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CASTLE OF IMAGINATION
The 1st IAM "Castle of Imagination" □ Organized by: □ Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions in Słupsk □ The West Kashubian Museum in Bytów □ Supported by: 11 Governor of Słupsk Region, State Administration □ Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions in Słupsk □ The West Kashubian □ Museum in Bytów u Executive director: Władysław Kaź-mierczak 11 Curators: Grzegorz Borkowski, Władysław Kaźmierczak □ The 2nd IAM "Castle of Imagination" n Organized by: The Society of the Friends of Contemporary Art in Słupsk □ Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions in Słupsk □ The West Kashubian Museum in Bytów □ Supported by: n Governor of Słupsk Region, State Administration □ Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions in Słupsk □ The West Kashubian Museum in Bytów □ City Council in Bytów i i Executive director: 11 Władysław Kaźmierczak □ Curators: i i Grzegorz Borkowski, Władysław Kaźmierczak
THE INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS MEETING BYTÓW - POLAND
n Editor: 11 BWA, Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions, 11 ul. Partyzantów 31a, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland □ Edited by: □ Ewa Śmigielska □ Władysław Kaźmierczak □ Translations: □ Tomasz Kowalski u Krystyna Sawka □ Photos: □ Małgorzata Borej & Mieczysław Kurewicz, Wojtek Niedzielko, Boris Niesiony, Władysław Kaźmierczak □ Printing: Zakład Poligraficzny „ROMIPRES" 76-200 Słupsk, ul. Grottgera 19, tel. 436944
CASTLE OF IMAGINATION
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"THE CASTLE OF IMAGINATION" □ Grzegorz Borkowski and Władysław Kaźmierczak - curators of the First International Meeting of Artists "Castle of Imagination" very strongly emphasised neutrality of its idea when they were formulating it without imposing any introductory conditions, which could constitute obstacles for unconstrained performance of individual presentations. Starting point for creation of the concept of the meeting of artists consisted in showing the festival audience various connections among traditional forms of expression such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and media of expression which have been generated by traditional forms taking into consideration such formal aspects as: time (performance), persihability (instalations), space of the spot (side specific), sound and text. Construction of the idea of "The Castle of Imagination" enabled realization of a very important artistic mission i.e.: creation of the network of links comprising all the artistic fields, the mission which results from aiming at global look at the human condition, social political or ecological issues. □ The factor which was most attractive for invited artists from Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Japan, Holland, Slovakia, Estonia and Poland consisted of possibility of artistic presence in the space of a historical castle, in a differenciated space, which ideally underlined uniqueness of each artistic realization. Multiple context of historical reference, which were the characteristic feature most often reffered to, was quite important too. Location of the art festival far from big metropolitan areas or art centers constituted another positive characteristics. It was quite interesting when artists had immediate possibility to present their ideas to extraartistic community, which happened to be very sensitive and open. Audience took place of works of arts and gradually changed from passive on-lookers to active participants. It is important to refer to that obvious thing, however, since in majority other artists constitute the most frequent audience at similar festivals held especially in known galleries of big town. The fact of presentation of art in professional circles is frustrating for artists, because reception of each work of art concentrates in detailed analysis of the used artistic media, less on the idea of the work of art as such. Therefore, to the "Castle of Imagination" we invited artists who while representing contemporary sense of art wanted to be useful in the community and were commited to seeking close, real, true-not occassional contact, o Władysław Kaźmierczak
CASTLE FULL OF IMAGINATIONS □ Quite a few months passed since the iast meeting at the Teutonic Castle in Bytów... Human memory is treacherous (therefore I have to apologize to some of the artists...) - it retains the specific, the extraordinary as something which is foolishly accidental, well, even banal, so incidental as incidental (?) the creak of the old door can be, the sound of the steps on the stone floor, the shape of the creeper on the castle wall, a skin freezing abyss opening at your feet when you open the old trapdoor. The jolly chink of the plates in the dining room, which at the same time served as a sitting room and the place of exchange of organizational considerations, night fun and meetings with friendly aborigines, the intensive color of tesellated floor and the strange shape of the hotel rooms influenced by the XlVth century architecture, also the halls where exhibitions and meetings were held, a small picturesque town drown in the constantly falling rain, completely anonymous, as an uninhabited Island on the "featureless territory", neither German nor Polish-only Cashubian, induced participants to more careful examination of the neighbourhood, closer contact with numerous audience eager to see everything,open and cordial. Completely different from the audiences at metropolitan galleries. A week of intensive preparation with the following four days in the middle of June full of concerts, performances, fragmentary exhibitions, film projections, documentation displays. So much effort for one to, at most, two hundred spectators anyway. The worthier the effort of particpating artists, some of whom came from farway countries (such as Japan), the more intimate and pleasant the participation of spectators and the audience invited by Władek Kaźmierczak and Grzegorz Borkowski-the organizers and animators of the whole undertaking along with the hospitable management of the Bytów Castle. □ A GOLD - FISH IMITATING THE MARX BROTHERS. □ "CLOCK LIVE ART" performance was the real hit of "Castle of Imagination". Mike Cummins, Jason Walsh and Luke McKeown-three young men from Cardiff, as the subject of this consideration, proved "performance", as a countinuous process of performing and creation, to be as it is defined. Continuous activeness of "folks from Cardiff" taking advantage of any chance for self presentation, during which they were characterized by an excellent sense of humouir and hearing, intuition and creativity which immediatelly integrated them with the audience and other participants. If I want to account for stylistic features of their performance which was most probably