White as the Colour of Snow. Tadeusz Kantor and the Cricot 2 Artists. Rome 1979

In the year dedicated to celebration of the 100th anniversary of Polish avant-garde, Cricoteka presents the exhibition of the work by Tadeusz Kantor and the artists associated with Cricot 2 Theatre that took place in 1979 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.

The show was part of L’avanguardia polacca 1918–1978. S.I. Witkiewicz, costruttivismo, artisti contemporanei (Polish Avant-Garde 1910–1978. S.I. Witkiewicz, Constructivsts, Contempoary Artists), an exhibition organized by Ryszard Stanisławski and the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. The immediate impulse to recall those events was provided by hitherto unknown drawn plans of the exposition, kept in Achille Perilli’s archive. Kantor and Perilli – a Rome-born painter, drawer, theatre artist, publisher and researcher of avant-garde – first met in 1968 on the Yugoslavian island of Korčula when they attended a session on the art of mosaics. They soon developed an intellectual bond and lasting friendship. As a keen admirer of Kantor’s work Achille Perilli set out to promote it in his own country with a boundless zest. He also became – along with Konstanty Węgrzyn – a curator of the Rome exhibition, at which works by Maria Jarema, Maria Stangret-Kantor, Zbigniew Gostomski, Kazimierz Mikulski, Andrzej Wełmiński and Roman Siwulak were presented. The concept and arrangement of the show was designed by Tadeusz Kantor himself. The programme also featured a performance of the cricotage Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear.