I.

On 21 January 1967, Tadeusz Kantor sent an extraordinary message to Foksal Gallery in Warsaw, the full meaning of which has perhaps not yet been deciphered. Nevertheless, since the day of its transmission it has exerted a continuing influence on the artistic experiments that have taken place at Foksal Gallery and the direction of the theoretical discussions that developed within its milieu. The gigantic letter, measuring 2 by 14 metres, was carried by eight postmen through the streets of Warsaw. Accompanied by photographers, the men departed from the post-office building and arrived in the small gallery space, where the letter was received by a expecting crowd. Pre-recorded audio reports describing the letter's progress were played out loud at the gallery during the event, in order to increase the emotional temperature of the public. Tadeusz Kantor, the 'Man in the Black Jacket', orchestrated the components of the happening, steering cautiously towards its prescribed conclusion - the collective destruction of the letter.

Described in an extant script as its 'formal catharsis', the final chapter of the happening proposed a new concept of art object.¹ The idea challenged and progressively undermined the theoretical premises that grounded the new model of art presentation promoted by Foksal Gallery, which had opened just a few months before, in June 1966. Formulated by Mariusz Tchorek in a poetic mode in 'Introduction in a General Theory of Place', these initial premises posited the model of exhibition-as-work in response to the most recent developments in art, and served from that moment on as a reference point in Polish art criticism and exhibition practice.²

The aim of this text is to describe