closer to the TV gags of Benny Hill and Covent Garden tradition than to the Polish messianistic and philosophical school of peformance (strongly influenced by two absent seniors of that art-Jerzy Bereś and Zbigniew Warpechowski), so I must admit it is not so easy. Having considered open and "tolerant" character of "folks from Cardiff: suggesting possibility of "gorging" of any cultural film immediatelly reflecting it in the distorting mirror of their own irony seasoned by serene jest, I would unfortunatelly incorporate them into not very original aesthetics of Postmodernism, although we could equally talk here about "Post TV Era" or, let us say, neo-joker-art.Their treatment of surrounding area, however, goes further beyond the irony of situational gag. It brings about the understatement of various cultural observations. It is characteristic for its unusual contextual reactions, capability of communicating on the basis of well known cliches and cultural figures. Santa Claus, Alien Creature (Alf), Naive Black (a figure of a primitive tribesman), Announcer-these are characters from well known comics, tales, TV series. Absurd and nonsense scenography consisting of unique "still lifes", the part of which consists of actors themselves, implies the gestures of the same type. It is unusually simple in it s dramatic context. For example, the action of the presented performance evolved around painting of a pile of stones in the yard into an icon representing "The Order of Smile" - which was very popular during the worst downfall of the communist system - while spectators were further enhanced to touch each of them (smiling of course) and to help to make another non-empowering pile. Lively imagination connected with that performance, elements of carnival fun, good contact with audience helped to achieve the objective of constant focusing of their attention on the performance, which lasted a few hours. "No time, no idea", the credo they very often refer to, meaning "the endless story" of their performance without the point, without the moral does not mean the lack of reflectiveness. Being very young (all of them are below thirty) they are outstandingly intuitive, so we see perfect wizzards or excellent
sociologists in them, the result of modern marketing education and advertisment. Strictly speaking - the adult orphans from Mcluhan's global village. □ EGZOTIC MOON. □ A Warsaw theatrical music group "The Moon" was equally applauded by the audience. Their improvised concerto for piano, clarinet, accordion, "disturbers" and two soloists raised emotions and interest among spectators. "The Moon" presented their generational belonging to Post Modern Era not only by their wide scope of inspirations included in mostly their own compositions, ranging from traces of Russian ballads, through Chinese and Korean songs to already mentioned "Clock Live Art", which finally resulted in a group presentation of dance and pantomime in the lobby of the castle restaurant pararell to the mainstream event. □ THE NEGEV DESERT, STEPS, NEON LAMPS AND ROMANTIC FAUN FROM ITALY. □ A concerto by Krzysztof Knittel, one of more interesting composers and performers of electronic music in Poland, was another interesting event of "Castle of lmagination".The performed pieces, with a visionary messianistic piece "The Negev Desert" was a good development of Krzysztof s entirely new composition written along with his friend: a photographer and acoustic - Jan Pieniążek, which was a laser - sound installation entitled "Nogi" (Legs). The installation, which covered the biggest site in the castle consisted of ten small mirrors reflecting the streams of light from a laser (LHN5) with two closely installed sensors at the same time connected to simple tone generators amplified by two loudspeakers. The whole composition was completed by a fog machine and a subtle ultra violet light covered with cotton wool. Covered by darkness, the installation was enthusiastically received by the youngest spectators. The specific mood and original construction of the whole composition helped the spectators to concentrate and calm down, since only then could they hear the continuously changing piece improvised by the moving feet of the audience. The place covered by KnittPs installation became a "site of relaxation" for all participants tired with intensive impresiions of the fast galloping events. □ Another installation: "Sex don't limit" by Mirosław Filonik exhibited in a cradle vaulted cellar of the castle was close in character (the magic light) to the already mantioned one by Krzysztof Knitttel, being at the same time in maximum musical contrast. It consisted of 17 neon lamps on thin wire stands, part of which played the role of something like audience, while the other one - the female (warm neon light) and the male (cold light) were placed in the form of a third degree intercourse. The natural stone basement served the purpose of exposition of the scene supplied with a suggestive soud track from a porno movie of the same title. □ Various sounds could be heard around the castle on different occasions, but a short recited performance by Giovanni Fontana was a very pleasant form of sound production. Put in narrow slots of window frames pages of "Tarocco Mechanico (romanzo sonoro)" by Fontana served as a basic score for vocal and clarinet. The piece under consideration consisted of 80 poems, each of them underwent semantic and rhytmic analysis of words and sentences.They refered to late Middle Age Italian romanzas of which the meaning creating method resembled looking into a holographic mirror or a tarrot game, was one of the examples of Fontana's artisitic activity who in his art presented a synthesis of various media. That extraordinarily creative personality, combining the soul of a poet and dramatist, composer and experimenter in one, known in Italy as the Editor in Chief of "la Taverna di Auerbach" review dealing with poetry and experimenting contemporary literature, aesthetics and theory of language, but also as a creator of various experimental programmes on radio and TV, as well as organizer of audio visual art festivals. □ ON THE TABLE. nThe table as a site of a performance was the attribute chosen by at least two artists, one of them was Seiji Shimoda from Japan-the author of the performance "On the table". Another person acting in a completely different way and proposing entirely different poetic image was a Dutch artist Geert Duintjer. □ Seiji Shimoda, who has performed the same piece for 3 years now, who has operated the same objects (he is one of the most outstanding artists all over the world-performs 100 times in a year) showed in his performance the always repeated trial to establish his own position in the world, for which the table - an immediate surrounding of the man is the object agreed upon. Before very complicated evolutions aroud the table, which demand unusual acrobatic skill, Shimoda using very simple accessories such as: dust bags, develops and describes by means of that accessory the properties of the space, its temperature, air currents, dynamic and electro - magnetic fields. Then, he performs "winding oneself around" all the axes of the table presenting excellent posture, strength and concentration. "Healthy soul is the soul of health" - according to one of Zen masters, the name of whose I can not remember at the moment. Seiji treats his art as a very intensive meditation training which keeps up his own philosophy of life, finds old elements in the wandering of a nomad, a wanderer, who is deconcentrated by his great interest of the every day world and people as they are. □ Ryo Takahashi ("Candlelight performance") and
