that signaled the assault on the Winter Palace.
48
Gabriel Beszłej, Wrocław, 1988
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They started screaming: ‘Finally, they’re catching the red ones!’ Soon the crowds broke into
another scream: ‘Revolution, revolution…’ Sailors from the Kronstadt garnizon49 also
appeared, and so did Budyonny’s cavarly 50 in their famous hats with slogans: ‘We demand 8hour work days for the Voivodship’s Department of Internal Affairs.’ 51 Of course, an Angel
of the Revolution was also present with its red, cardboard wings. All of them were
accompanied by dwarfs and people with some kind of red garment, armed in forks and
spoons, which were sometimes used as musical instruments accompanying the overall
expressions of joy. People joined into pageants. The whole place resembled a carnival. 52
The happening abounded with symbols of revolution, which were officially celebrated
by Communists. Cruiser Aurora and the battleship Potemkin were ships most associated with
Bolshevik takeover, and Kronstadt garnizon with its long history of struggle against the
Tsarist regime was many-a-times brought up as an exemplary attitude of a true revolutionary.
However, when taken out of their Socialist context and presented during the Eve of the
Revolution, they acquired an additional meaning of a revolutionary stance in a new, nonregimented dimension. The sole fact that it was not a celebration of October Revolution but
rather the celebration of the Eve of October Revolution brought into the light the
circumstances, which accompanied the people in the pre-revolutionary period in Tsarist
Russia. These were scaringly comparable to the circumstances present in Poland in the 1980s.
Such were the disappointment felt towards the government as well as food shortages and
49
Kronstadt was one of the main centers for the events of Russian Revolution. First, in 1905-1906 and then
during the October Revolution. The city is also famous for the anti-Bolshevic uprising towards the end of
Russian Civil War in February and March of 1921.
50
Semyon Budyonny was a Soviet military commander. In 1918 he organized a Red Cavalry unit, which became
the 1st Cavalry Army. It played a very important role in Bolshevik’s win of the Civil War. In 1920 Budyonny’s
Cavalry took part in the invasion of Poland in the Polish-Soviet war. It was defeated in the Battle of Warsaw in
an event known commonly as ‘The Miracle by the Vistula River.’ Budyonny’s Cavalry was thus a paradoxical
symbol, for Soviet Union it was a symbol of Soviet force while for Poles it symbolized Russian defeat and
Polish independence.
51
Voivodship’s Department of Internal Affairs (Wojewódzki Urząd Spraw Wewnętrznych was a local structure
of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Polish People’s Republic, which existed between 1983-1990 and which was
liable to Civilian’s Militia and the Services of Protection (organization of secret police agents).
52
Gabriel Beszłej, Wrocław, 1988
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overall laxity. Additionally, the presence of Budyonny’s cavalry brought out the hypocrisy of
Polish-Soviet friendship through the contrasting connotations that this symbol had for both
sides.
The slogans demanding 8-hour work day for the Department of Internal Affairs
brought out an important dissonance: between what the Party promised and what the people
received. For one of the main Socialist prerogatives was to equalize everyone’s work day to a
neutral 8-hours. The slogan pointed out to the fact that the Secret Police (and so the constant
supervision of each member of society) worked 24 hours a day. Through fighting for equal
rights of the police, ‘Buddyony’s cavarly’ actually expressed the longing for freedom of
actions. Last, but not least, the presence of the Angel of the Revolution with its red wings
compared the Bolshevik revolution with the French revolution. Whilst the former resulted in a
creation of a highly censored police state, the latter’s creation was a precursor to the
Declaration of Human Rights 53 that paved a way for a democratic society of free thought. In
this way, all the symbols, which were used by the Party as a pictoreque socrealistic ideal were
demistyfied and profaned and so demystified the Socialist myth within Communist reality.
The authority forces were put in check as the celebration, although illegal, was held in
honor of the revolution that brought the Communist system through Russia to Poland. When
militiamen, as their usual duty, started arresting the members of the happening, they
unwillingly took on the role of the White Guards, 54 the Tsarist ‘militia’ that stood on the way
to Socialist utopian dreams. ‘The militia, by reacting to the happening, inevitably becomes its
active element. It assumes the role prescribed earlier in the plan of actions.’ 55 And so,
everyone became part of one action. Those protesting and those arresting were all a part of
53
‘Declaration of Human Rights’ is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 as
the reaction to the experience of Second World War. Its precursor was the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen’, a brainchild of French Revolution, which defines a set of individual and collective rights for all
men, including freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
54
White Guards were members of Tsarits army, guarding the Winter Palace during the Bolshevik takeover.
55
Pęczak & Wieczorek,1991, p.52
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one happening, just as Socialism intended; in a sort of anarchistic freedom of actions that
people were waiting for. And so, through saying “no”, the militia said “yes” to the common
joy of “acting out a revolution.” 56
Overall the Eve of October Revolution could pass as another carnivalesque
experience, of ‘bitterness which opens its laugh on all that which has been made consecrated
forgotten in our language in our brain in our habits.’ 57 By using and abusing the symbols of
communist propaganda it managed to create a new quality of expression , one that drew into
active participation both sides of the argument, creating a sort of absurd illustartion of the
reality. In contrast to the absurdist literature of figures such as Mrożek or Różewicz, the ‘use
of language idiom [was] avoided.’ 58 This created a sense of understanding between the
happeners and the passerbyes, for, through substituting words with symbols and actions, the
individual connotation and the collective denotation were synthesized. ‘Here there [was] no
denotation-connotation dichotomy.’ 59 The multiple meanings of the revolutoin became clear,
for instead of expression, Orange Alternative delved into the use of direct action.
WOMEN’S DAY – MARCH 8, 1988
Image 6
56
57
Hugo Ball, 1916
Boal, 2000, p.138
59
Boal, 2000, p.138
58
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Women’s Day was another inter-Soviet holiday. It was first introduced in 1948,
replacing a day of blessed Wincenty Kadlubek in Polish calendar. 60 In the Communist Poland,
women were expected to work the same jobs as men, and show initiative by exceeding norms
and records of superb production results. For this they were awarded a day (8th of March) in a
year, when they were given a flower (usually a carnation), which in most of the Communist
period they actually had to sign for at collection. In schools, girls usually received flowers
from their male colleagues, and the female teachers received flowers from their students as
well. In factories, ‘the portraits of women as work champions were hung on the walls’ 61
through February and March. Official ceremonies also took place in all the workplaces.
During the late 1980s the celebrations of Women’s Day were often disobeyed in the
symbolic gestures of protest against Communism. However, it was still a national,
‘obligatory’ holiday. It was possibly the holiday-in-debate nature of this day that prompted
Major to use it as an excuse for another happening. This time, he decided to face shortages of
hygienic pads, which were symbolic of the economic depression caused by the system’s
policies, and which defaced the fake but beautifully propagated care for women within
Communist states.
