Gra z zanikaniem, czyli kłopoty ze scenografią

Abstract

The part of a scene designer in the process of creating the theatre gradually disappears in both critical-theatrical and historical discourses. The chance to save the memory of it can be found in photography. Meanwhile, photographs— giving people power over the non-real past—are probably the most mysterious objects forming our perception of the world. Inconsistent, pictures are simultaneously objective recordings and personal, subjective testimonies. They are the proofs of not so much that which exists as that which the photographer sees; they record and evaluate the world. While compiling and working on the photographs to the volume entitled Zabawa w teatr (Playing the Theatre) presenting his work, Jerzy Juk Kowarski—a profound Polish scene designer – subjected them to imitation: a process whose aim was to show the recipient such a vision of his co-created mise-en-scènes that was as close as possible to the scene designer’s truth concerning the theatre created by him. Revealing the ideas of the created spaces involved numerous processes conducted on the photographic texts. While these processes sometimes discretely correct the photographic record, in many cases they have a distinct and ostentatious character. Kowarski’s photographic imitations have become a significant argument in the dialogue concerning scenography and photography that documents it.