Hiroyouki Shimizu (with the series of photographs "Time Files") who were recomended by Seiji Shimoda, seemed to represent a similar school of concentration on mastering one skill, which only after repeated efforts leads to understanding of a performed process and though evolution leads to perfection. Practising of virtues and skills of mind, even those most abstract ones as for example: carrying tens of lit candles on ones body and walking with them along the suspended line, shows thousand years of Japanese cultural heritage, so much different from Polish tradition. OGeert Duintjer entitled his performance "Cross Over".On the other table made of raw timber boards touching the opposite walls, he displayed various coal stones, seven loafs of bread, seven glasses of water and then after having covered his body with flour and marking two points with black paint - one on his forehead the other at the back of his head- he started his wandering around the table, each time trying to step on the fewest loafs. After successfull completion he decided to clean the site of performance by covering his body with a white cloth containing all the remains of the objects from the table - bread, glasses, coal etc. Although crossing the table looked as if a man was walking down a thorny road of human existence depicted by Jesus Christ (represented by bread,water and painted stigmas). Kees Mol was undistrubed in his nearby performance -slightly related to the context of the previous one, which constituted an interesting visual complement. Mol, generally nonchalant during his meeting, was reading the fragments from Kant with unusually grave voice, cutting (infinitely) "the Moebius band" taken off the wall, stretching at the same time "the length of infininty" and the patience of the audience to the limits. □ Performance of a Hungarian artist Otto Mesarosz was a very compact and effective in form and one which I liked the best.ln his performance he used 60 eggs throwing them easily up and watching them crash against the glass plate just to dance a Vienner waltz with them, causing some panic among the audience and happiness on the children's faces. □ Jolanta Ciesielska
SUPPLEMENTS (still incomplete) □ Kees Mol and Geert Duintjer created a situation which was very symptomatic for the meeting in Bytow. In one castle hall they realized two separate performances. That simple idea in unconstrainted way caught pararell character of the conduct, live and individual flow of time of us all, the ones who for a very short period of time gathered in one place. Everyone with his short thread of time. Rytmically wandering along the road made of tables, Duintjer measured his time as a metronome. For a while we could turn our spiritual watches off. At the same time Kees Mol was busy, seemingly disorderly, with various activites. Some of them were quite simple, but always with a hint of metaphore: sharpening of a horse shoe, blowing the soap bubbles with his mouth. He was reading original excerpts from Kant with the same natural concentration. He was drawing on the wall the annoucements which summarized his semantic reflections. In his performance, time consisted of a series of moments, which were not joined in line. It was a sum of concentric elements of a complicated mosaic. Together with Duintjer they managed to create the climate of careless dignity uniflying the importance of prosaic as well as noble issues. Then, putting up of a small bonfire on the floor isolated from castle ground had a character of both a ritual of ordinariness and misticism. The smoke slowly rising in the hall accentuated equally the absurd and natural character of the situation in which the witnesses of the performance participated. At the same time Duintjer was approaching the limit of his wandering. Moved by the performance, I was not capable to differentiate between the result of artistsic activity and pure human experience of the contact with personalities of the two performers. The moments immediately following the end of all perfomances in Bytow were the culminating point of such impressions. We were vibrating and filled with intellectual presence of the participants. The art itslef was somewhere further in the background. It is a special priviledge of meeting of performers, the priviledge of various presentations, in which the presence of artist in particular place is very active. Specific combination of their aspirations and anxieties connected with the specific reality extremely invigorates the consciusness to a maximum tension. That particularly extra artistic part of artistic performance should not be treated marginally only. It contains unusually neccessary experience of integrity and coexitence of artistic creativity and daily shaping of personality. During the meeting whose basic aim is art, it is possible to experience the presence of its creators. It is the simpliest value in itself for which the art cannot be reduced and without which it becomes a nearly dead construction - likely to loose its identity.The castle itself with its body and atmosphere was another issue of the Meeting. It frequently combined or entered the performances held in it. □ Giovanni Fontana's performance in a narrow corridor of the castle became more theatrical partially in oposition to its intelectual score. The character of a wandering performer inevitably brought into mind a castle ghost speaking with a foreign but understandable tongue. □ The art of Seiji Shimoda revealed its timeless character. In a hall with an arch ceiling and little windows we were excitedly following the slowly changing forms created by the artist's body. Such a performance could take place in the same place 200 or even 300 years ago. The same was true for a miracle performance of Brian Connolly, which lasted for some hours since the sunset along with other performances. One could only participate in it in 3 - 4 person groups for several minutes to move in a moment to another hall and time. □ Yes, one could find energy full of contemporaneity, the energy defeating the historical construction in Mirosław Filonik's installation, performance