Publications from the “Reclaimed avant-garde” series
At the heart of the “Reclaimed Avant-garde” project, which was conceived at the Theatre Institute in 2017, was the need to acquire a more in-depth knowledge of the region’s theatre traditions and their wider promotion beyond this part of Europe.
The first stage of the project consisted in establishing a platform of theatre scholars working on the topic of Central and Eastern European theatre. The platform, comprised of theatre scholars from 14 countries in the region, namely Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine, allowed and still allows for the exchange of knowledge and free discussion on the topic of interest.
The first phase of the project resulted in two publications, i.e. Awangarda teatralna w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej. Wybór tekstów źródłowych[Anthology of Central and Eastern European Avant-Garde. A Selection of Source Texts], edited by Ewa Guderian-Czaplińska and Małgorzata Leyko (it presented the programme texts, most of which had never been translated into Polish before, written by artists of the historical theatre avant-gardes of 11 countries – from Bulgaria to Ukraine, preceded by extensive introductions by contemporary scholars, experts in the field) and the book Reclaimed Avant-garde: Spaces and Stages of Avant-garde Theatre in Central and Eastern Europe edited by Dariusz Kosiński and Zoltán Imre, which emerged from a conference held at the Theatre Institute in November 2017.
The starting point for the “Reclaimed Avant-garde” project was the premise that the strong influence of the German and Russian theatre avant-gardes obscured the legacy of the various avant-garde movements in the countries that lie along a belt between Germany and Russia, from the Baltic States to the Balkans and the Caucasus. The cultures of these countries, however, gave rise to original, authentic projects and solutions that were, to a certain extent, a transformation of inspirations from both East and West but always driven by the search for an individual theatrical style.
The “Reclaimed Avant-garde” project resulted in the publication of subsequent books, namely Theatrical Writings by Les Kurbas edited by Anna Korzeniowska-Bihun, translated by Bruno Chojak, Marta Kacwin-Dunin, and Anny Korzeniowska-Bihun (2021), an anthology of source texts from the period 1919–1939 Polska awangarda teatralna 1919–1939. Antologia [Polish Theatre Avant-garde 1919–1939. An Anthology] edited by Dorota Fox and Dariusz Kosiński (2021), Szara strefa awangardy i inne szkice [The Grey Zone of the Avant-garde and Other Writings] by Ewa Guderian-Czaplińska edited by Małgorzata Leyko and Wojciech Dudzik (2021), Teatr dynamiczny. Wybór pism o teatrze, muzyce i polityce [Dynamic Theatre. A Selection of Writings on Theatre, Music, and Politics] by Emil František Burian edited by Jan Jiřík, translated by Krystyna Mogilnicka (2023), Awangarda podkarpacka. Dziewięć reportaży historycznych [The Avant-garde of the Carpathian Region. Nine Historical Reports ] by Małgorzata Dziewulska (2024), and A Lexicon of the Central-Eastern European Interwar Theatre Avant-garde (2023) published in collaboration with Performance Research Books.
The last of these publications recapitulates the research project “Reclaimed Avant-garde: The Theatre Avant-garde in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe,” which was financed by the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities.