Uncanny Dolls of Tadeusz Kantor

First entry to my blog will be dedicated to work of Tadeusz Kantor, whose name should ring a bell to all interested in European avant-garde theatre. Kantor was Polish theatre director and visual artist best know for his Theatre of Death and internationally acclaimed play The Dead Class (1975) Visiting Krakow couple weeks ago I had a great pleasure to explore a new building of Cricoteka, (a centre for documentation of the art of Tadeusz Kantor), Kantor's own old atelier/flat and all the local galleries that display his work on a permanent basis. Although familiar with his work for years, I've never had a chance to see his theatre props in real life before... Kantor's dolls enchanted me from the first sight and have been occupying my mind since. In Kantor's words about his dolls...: ... I am trying to define the motives and destination of the unusual entity which has suddenly come into my thoughts and ideas. Its emergence is compatible with my increasingly strong belief that life can be expressed in art only by the lack of life and a resort to DEATH, by APPEARANCES, by the VOID and the lack of any MESSAGE. In my theatre a MANNEQUIN should become a MODEL embodying and transmitting a powerful feeling of DEATH and of the condition of the dead—the MODEL for a Living ACTOR. Theatre of Death manifesto, Kantor 1975