• Directed by 

  Katarzyna Kalwat

• Dramaturgy

  Beniamin Bukowski

• Premiered

  November 14, 2020 Raster Gallery, 63 Wspólna Str., Warsaw

About

A theatre production-performance art-art exhibition built around the biography and work of  Maria Klassenberg, a forgotten contemporary artist. At an opening of an exhibition of her works, the artist confronts her personal history of relationship with her daughter. Her works in the form of recorded performances, objects and installations create the project’s context. “Maria Klassenberg” is a theatre installation designed to be presented in a gallery space. 

Voices of the artist and her daughter – a personally invested observer, will create a multidimensional portrait of a 20^th century artist left unmentioned by the art history textbooks. An additional context will be added by Anda Rottenberg’s – a critic and art historian. Her commentary will place Maria Klassenberg’s portfolio in the Polish and international avant-garde art history. 

An exhibition of Maria Klassenberg’s archive created by Aneta Grzeszykowska in cooperation with Jan Smaga and expanded to include an archive of work on the project will accompany presentations of the performance. The performance will be presented in a space that will be, at the same time, an independent exhibition space open for the public before and after the performances.

Who is Maria Klassenberg?

Maria Klassenberg Work In Progress

Cast

Natalia

Kalita

guest appearance

Urszula

Kiebzak

special appearance

Anda

Rottenberg

Performanse live

Jan

Dravnel

Performanse live

Justyna

Wasilewska

Twórcy i twórczynie

Realizacja

Galeria

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fot. Magda Hueckel

Reviews

• “Maria Klassenberg does not exist. She never did”’ – announces Urszula Kiebzak in the finale monologue. […] director gives the floor to the actress who puts herself somewhere beside the role and exposes the reliances that rule the institution she works in. The reason behind the creation of Maria’s character is revealed. It’s a very important reason, difficult to downplay, because it concernes the issue of the presence of female voice in the public space”

  Marcin Miętus, Dialog

• Maria Klassenberg is the most radical creator of Polish, and perhaps even international, contemporary art. She is a fantasmatic character with a made-up archive. (…) “Maria Klassenberg does not exist. She never did. We created her, but being a fiction is not the same as not being the truth” – proclaims Urszula Kiebzak in the final monologue of a theatre production-performance art-artexhibition “Maria Klassenberg. Ecstasies”. As a proof, she points to herself and her condition. If after an hour of looking at a mature, stubbornly quiet woman, we believe that in front of us sits an unknown radical artist, who participates in her first ever retrospective exhibition organized by Anda Rottenberg, then it means that Kiebzak herself is totally anonymous to us. She does not exist in our awareness as an artist, despite the fact that she has been working in The National Stary Theatre for over 40 years, and with very well recognized directors.. whose names form a very long list, carefully enumerated.. “With one exception, all male. So many.” She concludes. It is easy to forget women, who create. Even easier not to hear about them at all.”

  Agata Adamiecka-Sitek, Dwutygodnik.com

• Inversion becomes a carefully implemented strategy of Maria Klassenberg – or perhaps a strategy of Katarzyny Kalwat, who stages the artist’s life. A critic and art historian (in this role Anda Rottenberg) fits Klassenberg’s works in the past decades and describes her by referring to subsequent “phases”. Each of such phases anticipates major breakthrough in art. However Klassenberg is never there with the rest. She does not “catch on”. In the 80’s, when the strength of declaration is the key, she retracts. In the 90’s, when everybody sells, she refuses. Today, she is an old woman, not wanted by anyone on the market wants anymore.
  And still, she keeps silent. At the same time, the process of introducing Klassenberg into the artistic circuit – its critique and market aspect – becomes a critique and parody of the circuit itself. Numerous labels, serious voice of the interpreter, atmosphere of a vernissage and the daughter’s speech, that is both a confession and a manifesto – all of that exposes the absurdity of what would be at the stake.”
  Iwona Kurz, “Widok. Teorie i praktyki kultury wizualnej”

  Iwona Kurzak, “Widok. Teorie i praktyki kultury wizualnej”

Partners

The new talents line

The performance was produced within the frame of the new talents line programme. TR Warszawa for many years now has been promoting new artistic talents through such projects as:  Warsaw Area [orig.: Teren Warszawa], TR/PL, Field TR [orig.: Teren TR], Young TR [orig.: Młody TR], TR Debut [orig.: Debiut TR], artistic residencies, guest showings of diploma works and performances, repertoire showings of performances co-created by new artists and production of selected projects in cooperation with foreign partners. TR Warszawa provides artistic shelter, where artists may experiment and implement their ideas for theatre.

Within the new talents line in the past artistic seasons, the following directors presented their productions: Wojciech Blecharz (“Soundwork”), Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak (“The Chinese”), Grzegorz Jaremko (“Woyzeck”), Katarzyna Kalwat (“Holzwege”, “Rechnitz. Opera – The Exterminating Angel”, “Maria Klassenberg. Ecstasies”, “Staff Only” – coproduced by Biennale Warszawa and TR Warszawa), Anna Karasińska (“Ewelina’s Crying” and “Fantasia”), Katarzyna Minkowska (“Stream”), Jędrzej Piaskowski (“Puppenhaus. Treatment”, “David Is Going To Israel”), Piotr Trojan (“Grind/r”), Magda Szpecht (“The Possibility of an Island”, “Always Coming Home”), and Małgorzata Wdowik (“The Footballers” and “Fear”)