Inspired by the actions of the Dutch Provos 62, he placed his stool on one of the central
streets in Wrocław, and started handing out to the passer byes those highly desired products. 63
‘Nearby stood a large cardboard sign stating: “No to Pershings! 64 Yes to pads!”’ 65 This sign
might be a slight implication that the Cold War, just as it makes it hard to access pads, does
nothing to stop the overall blood-flow. By proclaiming his disagreement with the American
60
See Jagoda, Urban-Klaehn, ‘Women’s Day in Poland’ in Polishsite: Website about Polish culture, 2004
< http://www.polishsite.us/customs-and-religion/civic-celebrations/129-womens-day-in-poland.html>
61
Urban-Klaehn, 2004
62
Dutch Provos was a counter-culture, anarchistically-directed movement that developed in the mid 1960s. Its
members focused on provoking violent responses form authorities (ie. Through handing out food, clothes and
drugs)
63
He managed to obtain them through the underground networks of commerce.
64
American tanks used during the World War II and Cold War (ie. In the Korean War)
65
Gabriel Beszłej, Wrocław, 1988
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weapons, Major remained loyal to the official party line, but following the anti-American
statement expressed his opinion on the shortcomings of the system that prevailed on his side
of the Iron Curtain. 66
Another consumer product, which was in constant deficiency in 1980s was toilet
paper. Apart from a few happenings organized by Orange Alternative where this desired
delicacy was handed out, the ‘Orange Ones’ have decided to bring the issue of its shortage to
a public fore. During one of the Open Theatre Festivals in Wrocław, ‘The actors of two
theatre companies: one Russian, the other Slovak, performing at Świdnicka Street were
captured ceremonially. The “hostages”, along with a Polish Army Officer in uniform, all of
them tied up, were brought to the improvised public meeting and accused of causing the
shortages of toilet paper in Poland.’ 67
This happening passed almost unnoticed by the militia due to the fact that it took place
during a theatre festival and was (or rather was hoped to be) commonly perceived as one of its
‘attractions.’ This little ‘trick’, however, managed to dive into the roles of actors and
spectators within the system. The balance between dichotomous social spheres has been
wavered. The governmental tactic of finding a scapegoat to blame for any problems within the
country, was now turned around and brought into the hands of people. It was them, who could
now decide who to blame for the shortcomings of the system (although Slovaks and Russians
were simply symbolic in the absurd selection of scapegoats that the government has gone
through 68).
66
Though through his statement, he criticized American politics openly, it is for this happening that Major was
arrested for over three weeks. This, however, only arouse interest in his work from other artists (such as Brandys
and Wajda among others), who acted in his defense with an official letter directed to the authorities.
67
Pęczak & Wieczorek, 1991, p.54
68
Such was the hunt for Zionists in 1968, which according to Norman Davies (1981) has ‘proved frankly
puzzling to the mass of the populace who knew perfectly well that the only substantial number of Jews in Poland
were to be found in the higher ranks of the Party.’
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FREE JÓZEF PINIOR – JUNE 27, 1988
All the happenings staged by Orange Alternative contained a note of absurd,
surrealism and spontaneity. As a good example of all three of these characteristic for
alternative activity values, Waldemar Fydrych, in his interview for Libertas, points out
Orange Alternative’s happening which resulted a bit differently than planned. ‘On 27 June
Czesław Borowczyk and Józef Pinior were due to be tried in one of the Wrocław courts.’ 69
They were arrested for an attempt to bring forth a strike in one of Wrocław’s factories. A
week before the trial, a political protest was organized and banners with slogans such as: “We
demand the release of Józef Pinior,” ‘Free Borowczyk and Pinior’, ‘Join Wrocław to
Armenia’,‘Where is the Militia?’70 were made. Unexpectedly, though, Józef Pinior as well as
Czesław Borowczyk were released from arrest. The happening took place anyways. The
banners were not changed, and Józef Pinior was actually one of the main guest speakers of the
demonstration. 71
This absurd demonstration, was, a clear reflection of the system and the methods
implied by the government as well as society’s relationship to them. The action (in this case
the setting free of the two prisoners) took place, however, the protests, and demonstrations
continued. The happeners were fighting for imaginary freedom and principles that so well
portrayed the party’s tactic.
The incongruous mottos did not only concern Józef Pinior and Czesław Borowczyk.
Perhaps the most absurdly sounding one of this demonstration was ‘Join Wrocław to
Armenia.’ Its purpose was to mock Poland’s alleged desire to be part of the Soviet Union.
Poland/Wrocław wanted to be a part of Armenia (or any other country) just as much, meaning
– not at all.
69
Tyszka, 1998, p.322
Tyszka, 1998, p.322
71
Gabriel Beszłej, Wrocław, 1988
70
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Through this demonstrations, the ‘Orange Ones’ have declared that they have learned
the game of poker that the Party has been beating them in for decades and now they are going
to be in charge of the rules. The absurd represented in the slogans as well as in the situation of
Józef Pinior’s speech in defense of his own (already gained) ‘freedom’ could be said to
trespass the norms of reason. Augusto Boal argues, that ‘if we do not trespass […] we can
never be free. To free ourselves is to trespass, and to transform.’ 72
CHAPTER III
CREATING AN ALTERNATIVE NORMALITY
The overall destruction of Communism in Poland cannot be said to be owed to Orange
Alternative. It is the ‘serious opposition’ to the government that takes most of the credit for
the overthrow of the old system that took place in 1989. However, it might be argued that
Orange Alternative brought in an important spark which lit in people a new found hope. This
hope was not the wish for a new non-communist government, but rather for a happier, livable
normality, rid of dissonance between the ideals and the real world.
Orange Alternative managed to bring the Communist ‘rules of the game’ into light.
Distancing itself from Solidarity, the happeners managed to detach people’s perspective from
the pigeonholed world of the struggle between the government and the opposition that they
were living in. Their success resulted from the specific nature of the Polish psyche as well as
the circumstances that created a field, and moreover, implied a necessity for change of
mentality, which Major was able to spot out and employ. The happeners, under direction of
Major made use of the Polish ideals, and combined them together with Communist
propaganda and reality. This strange mix resulted in a form of an alternative normality,
72
Boal, 200, p.xx
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which, through its absurdity did not constitute a serious opponent to the system. However, it
lightened the overall mood and the relation of people towards the government that needed to
change in order for the old system of mental control to fall into pieces.
