JAN [in the context of] WONDERLAND – „cytat performowany” w praktyce sztuki kontekstualnej Jana Świdzińskiego
JAN [in the context of] WONDERLAND – a performed quotation in the contextual art practice of Jan Świdziński

Summary/Abstract: The article’s aim is to analyse - as thoroughly as possible - a piece of contemporary performance art by Jan Świdziński entitled Jan in Wonderland. The analysis focuses on various aspects of purposively (re-)presenting a verbal expression, in order to shed some light on the issue of the artist manipulating quotations in this particular piece. At the same time, emphasizing Świdziński’s contextual approach towards performing a textual passage which he treats as a ready-made object (in A. C. Danto’s understanding of the subject). The article claims that the profound significance of the artist’s message lies within a certain ‘quotation strategy’ being embraced by Jan Świdziński in his performance. This ‘strategy’ would involve making a highly p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-t-i-v-e use of a carefully chosen - in terms of content - and slightly adjusted citations (excerpts selected from L. Caroll’s Alice In Wonderland) by delivering them to the audience in two different manners which (manners themselves) bear their own anthropological significance. The article’s author attempts to support this claim and broaden her deliberations by stepping into the area of semiotics (J. Kristeva’s pioneer work and J. Culler’s references to intertextuality), adapting a structural perspective (G. Genette’s transtextuality - typology) and using analysis tools of anthropological linguistics (W. J. Ong’s work concerning the characteristics of oral and written expression), as well as by referring to Świdziński’s theoretical work which presents his own idea of art as contextual art and his views on the act of communicating where , along with social situation’s role) he stresses language’s vital part in production of new meanings - also in the world of art.

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