Festival of Art in Public Spaces

Akademia Ruchu

Akademia Ruchu (Academy of Movement) was established in Warsaw in 1973. Since the creation of the group its artistic director has been Wojciech Krukowski. The members of the group are : Janusz Bałdyga, Jolanta Krukowska, Cezary Marczak, Zbigniew Olkiewicz, Krzysztof Żwirblis, Jarosław Żwirblis, Jan Pieniążek. The members of the 'historic' group famous for its full-scale actions in the 70's were: Andrzej Borkowski, Andrzej Komorowski, Jonasz Konderski, Aleksandra Lompart, Maria Pieniążek, Grażyna Skibińska, Marta Sutkowska, Hanna Tomaszewska, Joanna Krzysztoń, Gabriela Ligenza, Maciej Skalski, Jerzy Kapuściński, Ryszard Kawalec, Piotr Rypson. The first performance of the group was "Collage", 1973. Later performances included "Lektorat" ( "A Foreign Language Course",1973), "Głód" ("The Famine", 1974), "Autobus" ("A Bus", 1975), "Lekcje" ("Lections", 1976), "Wieża" ("Tower", 1975) and "Życie codzienne po Wielkiej Rewolucji Francuskiej" ("Everyday Life After the French Revolution", 1980). The performances was based on movement and, so called, poetics of everyday gestures. Physical activities of the actors depended on the performces' structure created by space and rhythm. The whole conveyed a clear and simple message building a kind of poster metaphor. A characteristic feature of the group's performances was the lack of the plot and dialogues and of traditional characters possessing their own individual features and personalities. Instead of this, there were fragments of music, sounds, isolated words or sentences and impersonal characters. It was a new form of inter-media artictic activity which hadn't been present in Polish art before.

One of the most famous early performances of the Academy of Movement was "A Bus". A theatre of poster metaphor referred to the meaningless poses and forms of social and political life:

"Appearing out of the dark, a symbolic group of the passangers travel by a fast, ghostly vehicle. Stillness is as dynamic as the most spontaneous movement, it's a picture rather than performance. In this paradox lies the power of "A Bus" because the picture turns out to be a performance. Dramatic tension is growing imperceptibly and forces you to react. The reaction can be disagreement, impatience but also complicity.

Maria Bojarska, "Scena" 1976, no. 2

Since 1975 the Academy of Movement has been organizing theatrical and social actions. Some of them were conducted in the city space, e.g., "Europa" (1976), some in private houses, e.g., "Dom I" ("House 1") in Lublin (1978), "Dom II" ("House 2") in Santarcangelo (1978). The events aimed at activating the audience to cooperate. The group looked for new ways of communication and revived the chosen places.

In the late 70's the Academy of Movement changed into a professional team and a theatre centre. It organized theatre workshops abroad, e.g. in Paris, London, Avignon, Brussels and Milan, and international seminars about different aspects of visual arts. Thanks to the group Poland was visited by e.g. The Living Theatre, Odin Teatret, Piccolo Teatro di Pontedera. Academy organized exhibitions and film shows as Academy of Movement Cinema. At the same time it prepared new performances.

Nowadays, the Academy is an interdisciplinary modern art centre. Its members organize their own performances and sometimes make new common projects. Street actions of the Academy have been the evidence of consistent and permanent artistic presence of the group in the public llife of Poland since the 70's up to now.