of the Clock Live Art group or in performance of Raul Kurvitz from Estonia. Kurvitz used the sound amplified by the microphone connected with the slide projector without films. That sound resembled the clatter of the train wheels. Rectangles of projector light slowly moving along the wall more acurately accentuated that suggestion. The light emerged in different ways; clear and changeable compositions made of the shade of empty bottles (vodka bottles) and the glasses. That subtle and rhytmically developing simple performance of sounds and pictures without the anecdote caught from the high regions of clear imagination and post Soviet reality of alcoholic route- Moscow-Pietushki. The teutonic castle at the height of its glamour resonated most probably with more grave tones. □ Chary installation of Jurgen Schneider - an artist, gallerist and publisher from Berlin reffered to it. It consisted, besides "Festung" logo, of muzzels and a row of brand new, clean brooms. □ Raw behaviour performance of Władysław Kaźmierczak belonged to the same stream. First, the shades of crossed axes and huge rod appeared in the point light. In the course of events the rod was cut into pieces and its remains appeared in the piece of cloth forming something like a sack. The tools appeared again in the light of a reflector. The shade of the axe was crossed with the shade of the sack (slightly deformed). We knew what was inside and what it had been before. The light was turned off and the hall was lit by a sole glass ball-an effective gadget borrowed from the castle bar for tourist - invitation to contemporary Bytów by night. □ Grzegorz Borkowski
THE 1st INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS MEETING □ CASTLE OF IMAGINATION □ JUNE, 17 - 19, 1993 □ GRZEGORZ BORKOWSKI -POLAND □ JOLANTA CIESIELSKA - POLAND □ BRIAN CONNOLLY -IRELAND □ MICHAEL CUMMINS - GREAT BRITAIN □ GEERT DUINTJER - THE NETHERLANDS □ MIROSŁAW FILONIK - POLAND □ GIOVANNI FONTANA - ITALY □ THE MOON GROUP - POLAND
□	KAZIMIERZ JALOWCZYK - POLAND □ WŁADYSŁAW KAŹMIERCZAK - POLAND □ HENRYK KLAJA - POLAND □ KRZYSZTOF KNITTEL -POLAND □ RAUL KURVITZ - ESTONIA □ ALASTAIR McLENNAN -NORTHERN IRELAND □ LUKE McKEOWN - GREAT BRITAIN □ OTTO MESZAROSZ - SLOVAKIA □ KEES MOL - THE NETHERLANDS
□	URMAS MURU - ESTONIA □ BORIS NIESLONY - GERMANY □ JURGEN SCHNEIDER - GERMANY □ HIROYUKI SHIMIZU - JAPAN □ SEIJI SHIMODA - JAPAN □ NICK STEWART - ENGLAND □ ARTUR TAJBER - POLAND □ RYO TAKAHASHI - JAPAN □ JASON WALSH -GREAT BRITAIN □ KATHARINA WILCZEK - GERMANY □ VOLKER WILCZEK - GERMANY
Brian Connolly - Performance
ni Fontana "Tarocco Mechanico" (Romanzo Sonoro) Performance
Ryo Takahashi "Candlelight Performance"
fi Emm
Geert Duintjer "Cross Over" - Performance
Kees Mol "The Lenght of Infinity"
Otto Meszarosz - Performance
Seiji Shimoda "On the Table" - Performance
Władysław Kaźmierczak - Performance
Clock Live Art "The Endless Story" - Performance
Raul Kurvitz - Performance
Alastair McLennan - Installation
Mirosław Fiionik "Sex Don't Limit" - Installation
Boris Niesiony - Photography
Krzysztof Knittel "Legs" - Installation
Gemeiner Birnbaum
Pyrus communis
Familie: ROSACEAE
Katharina Wilczek "Gemeiner Birnbaum"
Volker Wilczek - "The Destroyed Masterpiece"
Hetmat; Europa und Kleinasten
Stammart siler Kutturbimen. Die birnenfórrnigen. fast kugetig«n Friłchte Wd herbsatier ui*d fór Menstherv kaum genieBto3r fwndtóter). Der Baum ist sehr yteł-gestaHig. Ott rwr «\s sperrlg verzwe»9^r Streuch. dartn Vsfieder sis klemer bis wiltelgropet Bcsufw \bis 15 hoch), in Heckeri und Gebuschen Oder w Watórsndem snzutretten. Ote Rinde »st schy/anrgrau, fest Yftirfel-formig gefetdert. Das Hofe isł %th>wer urn! hart. Gedełht gut suf tiefgrundigew, frischew &ov*e k8&h:3ih§eW: Boden,
Jurgen Schneider "Festung" - Installation
Grzegorz Borkowski
Nick Stewart - Video Film
the 2nd international artists meeting □ castle of imagination □ july, 21 - 23, 1994 □ WALDEMAR BOCHNIARZ -POLAND □ CHRISTIAN VANDERBORGHT - FRANCE □ GRZEGORZ BORKOWSKI - POLAND □ DARIUSZ FODCZUK - POLAND □ ANATOLU GANKEVITCH - UKRAINE □ ŁUKASZ GUZEK - POLAND □ EIKO HANAOKA - JAPAN □ MIKE HENTZ - GERMANY □ DZIUGAS KATINAS
-	LITHUANIA □ WŁADYSŁAW KAŹMIERCZAK - POLAND □ LISE KJAER - POLAND □ PIOTR KRAJEWSKI - POLAND □ PAWEŁ KWAŚNIEWSKI - POLAND □ PRZEMYSŁAW KWIEK - POLAND □ SANG - JIN LEE - KOREA □ ALASTAIR McLENNAN - NORTHERN IRELAND □ LINAS LIANDZBERGIS - LITHUANIA □ "MANDRAGORA"
-	PORTUGAL □ OLEG MIGAS - UKRAINE □ HIROKO NAGATOMO -JAPAN □ CECILE NOLDUS - THE NETHERLANDS □ YEUN - HI PAN -KOREA □ PAUL PANHUYSEN - THE NETHERLANDS □ TAKASHI OGAWA - JAPAN □ THEODOR di RICCO - GERMANY □ MIROSŁAW ROGALA - USA □ SEIJI SHIMODA - JAPAN □ FUMIKO TAKAHASHI -JAPAN □ SEAN TAYLOR - SCOTLAND □ PIOTR WYRZYKOWSKI -POLAND □ MIGUEL YECO - PORTUGAL
THE 2nd INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS MEETING "CASTLE OF IMAGINATION" □ The 2nd International Artists Meeting "The Castle of Imagination" in Bytow was somehow different in character from the last year meeting. The crucial change consisted in organization of the event in vacation time in order to facilitate artistic presentation to tourists visiting Bytow. We must admit, that the change of time - because of holidays - had a negative influence on the number of visitors and the concern on the part of local inhabitants. Independent of expected hogher concern about artistic achievements, the festival public no less numerous than last year. Financial problems, unusually low budget of the event did not allow for proper advertisement of artistic events at the Bytow castle. Anyway, big voluntary involvement of members of the Society of Contemporary Art as well as of many individuals from Bytow provided a very good atmosphere at the festival. Artists from 12 countries came to Bytow, namely from : Japan, South Korea, Portugal, Holland, Lithuania, Ukraine, USA, Great Britain, France, Ireland, Germany and Poland. The meeting had a special creative character because many artists had already had an established position in contemporary art while some of them were in Poland for the first time. According to foreign artists "The Castle of Imagination" is a festival having its roots in the meetings of artists in the 60's and 70's, which used to be very creative with no basic ideology and no commercial dependency. "The Castle of Imagination" recalls the values which had the biggest impact on transformation of contemporary art in the secound half of the twentieth century and which had been superseded by the art market and aristic system. "The Castle of Imagination", while offering the artists with absolute freedom of presentation of their art in the context of a historical Teutonic castle, has additional interesting feature which precludes typical threats to art, which usually occour during organization of similar festivals in Europe and all over the world. Here are the leading features of the