Orange Alternative developed in the atmosphere of a mind-controlling game of
Communism and decided to break its rules in the search of fun that would change this game
into a sort of a children’s play, one that ‘frees the spirit, [that] allows of no cares but those
fictitious ones engendered by the [play] itself. When the players commit themselves to the
rhythm and incident […], they opt out the ordinary world… It might even be argued that the
value of the [play …] depends on its inconsequences to daily life.’ 73
SOMETHING OLD… - POLISH IDEALS
One, very important factor of Polish psyche that Orange Alternative decided to play
with was the, mentioned earlier, Platonic ideal of individual freedom, that Communist system
managed to twist around and blur in favor of the collective. People dreamed of a freedom
which would let them declare a liberum veto, to have a voice in the decisions taken or simply
have a right to disagree. Instead, they were put together in labor unions and Party-sponsored
organizations and forced to ‘work collectively’. Any opposition was doomed to fail from the
roots. And even Solidarity, being an action against the common enemy – was born and grew
on Communist ideals. Having evolved from a trade union itself, its construct did not allow for
spontaneous action. Closed within ordered structures, it had a program that depended entirely
upon the Communist agenda (this proved very true after the government’s declaration of
martial law, that forced Solidarity to go underground). The Church, as well, always in
Opposition to the regime, however unable to battle it on its own, somehow adapted its
structures in order to survive. 74 This relationship and the co-dependence of Solidarity and the
73
74
Iona and Peter Opie in: Clive Barker, 1989, p.231
Elżbieta Beszłej, 2009
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Church with the Communist system is well portrayed through the following cartoon by
Andrzej Krauze:
Image 7
Orange Alternative, consisting of people, who brought together spontaneous and
individual approach, created a sphere, where one could act without having to ask for
permission earlier. Unplanned actions could take place. What is more, anyone could join or
leave at any point. There was no central planning, every happening was a game of hide and
seek. Inspiration was not only drawn from everyday life but far most from the moment,
because every moment of the gray life in communist Poland, not just the political struggle,
was grotesque and therefore inspirational. Employing silliness was perhaps also the only way
to actually put the notion of freedom through, the only way to escape the structural
enslavement of the individual in contemporary Poland.
SOMETHING NEW … - THE CIRCUMSTANCES
In the 1980s new circumstances arouse, which created an overall atmosphere of
protest. People felt tired, disappointed and impatient with the system that did not fulfill their
needs. Especially, when towards the end of the 70s, an economic downfall induced shortages
of consumer goods, rationing and increases in prizes all around Soviet Bloc. Strikes all over
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Poland were held, demanding “Bread and freedom.” 75 It was within this atmosphere that
Solidarity emerged and together with the Catholic Church formed an Opposition, which
proved to be very dangerous for the government. The representatives of the Catholic Church
urged for change 76 and Solidarity pushed the society to take part in the common struggle. 77 As
the martial law was introduced, Solidarity had to go underground and the Church
concentrated on bringing help to the families of the law’s victims. However, the base for an
alternative action has been laid. As martial law blocked the initiative of the Opposition, an
energy produced by their actions has been held in suspense – people needed a spark that
would lead them into action. Soon, Solidarity began getting involved in politics again. In
strikes people were brought together to fight for a common cause. However, through
participating, they experienced a sort of catharsis, which, after the purge of emotions, made
them go back to the marasm of gray reality. Having fulfilled their inner needs to protest, they
went back to the daily struggle to get a good place in the queues or try to evade rules to get
more food than rationing prescribed.
In Theatre of the Oppressed, Augusto Boal argues that an oppressed society needs to
be aware of its flaws, and more, to act without forgetting about them. For, through dramatic
action, which leads to a catharsis, ‘spectators purge themselves of their tragic flaw – that is,
of something capable of changing society. […] Dramatic action substitutes for real action.’ 78
Of course, Solidarity’s fight was not a fictional one – it brought grave consequences of
martial law, and later caused the downfall of Communism. However, as in each major
downfall of the government, it is important to have in mind an alternative reality that would
not necessarily be a direct opposite to the system. ‘Orange Alternative demonstrates that in
75
Davies, 1981, p.584
Pope John Paul II (originally Polish), came to Poland for his first international pilgrimage in 1979 and
proclaimed: ‘Let the Holy Spirit come and change the face of the earth, this Earth’. These words were often used
as one of the slogans in the fight with the Communist rule.
77
A Solidarity theme song states an important example for this case. It is placed (with a translated version) in the
appendix, p.49
78
Boal, 2000, p.155
76
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the social reality which has been thought of as imposing the zero sum game only, it is not
impossible to reject this type of ‘symmetry’, or order.’ 79
SOMETHING BORROWED… - THE METHODS
The methods implied by Orange Alternative were neither new nor traditional in the
spectrum of art. However, as they were ‘borrowed’ from previous generations and adapted to
the Polish conditions of post-martial law Poland, they gained on a new applicability. The most
renowned method used by Orange Alternative is that of mocking the Communist as well as
the traditional values, which held the people within the (mentioned earlier) pigeonholed
perspective of the world that surrounded them.
‘Each of the events organized by the Orange Alternative [was] unique
since it ridicule[d] a different aspect of socialist reality, inviting the
onlookers to join the common play. Jesting, however, as it may appear, it
[was] not. Better than any serious social criticism, the Orange Alternative
enlighten[d] the paradoxes of social life, pointing out that the clergy, the
party apparatchiks and the military all belong to the same category, and
that the bureaucracy wields totalitarian control over average citizens.’ 80
In my interview with Waldemar Fydrych, he brought up Marx’s theory of mockery
being the last stage of reaction before the overthrow of an authoritarian government. For
those who laugh cannot be afraid. Laughter is the opposite of fear. 81
Orange Alternative took on the role to induce this laughter. The happeners singled out
the symbols well known to the contemporary society and brought them together with the
absurd elements of the reality, which, when separated from the harsh conditions of life, are
laughable. This, in turn brought out to light the nature of the hypocrisy present within the
system. These methods clearly resemble the tactics implied by the Fluxus movement which
took place in the 1960s in the countries to the West of Iron Curtain.
79
Misztal, 1992, p.75
Misztal, 1992, p.64
81
According to John Wright in his book Why is that so funny? ‘Laughter evolves as Nature’s way of signaling
the all-clear.’
80
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The aim of Fluxus was to ‘purge the world of the bourgeois sickness, “intellectual,”
professional and commercialized culture.’ 82 Orange Alternative, though, aimed to express the
hypocrisy of the government which, through an aggressive propaganda, claimed to have done
so already. Major, the main initiator of the happenings, hasn’t heard of Fluxus until long
after Poland turned to democracy (to which he admits himself in the phone interview with
me). However, in order to understand the schemes of Orange Alternative, it is important to
note the methods of Fluxus that were meant to portray the bourgeoisie hypocrisy and
compare them to the methods implied by the government in question, which was trying to
achieve the same aims. The pictures below portray this contrast:
Image 8: Fluxus art
Image 9: Communist propaganda
And so, the methods used by Fluxus to ridicule those in power, were already implied
by the Communist government to scare the oppressed. The fact that in case of Communist
Poland they were the official, and therefore enforced, Party line sharpened the dissonance of
values present in the society. In order to reach a healthy stance, Orange Alternative had to
take a 180 degrees turn and show these symbols from a completely different perspective.
This was the case with an Angel of the Eve of October Revolution, which did not contain any
82
George Maciunas’ Fluxus Manifesto in: Emmet Williams, A Flexible History of Fluxus Facts and Fictions
(London: Thames & Hudson, 2006), p.102
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mockery but only symbolic elements. However, when introduced into the streets turned to be
more controversial and laughable than either of the two portrayed images.
The same fate awaited the Communist slogans and ideals. The ideal 8-hour long work
day was thrown back into PRL’s face with the demonstration demanding 8-hour working days
for the Department of Internal Affairs. The famous slogan ‘No to Pershings!’ was contrasted
with the reality – ‘Yes to Pads!’. And the militiaman, who was supposed to be a guardian and
a friend, but beat his subordinates instead, was proclaimed a piece of surreal art.
