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17 - 28/06/2016

photo: M. Zakrzewski
Galleryphoto: M. Zakrzewski

– A black man with a chain on his leg apperas in front of the audience's eyes. He sits in the corner of the cabinet, his back is facing the pane. Beside him stands a small bowl of peanuts, from which he eats from time to time. In front of him a black plate informs that the show will start in 15 minutes.Most of the viewers react with laughter. A mother tells her child to stand in front of the “cage” so she can take a picture ‘as a keepsake’. Few other parents pick up on the idea. Some children are scared, they try to run. Other proudly show their milk teeth and wait for the ‘click!’. (…) The man stands up, stretches and performs a series of acrobatics for the delight of the crowd documenting him. In the background plays the song by Fasolki, the fragment I’ve mentioned earlier (‘Afryka dzika’ lit. ‘Wild Afrika’). I am so embarrassed my ears wither and I rise my eyebrows in puzzlement.I see similar reactions on few other viewers. The rest applauds when the blinds come down. Even now, writing this, I still feel the yesterday’s discomfort of being a whitnes of the situation described. A group of students comments ‘I feel like watching a Sunday family trip to the ZOO’. ‘Come Maggie, we’ll take a picture of you with giraffe’ – one of them continues ironically - Wojciech Wołocznik, every day watches and writes on the blog about your reactions to the live instalations „Ceci n’est pas…” by Dries Verhoeven on Półwiejska Street.