"Halka/Haiti may potentially address many issues, like post-colonialism and the image of imperial Poland,” Hanna Wróblewska, Polish Pavilion Commissioner, told Gazeta Wyborcza.
“It has a critical potential, but the authors adopt rather a research attitude,” she added.
Artists Joanna Malinowska and C.T. Jasper, along with curator Magdalena Moskalewicz, arranged a joint exhibition for the pavilion, Halka / Haiti: 18°48′05″N 72°23′01″W.
The work documents the presentation of Halka, an opera written by Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872), as it was staged in Haiti in February 2015.
The idea behind the pavilion refers to the little-known historical connection between Haiti and Poland. In the early 1800s a Polish legion (among other troops) was sent by Napoleon to colonial Haiti to quell a slave rebellion, but the soldiers decided to join the revolution and eventually settle on the island.
The artists chose Cazale, a village located in the Haitian mountains, that is now populated by Polish descendants. Both Polish and local musicians took part in the performance of Halka.
“Everything started with the fascination with this movie [Werner Herzog’s 1982 Fitzcarraldo – ed.] in which Klaus Kinski enters the jungle, having opera music as his only shield. While sailing on a steamship, he plays Enrico Caruso, the tenor of the century, on a pathephone record player.
“He also has a plan to build an opera house in the middle of the jungle, like the theatre in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. We wanted to implement Fitzcarraldo’s plan Malinowska,” told Gazeta Wyborcza.
“For me, those few visits in Haiti, among other things, opened my eyes to the effects of a cruel history has had on this place on Earth,” the artist added.
The formal inauguration of the Polish pavilion at the Venice Biennale on Wednesday was attended by Polish First Lady Anna Komorowska and Culture Minister Małgorzata Omilanowska. (ał/rg)
Source: PAP, Gazeta Wyborcza