The structure of the happening evolved from the circumstances present in
contemporary Poland – its endless celebrations of the ‘happiness’ of life in a Communist
system. 83 Major drew the biggest inspiration from the world surrounding him, which was
filled with protests, strikes, and big overdone celebrations in the name of national memory
that coincided with each other and created an environment of an abstract fantasy. For him art
was not life, but life was becoming art. 84
The happenings organized by Orange Alternative were ‘a mixture of art, children’s
play and political manifestation. They were also an intensification of the everyday surrealism
of Polish reality in the 1980s.’ 85 Through the childlike play, the happenings acted as factors
relaxing the tension present in the society of a power struggle between two opposing system.
The laugh at the established social structures and relations through an implied pattern of
meanings helped people to distance themselves from the serious attachment to the ideals
proclaimed by any of the opposing sides. These ideals, proclaimed by both sides, were taken
out of their ‘Platonic’ sphere and placed among the passerbyes, so they could interact with
them, seeing the palpable emptiness of their meanings.
The overall structure of happenings was pre-planned. However, anything could change
the flow of events. ‘The ‘Alternative’ is completely unpredictable, floating and flexible. It
83
To see the description of Major’s first happening see appendix, p.50
This statement is a polemic with Allan Kaprow’s famous declaration ‘Art as Life.’
85
Tyszka,1998, p.317
84
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responds to the pettiness of official and oppositional forces, mocks the grandiose and
meaningless decorativeness of Polish life and tries to help people to get rid of ambivalence
and ambiguity.’ 86 The authorities, and especially the police was dumbfounded and disoriented
would step out of their set ways. Fearing to expose themselves to a ridicule, sometimes they
would refrain from action. For even arrests were greeted with joy and enthusiasm from the
part of the happeners. ‘The scenario for protest became surrealistically reverted; police were
simply uncomfortable arresting demonstrators who declared friendship with the police
forces.’ 87 And so the militia would become a part of an overall joy, which agreed with
socialist ideals but did not really have its parallel in the gray Communist reality.
SOMETHING ORANGE…. - SOCIALIST SURREALISM
Apart from taking advantage and inspiration from the socio-political circumstances
and already present tactics, Orange Alternative has made up its own rules. The synthesis
between the ideals and the real was their main aim. For this, Major has decided to draw from
the surrealist movement, whose initiators aim at the synthesis of the dream and the waking
state, as he was trying to achieve a synthesis of the ideal and the reality. In his First Surrealist
Manifesto, Andre Breton advocated these ideas: ‘I believe in the future resolution of these two
states – outwardly so contradictory – which are dream and reality, into a sort of absolute
reality, a surreality, so to speak.’ 88 This was exactly what Major was aiming at while staging
his street happenings. He took the ideal aspects of the system and threw them into the reality,
among the passerbyes, exaggerating them, and so brought out their absurd nature.
The happenings acted as the impersonification of dreams, where dwarfs paraded
around the city voicing out their views and acting out without any major repercussions. This
86
Misztal, 1992, p.64
Misztal, 1992, p.63
88
Andre Breton, ‘First Surrealist Manifesto’ in: Bert Cardullo & Robert Knopf , Theater of the Avant-Garde:
1890-1950, A Critical Anthology (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2001) , p.368
87
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could be clearly paralleled to a dream state, where, as Andre Breton stated in his Manifesto:
‘The mind of the dreaming man is fully satisfied with whatever happens to it. The agonizing
question of possibility does not arise. Kill, plunder more quickly, love as much as you wish
And if you die, are you not sure of being roused from the dead? Let yourself be led. Events
will not tolerate deferment.’ 89 Major, has decided to bring up the dream quality of Socialist
reality into being. He searched through the myths and superstitions advocated by Breton and
realized them in form of spontaneous action.
For the inspiration and a driving force of his surrealist approach, Major points at the
system. ‘Politicians have always been great surrealists!’ 90 he exclaims in his manifesto, ‘They
await warmth. Lets love politicians. Philosophers defeated.’ 91 This declaration very well
explains Major’s approach towards ideals. The philosophers, artists, and soothsayers
proclaimed Polish ideals to be indestructible and possible to achieve. Any human system,
however, can never bring up this utopia. Politicians are the representation of human,
meaningless, absurd position, the inability to reach the proclaimed ideals, and so stand on the
bridge of surreality: where the ideal meets the real. But this hopeless situation of human
condition that found its expression in 1980s Poland does not need to be as sorrowful and
serious as the reality was. And so Major proclaims: ‘Lets all have a whole-hearted laugh. A
war between materialism and idealism. From the point of view of alive intelligence it is but a
primitive entertainment.’ 92 The belief in ideals coming true will never get us anywhere. For,
through their nature, they are impossible to attain. The Polish psyche, full of hope for the
impossible to come into being has always stood on the way to progress and enabled the
Communists to take over the mental control of the Poles. ‘The hope becomes often our
89
Andre Breton in: Theatre of the Avant Garde, 2001 p.367
See ‘Socialist Surrealism’ Manifesto in: Waldemar Fydrych, Orange Alternative, 2004
<http://pomaranczowa-alternatywa.republika.pl/index-eng.html> To see the Socialist Surrealist Manifesto, see
appendix, p. 51
91
Fydrych, 2004
92
Fydrych, 2004
90
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enemy,’ 93 Major states. He ends his manifesto with the following words: ‘We have prepared
for your ordered knowledge very perfidious tricks. Do not count on it. For here, there is no
place for piety.’ 94 And so, through contrasting the ideals of Communist system and Polish
psyche with the harsh reality, he ‘tricked’ people into realizing the need to stop hoping and to
get into action.
‘Let’s love the politicians!’ – they are the ones who act upon the ideals and bring them
to life, whether with success or hypocrisy. ‘Philosophers defeated!’ for they induce in people
the belief in the ideal, that does not have any coverage in the gray reality. These statements
might have caused controversy from both sides of the struggling Poland. However, it was
these words that pointed out the shortcomings of the system and the Polish psyche. Without
realizing them, it would be impossible to fight for an actual, palpable cause. Without them,
people could fight and destroy the ruling Party only to submerge themselves into another, new
system of mental control. For this, Major decided to mock everything around him and throw
the absurd of people’s mentality back at them.
CONCLUSION
THE ROLE OF ORANGE ALTERNATIVE
The activity of Orange Alternative reached its peak in 1988, when it spread around all
major Polish cities (such as Warsaw, Gdańsk, Łódź). In contrast to alternative movements
present in the west side of the Iron Curtain, the participants of orange happenings belonged to
all walks of life (not just intelligentsia or marginal groups of the society). As the Opposition
93
94
See ibid.
See ibid.
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sat down for Round Table Talks
95
with the Communist government, the ‘Orange Ones’ have
not stopped to portray their alternative views, showing the hypocrisy of the arrangements
made. 96 However, after the catharsis that the nation has experienced through the overthrow of
the system, people were stormed with infinite possibilities of individual freedom, selfexpression, economic chances, among others. They began to submerge themselves in the
trivialities of opportunistic life and new comfort that they found in freedom. Major put out the
candidature of his dwarf party into elections, but lost, gaining only a few thousand votes.