festival: □ lack of leading programme or subject ideology □ invalidity of location □ Bytow is a remote town, difficult to find on the map □ poor recognition on the part of critics, press, radio and TV □ very low budget □ no chance to involve powerful businesses, which could provide artists with up to date technologies □ reluctance and confusion on the part local institutions, disability to take advantage of presence of internationally recognized artists □ casual presence of "modern ones" (only once a year) so that artists are doomed to deal with □ local public and to have immediate contact with so called "unprepared" audience. So it came about that paradoxically outwardly shortcomings of the festival became its main advantage, which fascinates artists and the "Art World" connoisseurs. "The Castle of Imagination" have become something like a metaphor of functioning of artists in the contemporary world, in which any efforts undertaken by artists to defend basic spiritual values constitute never ending process requiring mental and artistic concentration, but first of all they constitute the search of site with no pressure of "universal pop culture" or evaluation of art on the basis of its usefulness for various ideological and philosophical concepts. The world of spiritual values (represented, among others, by artists) shows the absurdity of "partial" ideologies of human progress, indicates the need to get back or respect the holistic world develoment. The artists invited to Bytow often indicated in their presentations the absurdity of the satiated, clear and happy world recalling dramatic evevts in Europe, showing roughness and cruelty of people for one another and nature. □ Sean Taylor (Glasgow, Scotland) in his video movie "REACT POLAND" presented the vanishing totalitarian world, descending communist ideology, a reminiscence of the presence of the Soviet troops in Poland. The film, documentary in form, was a proposal for future formulated in there words ; REACT, RECLAIM, REPAIR. Borne - Sulinowo, where the artist had found an instructive military film, photos of soldiers, abandoned objects, flats, devastated technical equipment, buildings devastated on purpose and contaminated soil - all that constituted the material for a very personal credo. □ Przemysław Kwiek (Łomianki near Warsaw, Poland) in his presentation - which he called "appearance 26" - presentad slide photos of his instalation in Lipsk in May this year. The installation - gallows with a human duman located at the edge of a roof in a degraded industrial district of the town. Mr Kwiek's story about human reaction, about reaction of police and authorities was a sad report about indifferenceand brutalization of social life in that town. Recording of negative behaviour having its roots in inhuman East German system is a warning not only for a new democracy in Germany, but for ourselves as well, when we see indifferent, passive and frustrated people around us, people who cannot take advantage of the chances which are offered by democracy. □ Seiji Shimoda (Tokyo, Japan), a participant of last year's "Castle of Imagination", this time presented a performance entitled "My Country". The title "My Country" is only a very kind reference to other places and states in which the artist presents his performance, because each of us could find one's own critical reference to the country one in inhabits. Seiji Shimoda in his performance asks a question ; "What is the enemy of your spirit?". In order to understand the course of the whole
presentation, it is necessary to enumerate a couple of elements of that action : spread white paper, on which the artist standing on his tiptoes draws a line resembling peaks of a mountain range ; below that line he draws another one by means of a sticking bang, something artificial and commonly used ; to the band plastic bags are attached (garbage bags) with pumped air ; there are some smaller ones among them. (For us, plastic still means civilisation advancement and up - to - dateness, not the horrible problem of environment pollution). During the performance we can hear silent music - a piece by V. Smetana - which is supposed to remind us about a non - vulgarized serious art. Shimoda walks very slowly in deep bow over spread canvas, which resembles grounded canvas used by painters. He paints his naked body with red (a circle - the sign of the sun - the emblem used in Japanese flag) and with black at the same time impressing the front and the back of his body on the canvas. Then, he blurs the earlien sentence : "What is the enemy of your spirit ?", destroys the plastic bags by knocks of his head and tears the tape down. Grey wrapping paper, which from the very beginning suggested the existence of a friendly matter, became unpleasant, irritating garbage. The artist indicates nothing concrete, provides no solution, but asks a question, which can constitute further ones. □ Yeun - Hi Pan (Pusan, South Korea) closing herself in a traveler's bag filled with foamed polystyrene balls, reduced herself to an unimportant package, to an object, which can be thrown, kicked, tumbled, which was anyhow performed by the public. Slow blowing of the foam off, release from the closed bag constituted somehow shocking experience - the naked artist covered with polystyrene foam shows her helplessenssas a human being crammed into a unified system of values of the modern world. On the other hand, she says whatever natural and human is strong enough to fight the artificial, limiting, pinching. □ Sang Jin Lee (Pusan, South Korea) is now one of the most importated Korean artists. S. J. Lee in his sarcastic speech reffered to the plastic civilisation of gadgets. He constructed a stone circle on the basis of a fire - place surrounded by field stones in which there was no fire , but a simple toy keyboard, on which a strange colorfull ball was jumping in confusion with equally colorful! trashy appendices, pressing the keys of a "child's" instrument which produced completely accidental sounds. Japanese flute music (Takashi Ogawa) was in contrast to that chaotic music. Koren artist, using smoke producer with red russet colour and another one with yellow smoke in a window of a castle tower, referred to traditional signal system, to visual speech which was used centureies ago. The artist also referred to European painting tradition trying to prove in a funny way that (quick) painting of a portrait is impossible or unneccessary, just like painting of the castle ist self. □ Władysław Kaźmierczak (Cracow, Poland) the contexts of the artist's performance dealt with the problem of a slow separation with the ideology of violence, the separation which is not simple at all. The major, basic difficulty in getting rid of the traces of the past is separation with the mechanisms and traces of totalitarian system which was encoded in our consicience - both group and and