Witkacy in Australia - 100th anniversary

WITKACY

Witkacy  ! Committed suicide on 18 September 1939 ( a drug overdose combined with wrists slitting). He was 54 when he died. An eccentric artist and free thinker, not widely recognized during his lifetime nowdays he is listed as a  leading theatrical innovator and one of the outstanding artists of the European avant-garde: The Forefather of the Theatre of Absurd. The creator of  The Pure Form In Theatre. Playwright and artist Sanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz commonly known as "Witkacy", was a Polish playwright, novelist, painter, photographer and philosopher. He wrote about 40 plays, which were directly challenging (and mocking, too) the most popular theatre conventions of his times, mostly operetta, melodrama and farce. Only 21 of his works for theatre survived the World War Two. 

Why mention him now?

 This year – 2014 – marks the 100th anniversary of  Witkacy’s trip to Australia. In 1914 Witkacy was invited to take part in a British scientific expedition to Oceania as a photographer-illustrator with a task of documenting the research.  In July 1914 the expedition arrived in Australia, where Witkacy learned about the outbreak of the First World War. He decided to return to Europe.

That short stay in Australia made a big impact on the artist himself and on his later writings. It consequently resulted in Witkacy's "tropical" plays inspired by the playwright's trip to the land Down Under: 

“Mr. Price, or Tropical Madness is a drama of heightened passion and greed among British colonists in Rangoon who seem to have stepped out of Joseph Conrad's tales of the South Seas.

Metaphysics of a Two headed Calf, set in New Guinea and Australia, pits savage European imperialists against a native tribal Australia and pits savage European imperialists against a native tribal chieftain whose fetish of a great golden frog offers greater insight into the mystery of existence than the Westerners' shallow rationalism.

Both plays puncture the white rulers' poses of superiority and parody their images of the tropical” * (From the foreword to the American Edition of Witkacy’s plays translated by Daniel Gerould)

Here is our long term plan: Auto Da Fe will be revisiting Witkacy’s works in context of their relation to Australia ( Australia being a socio-geo-metaphysical phenomenon in Witkacy’s life)  as part of our research/experimental wing. The Witkacy Project will not be limited to the two above mentioned plays, but they lend themselves as a natural starting point for this kind of journey. No rush, no hurry.  We will take it step by step. 

P.S. For those interested: This year a Sydney based Australian installation artist John Gillies is planning to launch his film-installation project focusing on Witkacy’s visit to Australia - “The End Of The Line”:  http://vimeo.com/85526539