People were not eager to endanger their chance for democracy through some sort of
anarchism that had its way in undermining the previous system.
Now, the society has passed through the period of transition and is on the way to
assimilation to the more developed countries from Western Europe in the ways of governing
as well as artistic output. The happenings of ‘orange’ and other kinds are not at all
controversial. Moreover, they pass almost unnoticed. While, back in the 80s, they were a
strong manifestation of people’s disappointment and the struggle to leave the absurdity of life,
now, such happenings are simply treated as some sort of attraction. The passerbyes stop for a
while, observe, and then go on, back into their lives. In a sort of a twisted way, this explains
the role that Orange Alternative played in the lives of the citizens of Wrocław (and later all
major cities) during the 80s. Bringing out a sort of alternative way to challenge the system, a
play with its structures and methods, Orange Alternative constituted a counterbalance to the
system, where freedom was not in access. Such kind of freedom is now not necessary in a
country where people can voice their opinions ‘free of charge.’
Poland in 1980s consisted of people devoured by the paradoxical dissonance between
the ideal and the empirical world. The Opposition (Church and Solidarity) set a challenge to
95
Round Table Talks were a series of negotiations between the government, and the earlier banned Solidarity.
They lasted from February till April 1989 and resulted, at first, in shared government, but soon also in the
downfall of Communist system in Poland.
96
Round Table Happening, spring 1989
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the government, demanding ‘Bread and Freedom’. Solidarity, though, while setting off with
these protests did not take into account, that it wasn’t just those two symbolic elements of
existence that Polish society needed. What was needed was a much stronger tool in the
operation of creating a democratic state – a critical approach. Living in a gap between the
reality and the ideal, people cannot find a sense, a meaning. Living within such a world, it
becomes hard to distance oneself and look at the surroundings with a fresh eye. Through his
creation of a ‘play world’, where the fiction mocked the real and the whole system was
exposed to a joke, Major has managed to open some eyes to what is not necessarily a reaction
but an action in itself. For:
Jokes tear holes in our usual predictions about the empirical world. We
might say that humor is produced by a disjunction between the way things
are and the way they are represented in the joke, between expectation and
actuality. Humor defeats our expectations by producing a novel actuality,
by changing the situation in which we find ourselves. 97
The dissonant world of 1980s Poland was a joke, and Major and his Orange Alternative
helped people to see it that way. Through laughing at his ‘jokes’, Major has expose the people
into the system’s paradoxes. The Opposition brought down the system, but it could be argued
that it was the Orange Alternative that brought down the mental schizophrenia, introducing
laughter in its place.
97
Simon Critchley, 2002, p.1
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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WORKS CITED
PRIMARY SOURCES:
Beszłej, Elzbieta
‘Phone interview with Waldemar Fydrych’
(London: April 2009) - unpublished
Beszłej, Gabriel
‘Interview with Waldemar Fydrych’ for:
Libertas: independent underground newspaper
(Wrocław: 1988) – unpublished
Fydrych, Waldemar
‘Waldemar FYDRYCH – „MAJOR”’: Obecność:
niezależne pismo literackie no 22 (Wrocław:
1988), 31-46
Fydrych, Waldemar
Żywoty Mężów Pomarańczowych (The Lives of
Orange Men) (Wrocław; Warszawa:
Pomarańczowa Alternatywa, 2001)
Fydrych, Waldemar
Orange Alternative, 2004
<http://pomaranczowaalternatywa.republika.pl/index-eng.html>
SECONDARY SOURCES:
Ball, Hugo
“Dada Manifesto”: read at public Dada soiree
(Zurich: July 14, 1916)
Barker, Clive
“Games in Education and Theatre”: the function
of play, and the dangers of institutionalization,
New Theatre Quarterly. vol. V (19), 1989. pp.
227-235
Bauman, Zygmunt
Freedom (Milton Keynes: Open University Press,
1988)
Boal, Augusto
Theater of the Oppressed, trans. A. and MariaOdilia Leal McBride and Emily Fryer (London:
Pluto Press, 2000)
Breton, Andre
Anthology of Black Humor (San Francisco:
Societe Nouvelle des Editions Pauvert, 1979)
Cardullo, B & Knopf, R
Theater of the Avant-Garde: 1890-1950, A
Critical Anthology (New Haven; London: Yale
University Press, 2001)
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Cioffi, Kathleen M.
Alternative Theatre in Poland: 1954 – 1989 (New
York: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996)
Critchley, Simon
On Humour (London; New York, Routledge,
2002)
Davies, Norman
God’s Playground: A History of Poland, Volume
I (New York: Columbia Press University, 2005)
Davies, Norman
God’s Playground: A History of Poland, Volume
II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981)
Davies, Norman
Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984)
Davis, R.G.
“The Politics, Packaging, and Potential of
Performance art”: reactionary and revolutionary
elements in the avant-garde, New Theatre
Quarterly. vol. IV (13), 1988. pp. 17-31
Dziewanowski, M.K.
Poland in the 20th century (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1977)
EMUZYKA.PL
<http://tekstpiosenki.emuzyka.pl/126/28.html>
Esslin, Martin
“Mrożek, Beckett, and The Theatre of the
Absurd”, New Theatre Quarterly. vol. X (40),
1994. pp. 377-381
GazetaWyborcza.pl
‘Siedem Wyborów Lecha Wałęsy’ (‘Seven
choices of Lech Wałęsa’) 2008.
<http://wyborcza.pl/1,76842,5429237,Siedem_W
yborow_Lecha_Walesy.html>
Gourgaud, Nicole
‘Doctoral thesis’ (Lyon: Université de
Lyon,1993)
Hoptman, Laura & Pospiszyl Tomas
Primary Documents: A Sourcebook for Eastern
and Central European Art since the 1950s (New
York, The Museum of Modern Art, 2002)
Howard, Roger
“The Dramatic sense of Life”: Theatre and
Historical Stimulation, New Theatre Quarterly.
vol. I (3), 1985. pp. 262-269
Kaprow, Allan, Ed. Kelley, Jeff
The Blurring of Art and Life. (Berkeley; Los
Angeles; London: University of California Press,
1993)
Kaprow, Allan,
Art as Life (London: Thames and Hudson, 2008)
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Kellein, Thomas
The Dream of FLUXUS: George Maciunas – An
Artist’s Biography (London: Thames & Hudson,
2007)
Ley, Graham
“Sacred ‘Idiocy’: the Avant-Garde as Alternative
Establishment”: the modern, the post-modern –
and the opportunist, New Theatre Quarterly. vol.
