Paradise Now?

OKNO 2026. Post-artistic practices and the surrounding areaSession II - SZCZECIN//TEATR KOMUNA//WARSZAWA

performative lecture

Should the lecture on the theater be different? What? If we assume that as a public speech is a performance — how do we make speaking translate into real impact? What would that mean? — asked Wojtek Ziemilski, who worked with Teatr Komuna Warszawa at one time.

In July 1968, the premiere of Paradise Now! took place in Avinion! The Living Theatre is one of the most important plays of political theatre. Pictures of nude actors calling for anarchist revolution here and now are icons of the revolt of the 1960s.

45 years later, the creators from Teatr Komuna Warszawa decided to check what has changed since then in the theater and in politics. What is true in artistic engagement and what is a spectacle for the audience? Does participatory art make sense? How does art not change the world?

On November 3, 2013, the first performance of “Paradise Now? RE//MIX Living Theatre” Municipal Theatre Warsaw. RE//MIX is an original theatrical and performative series consisting in the creation by invited artists of new, original versions (remixes) of important works from the history of theater, dance, music and visual arts.

Shortly before, The Living Theater had been evicted from its headquarters in New York. Judith Malina, the leader of the group, was taken to a nursing home. The Commune team visited her there and asked what Paradise was and how to get to it...

meeting Paradise Now? RE//MIX2 - performative lecture conducted by Weronika Fibich

We will invite members of Teatr Komuna Warszawa and Zofia Dworakowska — cultural anthropologist, theatre scientist, currently head of practical master's studies, Department of Social Arts at the University of Warsaw to attend a meeting on this title. The meeting will also be an attempt to tell about the phenomenon of one of the most important groups of theatre seeking in Poland. Topics will include both the winding paths of development of the Warsaw Komuna Theater, as well as the main directions, theatrical idioms, residency work, open studio, as well as the current status of a social cultural institution.

The event is invited to the event by the Curatorial Group Between Others (Weronika Fibich and Rafał Foremski)

Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage under the programme of the National Cultural Centre: Culture - Interventions. Edition 2026 and from the budget of the City of Szczecin and the Local Government of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship.