Andrzej Partum was the author of manifests, a musician, a Mail Art movement member, a painter, a ‘clerk’ at the Poetry Office he created himself, and – last but not least – a poet who very early noticed the limitations of the language and developed his own unique form of artistic expression referred to as ‘scathing media fusion’. Such interdisciplinary character of his work resulted from Partum’s belief in cognitive value of unlimited creation. It allowed him to strive for freedom and authentic existence. Setting off from poetry, after having experienced conceptualism, he decided to focus on everyday life context. Jerzy Ludwiński would describe this type of output as ‘absent art’ which is difficult to identify, often being indistinguishable from the private domain, as it tends to melt in everyday reality. Face-to-face interpersonal relations were an important element of art understood in such a way, including long-standing friendship between Partum and Zbigniew Warpechowski – an artist who was also a poet, a painter, a conceptualist, and the author of his own form of creative expression linked to performance art. Just like Partum, Warpechowski perceives art as an existential practice that allows for authentic existence in the world. For him it is a way of experiencing reality more explicitly. It serves as the foundation for establishing relations not only with participants of is ephemeral works.

The attempt to present Partum’s and Warpechowski’s art intertwined on many different levels, based on some fragments from archives and works of art, can be commented upon with an excerpt from a poem written by the former:

częstotliwości wisielec

wahadłem ubija

przymiarki odrzutów

(…) *

In this case the ‘hanged man of frequency’ is Roman Dziadkiewicz. During the meeting with Partum and Warpechowski he intuitively adopts more indefinite approach, being an artist, a curator, and an organiser at the same time. He challenges the heritage of the neo-avant-garde doyens, trying to organise the ‘rejects’ and stressing dramatic points of relations that they bear witness to. At the same time he does not try to conceal his own artistic involvement in the event. He stresses his perspective just like a director present on the stage. He is an equal participant of this symbolic meeting that is being held …

(…)

za cyferblatem

jeszcze poza dookoła

z jędrnych odległości

wyżętego przedostania

od masy *

*A. Partum, Frekwencje z opisu, 1961

Dominik Kuryłek

phot. Zygmunt Rytka, 80’s.