31.03.2023 Events, Literature, Performing Arts

Performative Reading of Witold Gombrowicz at BAC

Friday, March 31 at 3pm ET
BAC Open House Performance

Zbigniew Bzymek & Kuba Falk
Theater + Multimedia

John Cage and Merce Cunningham Studio
Zbigniew Bzymek & Kuba Falk will continue to develop a multidisciplinary piece inspired by the diaries of Polish dissident writer Witold Gombrowicz in preparation for an invitation to The Gombrowicz Festival in 2023 in Poland.

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street
New York, NY 10018

Performative Reading is a part of Zbigniew Bzymek + Kuba Falk’s Theater + Multimedia Residency
BAC Open
March 6-April 1, 2023

Zbigniew Bzymek and Kuba Falk will continue to develop a multidisciplinary piece inspired by the diaries of Polish dissident writer Witold Gombrowicz in preparation for an invitation to The Gombrowicz Festival in 2023 in Poland. In this project they aim to present two sides of Gombrowicz’s work: the truth-seeking, cynical non-fiction commentary contained in his diaries, and the fantastic, abstract, absurd and sometimes metaphysical prose of his novels. Special attention will be paid to the way Gombrowicz appeals to the idea of individualism in the face of communist corruption and its relevance today.

Video Recordings of 2022 GOING OUT WITH GOMBROWICZ at The Performing Garage: Performative reading of excerpts from Witold Gombrowicz. LEARN MORE.

Creators/Artists in Residence

Zbigniew Bzymek is a film and theatre director. He started his career as a video designer on 7 productions with Krystian Lupa. As a longtime Wooster Group company member, he was the originator and lead contributor to The DAILIES, The Wooster Group’s video journal project, which defined the group’s media presence in the last decade.

With The Wooster Group, he made onstage video for: LA DIDONE, HAMLET, VIEUX CARRÉ, THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR, and A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique), in which he plays Man in the Place of Kantor, a principal part. Bzymek has also made several short and feature length films that have been shown at Berlinale, Sundance, Locarno, Anthology Film Archives, CPH:Pix, New Horizons and Belfort, among other venues and festivals. His latest stage productions as director have included: Witkacy’s Pragmatists at Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw (2019), Kafka’s Amerika (2020) and Concert of Question Marks, “a socio-musical” (2020) at Teatrgaleria Studio in Warsaw. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College and The Polish National Film School in Łódź, where he is currently a doctoral student.

Kuba Falk (b. 1984), an intermedia artist and performer, creates and interprets “body-tales,” which is what he calls his performative actions realized in various formats, through which he combines work with spoken text and interests, especially from the areas of ecofeminist thought, mythology and ritual.

He uses provocative gesture, juxtaposing the practice of the paradigm of care with the reality of technocratic dystopia. He also makes sculptural objects and installations referring to nature. He studied acting and drama directing at the Academy of Theater Arts in Kraków, intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and religious studies at Jagiellonian University.


Performers
Friday, March 31 at 3pm ET
BAC Open House Performance

Alessandro Magania is a New York-based performer working in theater, film, and dance. He has performed in stage works by Object Collection, The Wooster Group, Sibyl Kempson, Eliza Bent, The Million Underscores, Allison Plamondon, Benjamin Gassman, and Tereke Ortiz, among others, and in live and video installations by artists Roman Ondak, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Jarrod Beck, Viva Ruiz, and Alison Folland. Recent film and TV: Nomotopowell by Brent Chesanek (2022 FID Marseille), The Tumbler by Savannah Knoop,  Autotrophia by Anton Vidokle (2021 Berlinale), and the Netflix series Living With Yourself.  He wrote and choreographed the full evening piece Radio Delirio (2018, The Performing Garage NYC), and co-created and choreographed works with Kourtney Rutherford (Hardcore, 2014), and The Citizens Band (2004-2007). He has directed video works showcased by Artforum and Visionaire, and co-directed the documentary There Were Always Dogs Never Kids (2017 IndiePix; Special Mention Prize – Milano MIX Festival).

