Paweł Korbus (PL): Budapest – Przemyśl // PLACCC Residency

PLACCC is transforming. Instead of a festival, it is more a platform for creating in public space, and we emphasise our international residency program.

Within the framework of the PLACCC Residency program, Polish visual and performance artist Paweł Korbus has been working in Budapest for several weeks, the results of his site-specific art research, the work-in-progress performance Budapest – Przemyśl can be seen on 14th September 2023, starting at 18:00 at Gyóni Géza tér.

Paweł Korbus is a Polish visual artist and performance artist. His works are created at the boundary of different artistic genres, and they are strongly defined by performance art and visual art research-based work that reflects on the given situation and location. His interdisciplinary approach combines work with the body and sound, as well as different visual art techniques. Since 2020, he has been a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of the University of Rzeszów. He regularly works in international creative formations, including being the co-founder of Antakya Performative Collective and other informal art groups.

“On a street in Przemyśl, right next to the market square and the city hall, I found an object: a packaging for a toy rifle. Children are playing war. 
In Budapest I find the Monument to the Defenders of Przemyśl. For Hungarians, Przemyśl seems to be a lost place – important, but forgotten. A forgotten piece of Galicia.
The Monument to the Defenders of Przemyśl lives its own life in Budapest. The lion on the monument still jumps on the Russian cannon, the insignia of power. What to do about it today? Is there still a Budapest – Przemyśl bridge or is it only post-Galician sentiment used in political narratives? Military columns with weapons for Ukraine are passing through Przemyśl. Refugees were transferred in the other direction, the city received the title the “Rescuer City”. Some say the empire is dead, and I imagine young men losing their lives in battle. The question is, what kind of soldiers are these? What kind of empire is this? Which side are they fighting on? Is it happening here and now or at the beginning of the 20th century? The future and the past mix, and the here and now becomes a cocktail of knowledge, feelings, needs and intuition. 
There will be two performative actions: the first one – a celebration – will take place in Przemyśl, the second in Budapest, in a forgotten part of Galicia.” (Paweł Korbus)

Date: 6PM, 14th September 2023
Location: 1027 Budapest, Gyóni Géza tér