Magdalena Pałka

Institutional revisions and (un)likely scenarios. The Polish “self-diagnostic” theatre.

The paper discusses the phenomenon of theatre performances as well as the curator practices focussed on the organisational/production/administrative dimension of a theatre which is reserved for theatre employees or experts with specialist knowledge and thus usually unavailable to a wide audience. We will treat the selected practices as a tool shaping the future of the institution (and the people employed in it). The most important questions which we will try to answer include: To whom and what do these practices give the floor? On what problems do they shed light? Are they a self-diagnostic tool, and if so, to what extent? How do they deal with the subject of the future? The first part is devoted to the phenomenon of institutional critique. It examines its specific nature and development in the activities of Polish directors and curators. In the second part, we show the most salient examples of the Polish “self-diagnostic” theatre. In part three, we are deliberating on the four problematic areas in which theatre institutions are to operate (hierarchisation, precarity of working conditions, capitalist model of “production,” and illusions that support the status quo) and the possible scenarios indicated by the theatre performances and curator practices described in the article.

In publications of recent years, embedded in the discipline of management studies and regarding the issue of image, it is pointed out that one of the most frequent mistakes of modern organizations is the lack of coherence between communicated values and everyday practice. In the article, I propose to look at image crises in polish institutional theatres (those caused by phenomenon mentioned above), in a way that recognizes and appreciates their positive aspects. They can be treated as „tools” that inspire system change. On the examples from recent years, I argue that the vast majority of image crises in art institutions are caused by the lack of coherence between the declarative sphere (mainly shaped by artistic program of institution) and intra-institutional practice. I also show that thought on the discussed subject matter has developed in art thanks to the evolution of the concept of criticism and critical attitude, and not, as one would suppose, in relation to the achievements of management studies. I will also discuss the determinants of contemporary institutional critique, in which the thought on relations between the declarative sphere and practice develops, and which affects the perception of the crisis itself.