Barykada (Barricade)
- Andrzej Bieżan

Musical–theatrical happening by Andrzej Bieżan, composed in the early 1980s, survived as a verbal description. It is based on artistic intervention into the public space: artists gathered around the object (the eponymous barricade) provoke the audience— composed of random passers-by—to jointly act and emit sounds. The Barricade project is the fullest embodiment of the composer’s idea of “music now,” which can be summarised in a few points: 

1. Auditive and paratheatrical action is happening Now and is maximally spontaneous. 

2. The score consists of the existing space and the changing con text of “events” unravelling during the performance. 

3. Engaged artists (musicians, actors, installation builders) follow a preconceived programme / scenario, but must “open” themselves to developing the form according to the unpredictable  behaviour of the audience and passers-by. 

4. Artists must be maximally focused on external impulses, which  expand the scope of individual expression and the boundaries of auditive–situational imagination in the strictly determined context of Now. 

Does the Barricade unite or divide? Any attempt at answering this question is an artistic will left by Andrzej Bieżan. 

Marcin Krzyżanowski