VII (28), 1994. pp. 348-352
Mały Konspirator
(Little Conspirator)
Agencja Informacyjna Solidarności Walczącej
(The Information Agency of Fighting Solidarity)
(Wrocław: 1983)
Miłosz, Czesław
The History of Polish Literature, Second Edition
(Los Angeles: University of California Press Ltd.,
1983)
Misztal, Bronislaw
“Between the State and Solidarity”: One
Movement, Two Interpretations – the Orange
Alternative Movement in Poland, The British
Journal of Sociology, 43, no.1 (1992), pp.55-78
Mrożek, Sławomir
Opowiadania (Short Stories) (Kraków:
Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1974)
Pęczak, Mirosław & Wieczorek Anna
“The Orange Ones, The Street, and The
Background”, Performing Arts Journal, 13, no.2
(1991) pp.50-55
Polska.pl
‘Skarby Dziedzictwa Narodowego’ (‘The
Treasures of National Inheritance’)
<http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/tlumacz.html?qs=dzi
edzictwo&tr=ang-auto&x=0&y=0> 2009
Polska Kronika Filmowa
(Polish Film Chronicles)
‘Oto Ameryka’ 1953
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kScEU_UACJs>
Potel, Jean-Yves
The Summer Before the Frost: Solidarność in
Poland (London, Pluto Press Limited, 1982)
Rose, Nicolas
“Towards Critical Sociology of Freedom: An
Inaugural Lecture” (London: Goldsmiths College,
5 May 1992)
Simpson, J.A., Weiner, E.S.C.
The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition,
Vol. I (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1989), p. 57
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Skiba, Krzysztof
‘Skibą w mur – Wojna o krasnala’ (‘With Skiba
into the wall – The Fight about the dwarf’),
Wprost 24, no. 30, 2004
< http://www.wprost.pl/ar/?O=63504&pg=1>
Tyszka, Juliusz
“The Orange Alternative: Street Happenings as
Social Performance in Poland under Martial
Law”, New Theatre Quarterly. vol. 14 (56), 1998.
pp. 311-323
Urban-Klaehn, Jagoda
‘Women’s Day in Poland’ in Polishsite: Website
about Polish culture, 2004
< http://www.polishsite.us/customs-andreligion/civic-celebrations/129-womens-day-inpoland.html>
Wedel, Janine R.
The Unplanned Society: Poland During and After
Communism (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1992)
Williams, Emmet
A Flexible History of Fluxus Facts and Fictions
(London: Thames & Hudson, 2006)
Wright, John
Why is that so funny?: A Practical Exploration of
Physical Comedy (London: Nick Hern Books,
2006)
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APPENDIX
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. List of images
p.41
2. Polish pre-absurd and absurdist artists and the examples of their art.
pp.42-45
3. Mrożek – The Elephant (short story)
pp.46-47
4. Pictures of Dwarfs in Wrocław
p.48
5. Solidarity theme song
p.49
6. Major’s account of his first mini-happening
p.50
7. Socialist Surrealism Manifesto
p.51
8. The Lives of Orange Men: dialogue about capitalist dwarfs….
p.52
9. The contents of the pamphlet informing about the Eve of October Revolution
happening
p.53
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LIST OF IMAGES
Image 1:
This image is taken from : Polska.pl ‘Skarby Dziedzictwa Narodowego’ (‘The Treasures of National
Inheritance’) <http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/tlumacz.html?qs=dziedzictwo&tr=ang-auto&x=0&y=0> 2009.
It portrays a militiaman holding a boy by the hand. It could be paralleled with an image of a Guardian Angel that
Catholic Church in Poland proclaims. As mentioned in the essay, its inscription reads: ‘Militiaman – your friend
and guardian’. This poster was celebrating the third anniversary of the introduction of militia to Poland.
Image 2:
This image was taken from GazetaWyborcza.pl, ‘Siedem Wyborów Lecha Wałęsy’ (‘Seven choices of Lech
Wałęsa’) 2008. <http://wyborcza.pl/1,76842,5429237,Siedem_Wyborow_Lecha_Walesy.html>
It features two victims of interrogation by secret police. The interrogated people theoretically had rights not to
answer questions, but practically they were compelled to it through the use of force.
Image 3:
This image was taken from Waldemar Fydrych, Orange Alternative, 2004
<http://pomaranczowa-alternatywa.republika.pl/index-eng.html>
It portrays a dwarf that was painted on top of a stain, which, in turn, was painted over a wall of the building to
cover up anti-government slogans.
Image 4:
Another image from Waldemar Fydrych, Orange Alternative, 2004
<http://pomaranczowa-alternatywa.republika.pl/index-eng.html>
This one is a poster advertising Orange Alternative’s happening for the occasion of Children’s Day. Its
inscription reads: ‘Dwarfs in PRL (Polish People’s Republic): 1st of June, 15°° o’clock, Świdnicka Street
underneath the Clock.’
Image 5:
And another image from Waldemar Fydrych, Orange Alternative, 2004
<http://pomaranczowa-alternatywa.republika.pl/index-eng.html>
It portrays Major and his crew dressed up as Budyonny’s cavalrymen. It was taken on the night of the ‘Eve of
October Revolution.’
Image 6:
And yet another image from: Waldemar Fydrych, Orange Alternative, 2004
<http://pomaranczowa-alternatywa.republika.pl/index-eng.html>
This image portrays yet another dwarf painted on top of the paint that covered anti-government slogans. It’s
holding flowers, and so I thought would be appropriate to symbolize the synthesis of Socialist Surrealism of
Women’s Day.
Image 7:
Andrzej Krauze’s cartoon is taken from Norman
Davies, Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), PLATE 8 with a title ‘Constitutional Principles: The Leading Role of the
Party’ (1981). It shows a priest (representing the Church) pushing the cart, in which an official is proclaiming
laws (most probably the martial law). The cart is pulled from the front by a worker from Solidarity (the
inscription on his work jacket reads Solidarność)
Image 8:
This image was taken from Emmet Williams, A Flexible History of Fluxus Facts and Fictions (London: Thames
& Hudson, 2006), p.17 under the name: “Claes Oldenburg’s Tribute to America” with an inscription ‘Overflow
crowds witness the unveiling of cascade of freedom.’ 98
Image 9:
This image is a cut from a video: ‘Oto Ameryka’ (‘This is America’) at Polish Film Chronicles part on youtube:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kScEU_UACJs> It’s a film from 1953. The pictures were taken by
W.Forbert. These short films were part of Communist Cold War propaganda against United States, trying to
portray the Western Empire in the worst light possible.
98
Emmet Williams, A Flexible History of Fluxus Facts and Fictions (London: Thames & Hudson, 2006), p.17
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POLISH PRE-ABSURD AND ABSURDIST ARTISTS AND THEIR ART
Juliusz Słowacki (1809- 1849) Regarded as the second greatest next to Mickiewicz amongst
Romatic poets. His works often feature elements of Slavic pagan traditions, mysticism, and
Orientalism, but also portray the absurd within the nature of the Polish psyche, eg. Dziady
(Forefathers Eve)
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885- 1939) Known as ‘Witkacy’, was a Polish playwright,
novelist, photographer, painter and thinker. A lot of his work was narcotic fueled.
Nevertheless he was one of the most creative personas in Polish art. He is also believed to be
the precursor of the Theatre of Absurd.
