Virtual exhibition presenting the history of Polish theatre

The Theatre Institute invites you to the virtual exhibition ‘Memory of theatre. Polish theatre photography from the beginning until today’ available at www.pamiecteatru.pl. This is the first ever such a large and cross-sectional exhibition on the history of Polish theatre photography covering three periods: 1839-1918, 1919-1989 and 1989-2024. The exhibition was initiated by the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute.

 The retrospective exhibition ‘Memory of Theatre’ allows us for the first time ever to look at the evolution of theatre photography in Poland from its beginnings to the present day, tracing technological, artistic and social changes and their impact on theatre photography. It consists of three parts that cover the years: 1839-1918, 1919-1989 and 1989-2024 and is curated by Dr Agnieszka Wanicka, Wojciech Nowicki in collaboration with Bartosz Flak and Magdalena Hueckel in collaboration with Magdalena Ożarowska.

Working with numerous institutions and individuals, the curatorial team appointed by the exhibition's initiator, the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw, selected four hundred objects. The selected photographs - often presented to the public for the first time and juxtaposed side by side - invite us to a unique story about Polish theatre and Polish photography. We hope they will also invite you to find your own answer - how does photography remember theatre?

‘When conceptualising and programming ‘Theatre Memory’, it was crucial for us to understand the specifics of the project,’ - recounted the design and programming team at Rhythm Digital, responsible for creating the exhibition website. - ‘We focused on an in-depth understanding of the idea of the different parts of the exhibition and the nature of the photographs, which allowed us to develop a coherent and unique principle for the digital exhibition. Our work focuses on process and complementary interaction - combining project information gathering methods, digital design approaches and programming skills. The online exhibition form, thanks to its greater accessibility, allows us to reach a wider audience with unique content, which is particularly important to us in the context of our team's activities.’(…).

The only attempt at a comprehensive look at theatre photography took place in 1959 during a two-day session of the Council of the International Federation of Librarians' Union. In the conference room of the State Art Institute in Warsaw, in cooperation with the Theatre Museum, the exhibition ‘Polish theatre photography 1840-1959’ was organised, highlighting its documentary value. Since 2015, the Theatre Institute has been organising the Theatre Photography Competition, also pointing out the artistic value of the art of photographing theatre as a tool for co-creating the reception of a theatrical work. Successive editions of the Competition have provided plenty of reflections on the condition of theatre photography, its artists, but also on the theatre it and they immortalise. They also asked questions about past experiences, tradition and memory.

The reflections emerging from the competition provoked the curatorial team to ask themselves key questions: what is more important? The artistic quality of the photographs, which may deviate to a large extent from the aesthetics of the performance being photographed, or technically correct documentation that carefully captures the directorial and scenographic efforts? What should you choose? Outstanding photographs depicting unknown theatre artists or mediocre photographs from the performances of the greatest directors? After all, there are so many ways to tell the story of Polish theatre through the medium of photography.

The reflections emerging from the competition provoked the curatorial team to ask themselves key questions: what is more important? The artistic quality of the photographs, which may deviate to a large extent from the aesthetics of the performance being photographed, or technically correct documentation that carefully captures the directing and staging efforts? What should you choose? Outstanding photographs depicting unknown theatre artists or mediocre photographs from the performances of the greatest directors? After all, there are so many ways to tell the story of Polish theatre through the medium of photography.

 The exhibition is divided into three parts. Dr Agnieszka Wanicka is responsible for the first part, which covers the years 1839-1918, i.e. the period from the beginnings of photography in general until the end of the First World War. The curator of the second part is Wojciech Nowicki, who, in collaboration with Bartosz Flak, has created a photographic story about 20th century theatre (1919-1989). The last part, devoted to recent photography and experimental forms of documenting theatre (1989-2024), was developed by Magdalena Hueckel in collaboration with Magdalena Ożarowska.