Cricoteka Information

Cricoteka, the Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor was founded by the artist Tadeusz Kantor as early as in 1980; originally named the Centre of the Cricot 2 Theatre, it was first located at 5 Kanonicza Street (now the seat of the Centre's archives). For almost ten years, the institution has been the cornerstone of Kantor's avant-garde theatre, as well as a 'living archive' of his theatrical creation. The unique collection of Kantor's works is the basis of the activities of the Centre. The collection comprises several hundred objects and costumes from the Cricot 2 Theatre, Kantor's theoretical papers, drawings and design works, video records, and photographic documentation as well as thousands of reviews, journals and books. This enormous output - accumulated as the result of the extensive peregrinations of Tadeusz Kantor and his actors - has been subject to continuous development and academic research. The new home of Cricoteka opened in 2014 - is the first art institution in Poland dedicated to an individual artist. The fundamental concerns of Cricoteka are issues such as the nature of the artist's output and the possible ways of presenting it in a museum. The concept behind the programme of the Centre has been inspired by the entirety of Kantor's work as well as the collection of archive materials and theatrical objects, viewed from the perspective of contemporary art discourse and new methodology. The programme will cover such phenomena and topics as performatics, re-performance, appropriation art, retrospection and memory, archive and anthropology of collection, and interdisciplinary as well as experimental puppet theatre. www.cricoteka.pl/pl is a temporary website and acts as one of the subpages of www.cricoteka.pl, which provides information on the life and work of Tadeusz Kantor. Information on the construction of Cricoteka's new seat can be found at www.cricotekawbudowie.pl.