About a man who deciphered mysterious signs
or about encoding the code
which is also called the search for the meaning of life
Artistic “work in progress” realized in various techniques since 1988.
The inspiration for the undertaking was an Old Slavic inscription carved on a spearhead, dated to the beginning of the common era. The inscription — undeciphered — is a graphic form oscillating between a symbol and a letter. I decided to decipher it using non-linguistic tools and methods: image, sound, sculptural form, intuition.
(1988) performance / Skoki, Creative Work House of the Academy of Fine Arts (PWSSP) Poznań
The realization took the form of a performance. Briefly, it consisted of transposing the image of the signs into four monophonic musical scores, singing these scores, and layering them upon one another. The four-part song created after these procedures was the first reading of the inscription.
(1989) artist’s book / Academy of Fine Arts (PWSSP) Poznań
An Illustrated Book (text in the style of 17th-century hermeneutic writings) – describing the course of the performance as an initiation process. The creation of “The Book” became the key to self-analysis of earlier artworks and an analysis of the creative process.
(1990 – 1994) Diploma project / spatial presentation / Poznań, CK Zamek
380 pages of text and 380 A3 format illustrations, 20 linocuts format 60x60cm, several photographs, iron objects, a mobile, sheet music, music played from tape, and text read live simultaneously by 5 people. The exhibition was Jacek Hałas’s diploma work at the Faculty of Painting, Graphics and Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań (supervisor Jarosław Kozłowski).
In subsequent years, the form of presentation underwent transformations, to finally take the form of a book format 60x60cm in three volumes read with musical accompaniment in 1994.
(2004) ԱՌԱԿՍԻ / the Book performance, exhibition, concert
„International Biennial of Contemporary Art” – (Gyumri, Armenia)
The realization proceeded in three stages:
- performance referring to the first realization from 1988, based on the Armenian alphabet,
- display of text, illustrations, and objects in space (installation ”the Book – colours of Armenia”)
- Concert of improvised music based on 27 simple motifs according to the existing musical notation created during the reading process in 1990 (first realization in this form)
For the concert, Jacek Hałas invited Polish and Armenian musicians from various backgrounds. Concert lineup: Jacek Hałas – piano, Azat Herajsz – Kamancha, Maciej Filipczuk – violin, Michał Żak – flute, clarinet
(2005) The Book (Xięga) concert / Poznań, Blue Note jazz club
Improvised music concert realized as part of the “Hurdy-Gurdy Festival Zakręceni 2005” titled “The Book – work in progress”. In the Poznań jazz club Blue Note, the following met: Pascal Lefeuvre (hurdy-gurdy), avant-garde drummer Andrzej Karpiński, pianist Witold Oleszak, violinist Maciej Filipczuk, and flutist Michał Żak, as well as the project author Jacek Hałas (piano).
(2010) The Book / Viscera – improvised opera
“twenty-seven tales of bodily and ethereal substances”
Olsztyn, Improvisation Festival “Happenings” (Dzianie się)
Organs, body parts, and substances of the human organism were assigned to the elements of nature for many centuries. It was no different with color, number, or even treating man as a model of the Macrocosm. Color, like shape or sound, constitutes an integral part of the subject, and in symbolic thinking, colors represent fragments of the universe and are both their part and representation.
I assume that the old inscription retained a trace of a metalanguage capable of expressing the model of the Macrocosm. In search of this, Jacek Hałas invited artists from various fields of art to the improvised session this time.
Musicians / material – musical motifs from The Book, vocal improvisation, Persian instruments, piano, percussion, bass guitar – Jacek Hałas, Mieczysław Litwiński, Przemek Parszutowicz, Michał Biela; Actor / material – body, movement, physicality – butoh dancer – Takayuki Ishihara; Visual artist / material – image, multimedia, visualizations – Sylwek Łuczak, Ula Mianowska
(2012) The Book of Nawia / Orla, Białowieża
Wertep Festival / two realizations – Orla synagogue, oak grove in Białowieża
The Book of Nawia is another attempt to read the mysterious inscription. Nawia – the Slavic afterlife – symbolically described as a great green plain, a pasture of souls, is a place where we can meet both real and legendary figures, the dead and the unborn, heroes forgotten for all time. The key opening the door to this land are folk songs, ditties, dances, and every concert discovers new tracks and paths on the forgotten map. The travel companions will be two seasoned explorers of the layers of imagination:
- Hypersensitive Electronic Artist Michał Jacaszek
- Masters of Chiaroscuro Ula Mianowska/Sylwek Łuczak.
