AN INSTITUTIONAL OPERA IN THREE ACTS

Spoken Exhibitions. An Institutional Opera in Three Acts

26.08.2011 Wiels Center, Brussels
09.10.2011 Garage Center, Moscow
10.11.2011 Reina Sophia, Madrid
26.11.2011 Southbank Centre, London
02.12.2011 Archive Kabinett, Berlin
09.12.2011 Foundation Center for Contemporary Art, Kyiv

Libretto: Sebastian Cichocki; Grzegorz Piątek and Jarosław Trybuś; Michał Libera
Soundtrack: Wojtek Kucharczyk; Radek Duda; Patryk Zakrocki and Michał Libera
Production: Bęc Zmiana Foundation

Live audio drama called "Spoken Exhibitions" is devoted to forgotten, overlooked or mythologised chapters in the history of Polish culture during the 20th century. Together with the accompanying publication, this act can be experienced as a curator-led tour of a non-existent exhibition – gathering myths, “phantom” works and unverifiable eyewitness accounts, all related to the never-realised 20th century musical, architectural and artistic pieces. Here, traditional exhibition space is renounced in favour of auditoria, conference halls, offices, warehouses and radio waves. "Spoken Exhibitions" stage something of a hilarious and unceremonious “institutional opera”, or an expert lecture.

The audio drama in three acts draws its inspiration from the artistic attempts at the “dematerialisation” of the work of art and experimental exhibition forms of the 1960s and ‘70s. The narrative centres non-mainstream projects, familiar only to a handful of specialists, in art, music and architecture – projects never carried out or missing documentation. "Spoken Exhibitions" are a textual collage divided into roles, composed of both existing and imaginary notes, manifestoes and postulates of Polish artists. The floor is given primarily to avant-garde stances, and the evoked works are always “impossible”, visionary and well ahead of their time.

In short: as any other opera - a massive lie.