individual one. Projection of a 60 minute black and white movie found in a Russian military base of Borne Sulinowo, the movie the sole content of which was the inscription "The End", emphasizing our lasting thinking about the past. The symbolic discovery says that the performance is not over yet, although the main heroes of the events are absent. The movie was projected throught a big glass panel hanging vertically above the projector. The picture was focused on the glass panel, but the projetor light penetrated into the room, to the audience watching the performance. The artist was throwing around various objects left behind by former residents of Borne. Beside usual utencils there were parts of uniforms and military equipment. Once those objects constituted important equipment of the biggest army in the world. The next sequence of the performance was catharsis. The artist soaked himself with water submersing a sponge in a tin bucket.That activity was connected with performing gestures of protest (a clenched fist squeezing the water out) or Nazi salutation. After having completely soaked himself, the artist soaked (cleaned) the glass panel, tore a page off a copy book and the wet one stuck to the projected picture. Momentuous "outblocking", concretization of the inscription was broken by cutting the film tape off in the projector. Soaking of some pieces of film tape and sticking it into a glass panel screen (the longest fragment is put just in the middle of the earlier projected picture) changed the function of the film tape into plastic, normal celluloid. After having returned to the basic function fo the film as completely useless in our world, the performer sat on the chair set on large glass panels situated on wooden
blocks. Futher developlment of the performance was ghastly and dangerous - the artist very quickly winding the film tape around his head suddenly fell back on the glass. Broken glass, the clatter of the projector emitting light, scattered objects, photographs and equally sudden exit with the film type unwinding off the reel left the public in somehow unsusual situation, in which the traditional division between art and reality, between rejection of plot, film illusion (even the convention of the film as a mass form) was disrupted. It is difficult to provide one clear interpretation of the performance - there are several possible ones, each one complementing another, contesting mass ideologies, group exultations and trusts, which in the past and contemporary history lead to collective disasters. □ Linas Liandzbergis & Dziugas Katinas (Vilnus, Lithuania) in their performance reffered to historical tradition of art projecting a slide of "Birth of Venus" by Botticcelli on the castle tower. The well known painting from the turn of Middle Ages and Renaissance showing its soulfull, fine esthetic form was in a deep contrast with another real painting about birth, but not in foam - in mud, turbid mash. D. Katinas was wading half naked in a shallow gutter filled with dirty water, while L. Landzbergis was hiding invisible, being completely covered by soil. Birth of Lithuanians, brith of artists was from dirt and in dirt. The suggested contexts were undoubtedly clear. Both atists were sharing, from mouth to mouth, a long piece of baked bread with the audience uniting themselves with one another. Reliance on simple gestures, reconstruction of simple reactions among people is something neccessary for recreation of basic, elementary values destroyed in the past by gigantic machinery of the Soviet empire. □ Oleg Migas & Anatolij Gankiewicz (Odessa, Ukraine) presented a performance which in a quite perverse game - reanimation of still nature, still nature as a traditional form of painting, but the still art invented perversly - real, set up to resemble the paintings of Dutch masters was supposed show us two contradictory intentions of the artists. The first leit motif of the performance was animation act, cutting "operating on" vegetables, spreading of the cut plants on a "dead" girl (a girl from Bytow), who in consequence of the artists efforts becomes alive, and another motiv, which suggests flight from the standing academic tradition of the previous years and focuses on life, on life's value per se. □ "Dissolution" - an instalation by a very talented Irish artists Alastair MacLennan (Belfast, Great Britain) was a very sacrastic expression concerning total garbaging and pollution of enviroment. The artist who spent some days cleaning a beach in Ustka of old plastic bottles and any other garbage displayed his "collection" on a huge table. The artist warns that we approach a vicious circle. Our ecólogical fantasies about clean nature are in obvious conflict with every day practice. Small children shoes represernt generrations to come. □ Theodore di Ricco (Berlin, an American who has lived in East Berlin for two years now). The performance of an American artist who has chosen to live in East Berlin was a very suggestive manifisto of a degraded man beset by mass media on one hand and dealing with existencial problems on the other hand (unemployed). T. Ricco adopted a from of performance imitating exalted sermons of priests in American churches. Focus on social and existencial issues, delivering of a "speech" (monologue) by an unemployed person just like a preacher even more strongly indicates the bitterness and despair of a disappointed man, with no hope, the man who questioned the traditional system of values, propaganda machine of a welafare state and its political back up. Paweł Kwaśniewski (Warsaw, Poland). "A Song About Fast Flying" was the title of a group performance of an incomplete group "Aby Space" lead by Pawel Kwasniewski. The artists presented variants of their efforts to imitate birds (a bird). Repeated inevitability of fiasco of such efforts was demonstrated. The subject of wings was repeated - paper wings, stone wings and chicken wings as well as the efforts of their drastic transplantation to human body. □ "Mandragora" - Manuel Almeida e Sousa, Nuno Miguel Henriques, Belisa Almeida e Sousa, Victor Salgueiro (Cascais, Portugal). Performance of the four artists from Portugal belonged to quite a different category of performance. Symmetricalness of movement and of all activities, use of white masks and white overalls, concentration of action within and around a square space, syncretic reconcilation of the oppossites, use of simple, secret gestures made us focus our attention on the ritual behaviour, fragmentation of which did not let us completely decipher their complicated sense. Theatrical character differentiated "Mandragora's" performance from other ones, but it still belonged to that kind of art, although radical tendencies in performance prefer not playing anything, prefer not to imitate another reality. □ Miguel Yeco (Portela de Sintra, Portugal) - a special personality in Portugal artistic life is an unusually competent artist as an actor, who deals with