(2012) The Book – reading / Poznań, Lublin
Return to sources. The starting material for improvisation are the texts contained in the book form of “The Book”.
Poznań Oct 17, 2012, 12:00 AM Radio Afera
Jacek Hałas – reading, Rafał Zapała – live electronics
Two artists meeting for the first time: Jacek Hałas as the sound source – voice, the volume itself as a “sound object”, and comments accompanying the reading performed on folk instruments (hurdy-gurdy, accordion, Jew’s harp, shepherd’s flute). Everything that comes from Hałas – before reaching the listener’s ear – will end up in Rafał Zapała’s electronic “workshop” where it will undergo deconstruction and acquire a new, unknown sound.
Lublin Dec 6, 2012, Workshops of Culture
Jacek Hałas – musical commentary
Maciej Wyczański – voice, text interpretation, Rafał Zapała – live electronics, Radek Bułtowicz – live visual setting
Four spaces in which we seek answers to what the mysterious signs on the first pages of The Book say. Four corners of the art world from which we arrive. Material – the text of The Book – will undergo multiple “processings”. Firstly, the interpretation of an excellent speaker, a specialist in Great Romantic Monologues, actor Maciej Wyczański. Secondly, this interpretation, as well as the text of The Book itself, will be commented on live by Jacek Hałas on acoustic folk instruments (white voice, hurdy-gurdy, accordion, Jew’s harp, shepherd’s flute). Thirdly, the voice, interpretation, and comments, before reaching the listener’s ear, will be “processed” in Rafał Zapała’s electronic workshop. Fourthly, the content of The Book, as well as the form of its presentation and comments, will provide fodder for Radek Bułtowicz’s visual variations.
(2014) The Book of Nawia Duet – Poznań, Grand Opening of the Poznań Gate ICHOT
Many years ago, I accidentally came across an Old Slavic inscription carved on a spearhead dating back to the beginning of the common era. Eight undeciphered signs have accompanied me since then, and I have attempted to read this mysterious message from the past many times. This time, the key to the cipher are traces of Slavic mythology preserved in ceremonial songs, ritual dances, and folk legends. On the great green plain of Nawia, real and legendary figures, the dead and the unborn, remembered heroes and those forgotten for all time will meet. The “Book of Nawia” concert is a kind of “guide” to this land, a specific map of main roads, side paths, and narrow trails leading nowhere, arranged into a unique two-voice of ethnic and electronic sounds. The meeting of two excellent artists – Jacek Hałas and Michał Jacaszek – operating daily in different sound spaces, resulted in a concert that tells of the distant past in the language of the future.
Realization: rough Acoustic Jacek Hałas & Hypersensitive Electronic Michał Jacaszek
The Book χορεία (Chorea)
Chorea (Gr. χορεία) is a group dance, danced in a circle (χορεύω σε κύκλο), accompanied by singing (choir). It was known in ancient Greece, referred to by Homer in his epic poem, the Iliad. Although Greece is not the exclusive homeland of this dance, it is from the Greek dance chorea that the names defining circle dances of this type in other countries are derived: horo in Romania, Moldova, and Israel; choro in Bulgaria, or khorovod in Russia. There were many types of chorea: prayer (an echo of which remains today’s procession), passage (funeral cortège), wedding (wedding processions), or simply play (circle dances).
The essence of the search is an invitation to a common dance (chorea). This is only possible when the dancers know a common step and note. In the case of this project, the step and note are a constant starter kit – a musical score of a piece consisting of 26 measures, which were created many years ago, at the beginning of the venture. Back then, the rather free notation of the performance acquired a visual form as well as rhythm, sound, and simple text. It is a rather objective record, as it was obtained through accidental or mechanical operations on the source material. Therefore, this “alphabet” can be a basis for creating – each time – a new language serving mutual understanding between the participants of the event.
These are improvised sessions in which I assume the participation of artists from various fields of art. The basis for improvisation are simple musical motifs received by me in the process of visual-musical analysis and transformation of the Old Slavic inscription. I assume that in mythical times there existed a metalanguage of art manifesting itself in its various varieties and fields – but understandable and legible to every human being. Although this metalanguage ceased to function later, we can still find its traces today. Certainly, traditions are a repository of traces of this universal code. I think that creating special conditions, such as the choice of place, the heightened level of concentration of invited guests induced by the improvisation situation, and the confrontation of creators moving in different spaces and using different tools, forms of expression, and languages, will allow us to get closer to this forgotten language of community, if only for a moment.