Bruno Shultz (1892- 1942) Polish writer and graphic artist of Jewish origin. Killed by Nazis
in 1942.All of his works show flirtation with absurd, but probably a most significant example
is the Street of Crocodiles, which has been the basis for the brilliant Quay Brothers animation
(1986)
Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński (1905- 1953) Polish poet and playwright. Most known from
the series of ‘humor stories’ with underlying absurd, eg. The Green Goose Theatre. For years
a strong supporter of the communist regime in Poland.
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Wojciech Fangor (1922- ) World famous Polish painter, graphic artist and sculptor. He was
the co-creator of the Polish Poster School. His work is deeply rooted in surrealism and absurd.
Zdzisław Beksiński (1929- 2005) World famous Polish painter, photographer, sculptor and
graphic artist. He is known for having created an alternative, dream-like, masochistic, erotic
futurist world in his work.
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Tadeusz Różewicz (1921- ) Polish poet and writer. Fascinated with the Parisian avant-garde,
he was one of the first to revolutionize the idea of theater of absurd in Poland. One of his most
prominent works is Kartoteka (The Card Index). ‘Nothing is an innovatory variety of absurd.
Nothing is the most important means to of bringing poetry into life, transmitting the authentic
order of reality.’
Sławomir Mrożek (1930- ) Polish writer and dramatist. Author of satire short stories and
theater pieces. Also involved in the movement of Theater of Absurd in Poland. Few of his
stories have also been the basis of some avant-garde animations eg. Tango.
Stanisław Bareja (1929- 1987) Polish director, screenwriter and actor. Generally picked as
the best Polish comedy director of all times. ‘Bareizm’ is a term derived from his name and
used to describe absurd in the Polish society, it constitutes a special kind of humor through
which the situation in Communist Poland was depicted, eg. Miś (‘Teddy-bear’), Zmiennicy
(‘Alternates’), ‘Alternatywy 4’ (‘Alternative 4’)
Marek Piwowski (1935-) Polish screenwriter and director. His most famous creation is Rejs
(‘Reis’), which is a painfully correct illustration of Polish mentality and social situation, full
of absurd situations and memorable dialogues.
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Jan Lenica (1928- 2001) Graphic artist, director animator. One of the creators of Polish
School of Poster and Polish School of Animation. One of his most famous works is the
Labirynth based of Kafka’s novel, it depicts a man lost in a strange, gruesome, absurd world.
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This short story by Mrożek portrays the destruction of ideals caused by the practicalities of
Communism. It was translated by myself, and therefore might not be of such literary
excellence as the author’s original version.
THE ELEPHANT
By Sławomir Mrożek
The director of the zoo turned out to be a careerist. He treated his animals simply as
stepping stones in his profession. He didn’t care for the adequate function that his
establishment had in educating the youths. The giraffe in his garden had a short neck, the
badger didn’t even have his own den; whistlers, listless to everything, whistled very rarely
and as if unwillingly. These shortcomings should not have taken place, especially because the
zoo was often visited by school trips.
This particular zoo was very provincial, where a few elemental animals were not even
present. Such was the case with the elephant. So far, it has been attempted to substitute his
presence through breeding three thousand rabbits. However, as our country was developing –
it has been planned to supplement the scarcities. And finally it was elephant’s turn. To
commemorate 22nd of July, the zoo received a notification that the lack of the elephant will be
finally taken care of. The workers of the zoo, honestly devoted to their cause, were very
pleased. And so, big was their astonishment as the director wrote a memorial to Warsaw, in
which he relinquished his allotment and brought forward a plan to obtain the elephant through
economical means.
“Me and my whole crew – he wrote – understand that an elephant is a huge burden on
the shoulders of the Polish miner and metallurgist. Wishing to lower individual costs, I
propose to substitute the above-mentioned elephant with a home-made one. We can make the
elephant out of rubber, of suitable size, fill him up with air and place him behind the fence.
Carefully painted, it won’t differ from the original, even when closely inspected. Let’s
remember that the elephant is an animal of heavy weight, so it does not jump or run and it
does not grovel. We will place a notice on the fence, which will explain that the particular
elephant is very heavy. The money that will be saved through this operation can be allocated
for the construction of a new jet plane or preservation of church antiques. Please take notice
that this initiative as well as the elaboration of the project constitutes my modest contribution
to the communal work and struggle. And so I stay sincerely yours” – and the signature.
Apparently the memorial got into the hands of some soulless clerk, who saw in his
duties nothing but beaurocracy and did not investigate the actual essence of the business.
Taking notice only of the guidelines in the domain of individual costs – he accepted the plan.
Having received the permission, the director of the zoological garden ordered a huge coating
to be made from rubber, which was next to be filled in with air.
The task was to be pursued by two janitors through blowing into the coating from two
opposite ends. To keep this deed in discreetness the whole thing had to take place during the
night. The dwellers of the city already found out that a real elephant was to arrive at the zoo,
and wanted to see him. Apart from that the director urged the progress in the work for he was
awaiting a raise, if his idea was to turn successful.
They closed themselves in a shed, in which a provisional workshop was set up and
they began inflating the coating. However, after two hours of hopeless effort they decided that
the gray coating only slightly raised above the floor, creating a bulby, flattened shape, in no
way resembling an elephant yet. The night was progressing, human voices quieted out, only a
cry of the jackal from the garden reached the ears of the janitors. Tired, they stopped for a
moment, making sure that the air already inflated will not escape. They were of elderly age,
not used to this kind of work.
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- If it goes on like this for longer, we will not finish until morning – one of them
remarked. – What am I going to tell my wife, when I come back home? She won’t believe me,
if I tell her that I spent the whole night inflating an elephant.
- It’s true – agreed the second one. – Inflating elephants happens very rarely. It’s all
because our director is incapable.
Half more hour passed and they felt tired. The body of the elephant increased in size,
but it was still a far way to go to achieve its full shapes.
- It’s getting harder and harder – ascertained the first one.
- Exactly – agreed the second. – Hard as hell. Lets rest a bit.
When they were resting, one of them noticed a gas tap, sticking out from the wall. He
thought of inflating the whatever was still missing of the elephant with gas – instead of air. He
told his friend of this.
They decided to test the idea. They connected the tap to the elephant and to their joy in
a short while in the middle of the shed stood an animal in all its highness. It was as if alive.
Bulky torso, column-like legs, huge ears and the inseparable trunk. Director, not constrained
to reckon with anything and driven by ambition to have in his garden an impressive elephant
- made sure that the model was very big.
- First class – declared the one who came up with the gas idea. – We can go home
now.
In the morning the elephant was carried into the area that was prepared especially for
him, in the very central point of the zoo, next to the cage with the monkeys. Positioned in
front of a natural rock, he looked very ominous. A notice was hanged on the fence in front of
him: “Very heavy – doesn’t run at all”.
One of the first guests of the day were students from a local school, brought in by their
teacher. The teacher had in mind to carry out a lesson about the elephant through empirical
methods. He stopped the whole group in front of the elephant and started his lecture:
- …Elephant is a herbivore. With the help of his trunk, he pulls out young trees and
eats their leaves.