performances which cannot be included within theatrical tradition. In his performance in Bytów he used nearly a theatrical costume of a knight from Middle Ages. Demonstrating various model sword strikes he crossed the castle yard. A moment later he took off the costume transforming himself into a Tarot fortune teller. Those two suggestively created characters were connected with the most basic images called out by the space of the castle. In the last part of his performance (in the cellar) Yeco was, as he said "an anonymous visitor from Lisbon", who narrated about unusual spiritual climate of Portugal by means of music, dance, slides and short video clips. Thus he went from general European images to his own specific culture. □ Waldemar Bochniarz (Lublin, Poland), "The Sound in White". The artist during his musical performance - he used saxophone - presented not classical sax music as we know from jazz music or concerts, but illustrated the audience relationship between himself, his system "loaded" with low motion of the performer, the system which tries up to the limit proceed a sound from the instrument. In the final stage Bochniarz entered the earlier spread white square. Crossing the white. The final stage of the performance was most dramatic - the artist exhausted, produced desperate somehow uncontrolled sound, forcing his way through the inside of the square which in result led to getting through a double folded fabric of the white square, the artst entangled in torn bandage let himself free and terminated his performance. □ Dariusz Fodczuk (Bielsko-Biała, Poland).The artist had prepared the interior design for his performance in the castle cellar. Two spirals were hung up at the ceiling of the room, one made of leaves and roses and the other on the basis of a wire construction was ornamented with small fish. Under the spirals, on the floor there was a wreath made of leaves shaped in "S" letter with centrically wound endings. Next to the wreath, dry sticks were scattered filling the center. In such entourage D. Fodczuk read a text which avoided any kind of classification. The content of the text reffered to seemingly prosaic situation - the artist and his parents went on the river on a Sunday afternoon. But from that time an imaginative projection of the cosmic model of the Earth, Moon and the position of artist himself in refference to other planets begins. The ball is the Moon, the river is equator, the Farther of the author of the text leads into his "absurd" imaginations the more distant were we from reality. After having read the text and showing the public schematic drawings of a deer, the artist burnt down copy book pages and threw the ashes around the interior space of the room. □ Mike Heintz (Hamburg, Germany), Christian Vanderborght (Paris, France) provided a live lecture on some unusual undertakings which they had initiated by themselves or in cooperation by means of slide photos and video documentation. The first of presented actions involved transporatation of huge stones on trucks from Scotland to India. Those stones which are frequently recognized in Europe as a sculpting material travelled through countries of various cultures assisted by artists. In each of them, on various stages of the journey they acquired different meaning or were simply absurd. The authors of that action described that as a translation undertaking - translation of concepts of one culture to concepts of another one. Futher relations dealt with undertaken projects engaging advanced computer technology. One of them made it possible for any telephone owner, after dialing a proper number, to compose one's own musical composition by means of a telephone dial which is registered by the computer. Such compositions by various authors were synchronized into one common piece of music. Other undertakings made use of developed telecommunication network to create by many people one common video clip. Quite unsual was awareness of the potential involved in various existing computer networks on the basis of special software. The impression of power of modern technology coexisted with stimulation of the need to use it for artistic and humanistic purposes. Heintz and Vanderborght performed, in one of the castle halls an action "Odysee Table" which lasted the whole day. That free party connected the problems of their art with natural atmosphere of a party. □ Cecile Noldus (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) presented two creative film realizations. Unsual set - up and movements of the camera suggested that we were watching a strange reality through the eyes of birds, butterflies and dogs. The soundtrack was "live" music played by the author, who quite successfully managed to imitate the sounds of animals and murmurs with her brilliant vocal skills. The next day she organized a big party in the castle for the dogs of Bytow. Preparation of the dogs meeting had several aspects, but the most important one was based on the assumption that the dog used to be a very loyal human friend. Now the interior of the museum is lacking the animal's presence. The owners came to the castle together with their dogs, so it was possible for artists to mantain direct with inhabitants of Bytow. □ Installation "Unclear Borders" by Takashi Ogawa (Tokio, Japan) in the room of the castle tower ideally fit round shape of the room. A political map situated in the center of the floor was accompanied by regularly displayed miniature radio receivers, each of them was connected to a small sensor, which was sensitive to human movement in the room. In such a way, the
public influenced radio frequencies by their mere presence, which was manifested by modulation of delicate sounds. Crossing conventional borders inside the room we switched into reception of signals from different parts of the world. The space in the room became an imaginative model of the world. □ Quite non -conventional technique of sound creativity was presented by Paul Panhuysen (Eindhoven, The Netherlands). In the bottom hall of the tower he prepared an installation entitled "Three loudspeakers" in which the sound was generated as a result of movement of a strings system which was propelled by small electrical engines. The loudspeakers themselves had a from of rectangular paper membranes reminding rectangular paper sheets waiting for the engraver to begin his work on them. The mechanical system of the instalation was well visible and quite readable after a short while. One could actually see creation of the sound. Also in quite unusual concert of that artist, which began sharp at midninght at the castle yard it was possible to see how the sound was created on the basis of the strings spread between the wooden ballustrade of the porch. Panhuysen was moving his hands along the strings creating and modulating