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Archive History The Grotowski Centre
Archive History The Grotowski Centre | The founding of the Grotowski Centre |
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Page 2 of 2 The activities of the Centre have been marked by its complementarity with mainstream cultural life, and its promotion of the marginalised. Zbigniew Osinski, in a conversation with Miroslaw Peczak, said: 'I have personally acquired from the Laboratory Theatre the conviction that one should not meet and give in to what is dominant or fashionable in a given period. We would like the Centre to remain in concord with the tradition of the Laboratory Theatre in this respect; that it searches – on quite an opposite pole of culture – for what people lack and strive to find themselves. In this sense, we would like to create a certain equilibrium, and not yield to what is popular. We work, most probably, for those who have similar needs, and who find it impossible to be contained within the confines of this official, mainstream culture'.The Centre has become an institution of artistic creation; the events taking place have always been connected to the people working in the Centre, to their needs and interests. Its activities, described by Osinski as 'a peculiar way of practising the humanities', were developed to play a variety of roles apart from that of research – mainly cognitive and educational, as well as aesthetic-artistic. By its peculiar multi-dimensionality, it has partially taken over the goals typical of other kinds of institutions – of universities, theatres, cinemas, libraries and museums. However, it was never intended to be opposed to these institutions– the ambition of the Centre has not been to replace them, but to complement their activity through concern for issues that are not raised or are marginalised. Equally important is the fact that all initiatives emerging from the Centre have always stemmed from the same source, namely, the work of Jerzy Grotowski. The subjects of meetings have often been borrowed from the tradition emerging from his work, as well as from his theatrical and cultural inspirations, from his broad field of interests and range of activity. Grotowski has been the point of reference for the whole activity of the Centre, even though the institution has always been fully autonomous. The founding of the Centre was met with many sceptical voices. Some preferred a 'living theatre' instead of a 'mausoleum', even one as controversial as the Wroclaw Second Studio. Many anxious questions were posed about the nature of the institution. Despite these anxieties, Tadeusz Burzynski was able to note in 1992: 'We now have in Wroclaw a place which is throbbing with life, which – though conducting important academic and research work, is still able to go out and present people with an interesting programme, which contains truly unique offerings, unachievable in any other place in Poland’. This text was based on the MA thesis by Adela Karsznia Dzialalnosc Osrodka Badan Tworczosci Jerzego Grotowskiego i Poszukiwan Teatralno-Kulturowych w latach 1990–1994 [The activity of the Centre for Study of Jerzy Grotowski’s Work and for Theatrical and Cultural Research in the period 1990–1994], written in 2003 at the Institute of Polish Philology of the University of Wroclaw, supervised by Prof. Janusz Degler. |