• A community action arts group with anarchistic roots. It was mostly involved in activities on the border of the theatre, the visual arts theatre and performance art. It also carried out interdisciplinary activities going beyond the sphere of art. In its early days the group became involved in local projects and animating cultural life in Otwock. For a few years it ran an alternative shelter in the village of Ponurzyca near Warsaw and got involved in ecological education for the local children. It published the irregular publication Info and Info2, ran the pirate radio station Czosnek (Garlic) in Otwock and an art gallery (Biuro/Galeria – Office/Gallery).
• The Otwock Commune organised concerts, exhibitions, talks and became engaged in socially committed campaigns. In cooperation with such organizations as Amnesty International, and the Inna Przestrzeń (The Other Space) Foundation it organized a few dozen performances on social issues (e.g. Furs for Animals, 1995; the Vistula Holiday, 1995, The 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1998; The 10th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, 1999; Simulator of Being Stuck in a Traffic Jam, 2001; Viva Zapata! A Charitable Event in Support of the Autonomous School and Clinic for the Chiapas Indians, 2002; Put a Stop to Torture, 2007; The Alternative Opening of the Olympics, 2008; Uprising 1944 – Sitting 2009).
• In the years 2002-2003 the “feminist fraction”, Femina Fabra, was active within the group and put on the performance of Halki (Petticoats).
• Since 2005 Komuna Otwock has been permanently based in Warsaw, initially on the shop floor of the now dismantled former precision tool factory in the Wola District, and since 2007 in the “arts” tenement house at 30/32 Lubelska Street in the Warsaw District of Praga.
• The group’s interest in alternative theatre started in the 1990s – beginning from street campaigns and performances (Ritual, Flight to Mars, 1994, they proceeded to campaign – spectacles (Stefan or the Meaning of Life, 1995,Illumination, 1997, Nietzsche, 1998) and then through a process of evolution theatrical performances became the group’s most significant medium of expression.
• The spectacles and activities of the Otwock Commune are based on authored texts and group creations. In various ways they addressed the simplest and most significant problems of humans as social beings (“is a different world possible?”, “is a good revolution possible?” Not only did they reflect the state of the social conscience, but encouraged self-examination and undertaking the effort of independent action.
• The Commune’s style incorporates the fusion of performance, concert (the spectacles are accompanied by live music) , visual arts and elements of dance. The Otwock Commune also likes to use multimedia. The performances, which are devoid of emotion, energetic and highly rhythmical, reflect a fascination with precise minimalism, the Japanese Noh, or physical theatre, as well as an auto-ironic approach to the function of “Theatre” or the “Actor”.
• After having seen the Why There Will be No Revolution trilogy, Roman Pawłowski, a theatre critic working for the Gazeta Wyborcza daily newspaper, wrote: “The performances of the Otwock Commune are the most politically involved manifestation of the Polish theatre. Not only does the group warn people against ideologies, but also against taking no action. They teach us to act independently, undermine obvious truths and ask inconvenient questions.”
• In 2008 the Otwock Commune started the Every two weeks a showproject: a cycle of artistic theatrical and musical campaigns designed to be quick responses to current political and social events, or referring to important dates, historical anniversaries and holidays (e.g. A Reconstruction of the March Events; Sierakowski, Who Are You?; Atom? For Poland; Us Women.) Simultaneously they ran a cycle in cooperation with art curators: Krzysztof Żwirblis (Possible Impossible?” (democracy). The Art of Democracy) with Adam Mazur (Inner Experience. From Politics to Art and Back), Ewa Majewska (Radical Politics – a Laboratory of Social Communication), Kaja Pawełek (Exterritories. In Search of Common Moments). They also explored the links between art, politics and social engagement. The performances, installations and concerts were accompanied by lectures, discussions with invited guests, presentations of DJs, VJs and film shows.
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