Danusia Trevino is an actress and a storyteller born in Poland. A double Moth Grand Slam winner and a regular with the Mainstage Moth. Theater credits: The Wooster’s Group A Pink Chair (Centre de Pompidou, Performing Garage,  REDCAT, The Skirball Center, upcoming at Schaubühne Theater, Berlin), Originated the role of Baba in The Trees (Playwrights Horizons) Krzysztof Garbaczewski’s VR project Exegesis (La MaMa) and Ginsberg/Bialoszewski (Warsaw’s New Theater), War of the Worlds- the Radio Play, (national tour SITI Company) Wonder Bread (Edinburgh Fringe & United Solo Festival -Best One Woman Show Award). She was a part of the New York literary salon Women of Letters and This Alien Nation (Joe’s Pub).

After writing his first book Disorientation Therapy in 2007, Omar Zubair found that the closer to the core of being he looked, the more blurry it became; so, he began to listen to it, instead. And ever since, listening has become his primary compositional technique—whether creating a theatrical score for The Wooster Group or building a sound installation for a national historic landmark, whether sound designing for a blind choreographer so that she can continually orient toward the audience or improvising with a dance class at Julliard to coax authentic movement out of each student, whether making music to help people grieve at a funeral or celebrate at a wedding. He lets the ear hear twice before acting once. He has helped found composer collectives across the country in order to promote radical empathy and empower active listening.

Viva Ruiz is a community educated artist and advocate, and a descendant of factory-working Ecuadorian migrants raised in Jamaica, Queens. They are a maker working in performance, film, writing, music, and dance with a collaborative practice grown out of their experience in NYC nightlife. Their original telenovelas have been shown at festivals and art spaces such as Mix NYC, Outfest LA, Deitch Projects, PS1 Moma, and Futura in Prague. Her short film Chloe Dzubilo: There is a Transolution, a Visual AIDS commission, premiered for the 30th annual Day With(out) Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2019. Ruiz founded the Thank God for Abortion initiative in 2015, an ongoing awareness-raising project with multiple manifestations. In 2019 Ruiz’s solo exhibition “Pro Abortion Shakira : A TGFA Introspective” was shown at Participant Inc, and became the first artist awarded a residency from the pro-abortion cultural organization Shout Your Abortion. In 2020 Ruiz directed the TGFA Anthem music video. They are a member of the Carribbean queer party/artist collective, RAGGA NYC.  In 2020 Ruiz was a part of In Plain Sight, a coalition of 80 artists fighting immigrant detention and the culture of incarceration conceived of by Cassils and rafa esparza, and authored the phrase ARREST ICE that was skywritten over NYC ICE offices.


Performers: Danusia Trevino, Jim Fletcher, Viva Ruiz, Shana Fletcher, Andrew Maillet, Kuba Falk, Christopher-Rashee Stevenson, and Zbigniew Bzymek.

Directing and staging: Zbigniew Bzymek and Kuba Falk
Producer: Wiola Łabędź
Associate Producer: Bartek Remisko
Sound: Andrew Maillet
Video: Zbigniew Bzymek
Technical Support: David Glista, Technical Director, The Wooster Group

Organizer: Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw

Special Thanks to Rita GombrowiczCynthia HedstromMonika Wunderer and Mike Ferry and The Performing Garage


BAC is the realization of a long-held vision by Founder and Artistic Director Mikhail Baryshnikov to build an arts center in New York City that serves as a gathering place for artists from all disciplines. BAC’s opening in 2005 heralded the launch of this mission, establishing a thriving creative space for artists from around the world. Located in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of Manhattan, BAC comprises a total of 20,000 square feet, including the 238-seat Jerome Robbins Theater, the Howard Gilman Performance Space, and four column-free studios. BAC serves approximately 700 artists and up to 22,000 audience members annually through presentations and artist residencies.


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