STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

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Street Artists in Europe
Nevertheless, according to Wolicki, by founding its existence on the above mentioned premises,
the street theatre becomes a theatre of false self-consciousness, since: 1. In our times, the real
place of passing by is not the street, but a room with a TV set, where one may most probably
meet those who don’t go to theatre. 2. The street does not belong to strollers any longer, but to
cars. It is also not “the very reality”, but “a shopping window”, another stage. Thinking about
theatre in categories of another, third opposition to traditional theatre leads, according to
Wolicki, to the complete negation of theatre, which “dissolved in spectacular performances,
entertainment productions, and in mass culture” 415 . Wolicki settles the point of oppositions 4
and 5 in one statement: „When it is not the trust or the closeness that becomes the problem, it
also means that this problem lies in the strength of voice, not in the meaning of what one
preaches” 416 . “When the five oppositions became unsound, the elation of utopia passed, the
readiness weakened, and the mysticism melted away, the street of the great city reveals what it
is: an non-theatrical space” 417 .
An additional charge of Wolicki against theatre artists who create their art on the street, is that
they treat it, on the one hand, as a space where they touch “the hard stone pavement of reality”,
and on the other hand, they carry within a nostalgic, unreal image of the street, with “organ
grinders, street fairs, and limping devils raising roofs over the city. [And they] dream about the
times when there were no cinemas, no television, no cars, and even non of these comfortable
theatre houses” 418 . This image of the street, which does not correspond to reality, is a reason
why theatre, instead of “creeping into” it, “turns off its screen, if it is strong enough, but it does
not use it” 419 .
Wolicki relates his comments to the European street theatre, while he considers theatres from
South America, as e.g. Chicanos Theatre from the USA, in a different way. He maintains that
they help spectator “fell at home” on the street, because they appear there “not as street theatres
(…), and not even as theatre at all, but actually as a technique of celebration, the populace
language and the commonness of game” 420 .
The text by Wolicki was published in December, 1973, when the Polish street theatre did not
actually exist. However, the street theatre, which appeared later on in Poland, was in a sense an
answer to Wolicki’s refutations. This theatre did not refer to the medieval and street fairs’
traditions, but it derived from the artistic legacy of avant-garde fine arts and the theatre of
counter-culture. In April, 1974, Akademia Ruchu Performance Group went to the streets with its
first city action “The Bond”. During this action, the performers were passing a ball of thread
among themselves and among people standing at the bus stop, thus creating a delicate ‘bond’,
which still connected them when they entered a bus. Then more actions took place: “The Step
Over” 421 (1975), the outdoor version of “The Bus” 422 (1975), “The Line Stepping out of the
415
Ibid, p. 105.
416
Ibid.
417
K.Wolicki, The Street Theatre, “Dialog”, 1973, nr 12, p. 111.
418
Ibid, p. 111.
419
Ibid.
420
Ibid, p. 109.
421
“In a place where people usually spend time observing the everyday reality or make appointments, (…) passersby
continuously stumbled, within short intervals, in the field of vision of this street audience. (…) This
inexplicable character of the repeated accident activated the formerly passive spectators.”
Akademia Ruchu. The City. The Field of Action. Warszawa, 2000, p. 37.
422
“The wreck of the abandoned bus (…) was filled with 30-40 passengers remaining in motionless positions and
(…) a ‘blind’ driver for about one hour.”
Ibid, p. 39.
PE 375.307