The students, concentrated and full of awe were watching the elephant. They were
waiting for him to pull out some tree, but he just stuck behind the fence without a single
move.
- … Elephant is in a straight line a descendant of extinct mammoths. It is not a
mistake to state that he is the biggest of the living land animals.
More attentive students took notes.
- … Only a whale is heavier than an elephant, but a whale lives in the sea. So we
can say without a doubt, that it is the elephant who is the king of the wilderness.
A gentle wind started to blow.
- … The weight of an adult elephant ranges between four and six thousand
kilograms.
Suddenly the elephant began to tremble and soared into the air. For a while he swayed
over the ground, but held up by the wind, flew into the sky and revealed his voluminous forms
with the sky as the background. One more second and he flew further and further up turning
the bottoms of his four feet, his bulgy belly and the tip of the trunk towards the observers.
Later, carried horizontally by the wind, sailed over the fence and disappeared far up, over the
tree-tops. Wonder-struck monkeys were staring into the sky.
The elephant was found in the nearby botanical garden, where, falling down, he burst,
pierced by a cactus.
The students, who were in the zoo at the event of the occurrence, neglected their
studies and became hooligans. People say that they drink vodka and break windows. They
don’t believe in elephants at all.
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STATUES OF DWARFS AROUND WROCŁAW from: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wroc%C5%82awskie_krasnale
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THE THEME SONG OF SOLIDARITY’S ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN
Accessed at: http://tekstpiosenki.emuzyka.pl/126/28.html,
Lyrics by Lombard.
Translated by the author of this thesis.
‘Przeżyj to sam’ - Lombard
‘Live it through yourself’ by: Lombard
Na życie patrzysz bez emocji
Na przekór czasom i ludziom wbrew
Gdziekolwiek jesteś w dzień czy w nocy
Oczyma widza oglądasz grę
Ktoś inny zmienia świat za Ciebie
Nadstawia głowę, podnosi krzyk
A Ty z daleka, bo tak lepiej
I w razie czego nie tracisz nic
You look at life without emotions
In spite of the times, and against people
Wherever you are during the day or night
You look at the game with spectator’s eyes
Someone else changes the world for you
Sticks out the head, and starts to scream
And you, from far away, because its better
And just in case you don’t loose a thing
Przeżyj to sam, przeżyj to sam
Nie zamieniaj serca w twardy głaz
Póki jeszcze serce masz
Live it through yourself, live it through
yourself
Don’t change your heart into a hard stone
While you still have a heart
Widziałeś wczoraj znów w dzienniku
Zmęczonych ludzi wzburzony tłum
I jeden szczegół wzrok Twój przykuł
Ogromne morze ludzkich głów
A spiker cedził ostre słowa
Od których nagła wzbierała złość
I począł w Tobie gniew kiełkować
Aż pomyślałeś: milczenia dość
Yesterday, you saw in the news again
The tired people, the angry crowds
And one detail kept your attention
A huge sea of people’s heads
And the speaker drawled sharp words
For which a sudden anger arouse
And wrath started sprouting within you
And so you thought: enough with the
silence
Przeżyj to sam...
Live it through yourself…
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MAJOR’S ACCOUNT OF HIS FIRST MINI-HAPPENING
From the ‘Interview for Libertas’
Years ago, when I was still in high school, I managed to get to the tribune during the
celebration of the 1st of May 99 with a help of a little trick (I was supposedly carrying heart
medicines for my father, who was on the tribune). When I arrived I started gathering flowers,
which were being handed to the Party notables. I waited until it was the time for my school to
parade in front of the tribune. Then, I started throwing the flowers at them. I was recognized.
There was a lot of laughter on the part of my friends and a lot of confusion on the part of the
dignitaries: “Who is this? Why is he throwing flowers?” For a few minutes the parade was
stopped. Today I see this event as a “mini-happening.”
Picture taken from: http://pomaranczowa-alternatywa.republika.pl/expo%20eng.html
99
1st of May is a Labor Day introduced by Communists within all the Soviet Bloc countries as the most
important holiday in the year. In each city of the Union during this day the army and social institutions organized
parades. Speeches of important officials were also made. Tribune was the stage from which the officials spoke
and then watched the passing parades.
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SOCIALIST SURREALISM MANIFESTO BY WALDEMAR FYDRYCH
From: http://pomaranczowa-alternatywa.republika.pl/index-eng.html
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WHY THE DWARFS GOT ARRESTED…
- a dialogue from: The Lives of Orange Men by Waldemar Fydrych
- Please leave the place – a militiaman is repeating through a loudspeaker.
- Please leave the place!!! – the crowd is applauding.
- Those who do not remove hats will show their papers!!! – the crowd is reacting with a laugh.
- Please remove red hats!!! – the militiaman is repeating again through a loudspeaker. New
units are arriving from the Market Square. Big, heavy trucks called “booths” are coming in,
the place becomes full.
- Mom, why are they arresting dwarfs? – a child asks.
- Because dwarfs belong to capitalism and not to socialism.
In a militia van a shortwave radio is working at a full speed.
- Who are they? – someone from the militia headquarters inquires.
- They are dwarfs.
- What dwarfs?
- Well, just dwarfs – answers the militiamen through a walky talky.
- What! Are you mad? ! – the voice from the headquarters is rising in disbelief.
- No, we are not mad, really, there are dwarfs in the street. We are arresting them.
- Listen, haven’t you drunk too much today?
- No, we haven’t been drinking.
- So how come you are seeing dwarfs around?
- There are students dressed up as dwarfs.
- Oh, I see! –– the students – the voice from the walky talky seems reassured.
- And what are they doing, these dwarfs? – the voice from the headquarters gets worried
again.
- They are singing.
- Singing what?
- “We are the dwarfs”
- In that case bring them back to the headquarters…
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THE CONTENTS OF THE PAMPHLET INFORMING ABOUT THE EVENTS OF THE
‘EVE OF OCTOVER REVOLTION’ HAPPENING
From: http://pomaranczowa-alternatywa.republika.pl/pomalt%20english/text8eng.html
Camarades!!!
The day of the Great October Revolution of Proletariat is the day of the Big Event.
Until today, celebrations of the Revolution did not have their eve.
Camarades, it’s high time to break the passivity of the masses. Let us celebrate the
Eve of the October Revolution. Let us assemble on October 6th, on Friday at 4:00 pm
on Swidnicka street under the clock (…)
Camarades, be dressed for celebration, in red colors. Put on red shoes, red hat, red
scarf. If you have nothing red, borrow from your neighbor a red purse, or at least
paint red your fingernails. If nothing else, buy a hotdog with plenty of red ketchup.
We, the red (red faces, hair, pants and lips) shall meet on that day under the clock at
point 4:00 pm.
LET US MEET CAMARADES IN A REUNION CELEBRATING THE
REVOLUTION!!!!
LET THE IDEAS OF LENIN AND TROCKI BE ALIVE FOREVER!!!
THE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE”S COMMISSAIRES
Bring your dog at 4:00 pm – we shall organize a show of pedigree and muddle dogs
under the slogan “The Dogs on the forefront of the Revolution” Red flowers on the
leash welcome.
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