Long live the situationists
By : Michael Leville
When Lech Walesa took over as president of post-communist Poland in 1990, little did he know that his call to "do everything yourselves" would inspire a fledgling actor to pursue his dream of seeing outdoor theater taken as seriously as, well, indoor theater.
Eleven years on, Dariusz Jarosinski is the artistic director of the International Street Theater Festival, which started June 29 and runs until July 10 on streets, parks and bus stops scattered around the capital.
While he has yet to achieve his aim of making outdoor theater as commonplace as its traditional counterpart, after eight years at the helm of the festival, he's making inroads.
"I want people to get used to seeing art, but also to participate in it," he said, adding that the gapes and stares of bewildered passersby have toned down since the program began in 1993.
Still, one performance at a bus stop last week managed to perplex bus passengers enough for them to think twice about getting off at their stop. Lying on the pavement next to a bus shelter marked "Warning: Slippery" was a man wearing only sunglasses. White paint outlined his naked body.
When asked if he enjoys shocking people, Jarosinski insisted his intention "is not meant to be aggressive," but that he's "interested in people who see things differently, even at a bus stop." Ultimately, he said, "the ideology behind the festival is a peace manifestation."
Since the program's early days when Jarosinski and his actor friends would approach the Culture Ministry for funding dressed in shorts and carrying backpacks, he has learned the importance of professionalism when dealing with sponsors. The acting-school graduate has even completed management courses.
"You can't have conversations with sponsors about the law when you don't know what you're talking about," he said.
This year's festival, which Jarosinski said cost zl. 1.6 million ($400,000) to organize, is also the flagship event of the Ochota Cultural Center, which for the past three years has co-run the program. Apart from the bus stop instalacja or performance art shows, the 12-day affair features Ukrainian and Hungarian experimental theater; a "cheeky" interpretation of Carmen by La Terra Nuova, an Italian dance, choreography and acrobatic group; a "panorama" of the sounds of Warsaw; and the centerpiece of this year's program: Les Arts Sauts, a French acrobat performing art company for which the festival's organizers are charging zl. 20 a head. All other performances are free.