sharp "space" tones. Audio - visual presence of the sound enabled deeper reflection on the nature of our senses. It is a pity that the other part of the concert was jammed by the sounds of dance music at the wedding party going on at the castle hotel at the same time. □ Performance of Use Kjaer ( a Danish artist who has lived for many years in Warsaw) was based, from technical point of view, on the projection of orderly slide photos onto four dark open - work screens hanging one after another. In that way, black and white, economical and abstract slide compositions appeared in multiplied spacial way. The shape of the screens (and projected slides) filled the whole area between the floor and the ceiling, so in such a way one had an imression that in the hall appeared various spacial installations. Delicacy and transitoriness of these compositions was achieved by means of water steam causing slight vibration of the pictures. Her short installation located in a dark corner of the yard was equally concentrated. An arrangement of small light points (projected by means of a projector) appeard on dissappearing clouds of water steam. □ Hiroko Nagatomo (Kanagawa-ken, Japan) presented a proccess of creation of sketches made with use of traditional materials used in Japan. Performing simple gestures and signs, the artist suggested continuous will to create an ideal form destroying part of her works. We could see big sketches of the artist displayed in the same place after the performance. □ Fumiko Takahashi (Tokyo, Japan) presented an installation in the castle tower. That installation was constructed on the basis of hung up stones which constituted a line in space, a line of a soft natural shape. Small windows of the were smeared with a thin layer of plaster. Faint, dim light getting into the interior created the atmosphere of peace and desolation. The beginning and the end of the stone line was situated at two opposite, half - open windows. By one of them bird feathers were scattered (pigeon's ?), while on the parapet of the other one a stone was placed. Beneath, symetrically to the drawn stone line on a brick floor, the artist made two plaster froms - negative and positive - a cone and a crater, using of natural forms and natural material helped to construct an installation which required a kind of intuitive experience from us not discursive analysis. □ Łukasz Guzek (Cracow, Poland) put numerous inscriptions on a regular pile of cobbled stone next to the main gate of the castle.On each stone there was one word. Two of the words were distinguished: "life" and "death". Between them and on many levels there were words denoting various expressions. Although there were no verbs among them, various sentences were created per se while one was watching the piece. That rigid stone set of expressions created a inexhaustible system of texts to be read out depending on the visitor's attitude. □ Grzegorz Borkowski (Warsaw, Poland) made different use of text. Short inscriptions consisting of few words displayed on three extraordinarily huge T - shirts made of paper which were hanging on the top of the staircase. These objects looked as if they happend to be there by pure accident and were not gotten rid of in time. Openly artifical (made of paper) they were usually connected with popular garments on which inscriptions constitute a unique form of pop culture. To contradict this kind of presence, the text on the paper t - shirts had reflexive and ambiguous credo, e. g.: "it is easy to copy the silence".D Presentation of a spatial object preparated by a 11 year author Sewer Hrehorowicz from Bytów was a quite outstanding event. A thin plastic pipe, supplied with some crosswise rapacious elements was hanging aslant on wires along with a lit torch in the corner of the hall. In'the torch iight focused on the floor one could see quite a suggestive shape of a worm which was moving stimulated by the supporting wires. Presentation of the object in the dark was accompanied by original music which created atmosphere of grimness, the atmosphere which was quite deeply rooted in the castle interior. The presence of a young artist who spontaneously presented himself in "The Castle of Imagination" constituted a satisfactory and proof to contradict a banal argument about "incomprehensibility" of contemporary art. Artistic proposal of S. Hre-
horowicz became an equally important expression capable to iniciate dialogue with other presentations. □ The action by Piotr Wyrzykowski (Gdansk, Poland) contained the meeting of the past and present. In the historical hall of the castle, the author invited the guests to put on already preparated t - shirts with printed pictures of all the Polish kings, just like they were presented by Matejko in his Galaxy of Polish Kings. For a moment all (44) kings appeared in the castle. That moment became historical. Beside general gaiety caused by metamorphosis of some audience into Polish sovereigns (at the Teutonic castle) one could feel a specific bombast of that moment. The ironic expression of the author undoubtedly questioned our contemporary attitude to the text book, pedestal history. □ At the "Castle of Imagination" were presented the block of video movies by: □ Piotr Krajewski (Wrocław, Poland), "The Polish Video Art" from OPEN STUDIO/WRO collection, Mirosław Rogala (Chicago, USA) - "Macbeth" and "Nature living us", Piotr Wyrzykowski (Gdańsk, Poland) -the films connected with artistic activity at "Łaźnia Miejska" in Gdańsk , Mike Hentz (Hamburg, Germany) & Christian Vanderbroght (Paris, France) - video art documentation. □ Grzegorz Borkowski & Władysław Kaźmierczak
f

Dariusz Fodczuk - Performance
Waldemar Bochniarz "The Sound in White" - Performance

Theodore di Ricco - Performance
Władysław Kaźmierczak "The End" - Performance
Sang - Jin Lee - Performance
Christian Vanderborght "Odysee Table1
Łukasz Guzek - Visual Text

Fumiko Takahashi - Installation
Miguel Yeco - Performance
Mandragora" - Performance
J*
Alastair McLennan "Dissolution" - Installation


Seiji Shimoda „My country" - Performance
Yeun - Hi Pan - Performance
Paweł Kwaśniewski "A Song About Fast Flying" - Performance
Christian Vanderborght - Installation
Mike Hentz "Odysee Table'
Cecile IMoldus "The Dogs Party"
Dziugas Katinas & Linas Liandzbergis "Birth of Venus" Performance
Hiroko Nagatomo
Mirosław Rogala - Video Film
THE CASTLE IN BYTÓW □ In its oldest form, the castle in Bytów is a relic of a medieval Gothic stronghold built on the turn of the 14th century at west borders of the Teutonic State. In the late twenties of the 13th century, Duke Conrad of Mazovia brought the Order of the Teutonic Knights and settled them in the Chełmno region in order to defend the north borders of the duchy against the pagan Prussians. From the very beginning the Teutonic Order tried to reduce the supremacy of duke Conrad and bishop Chrystian. To this end it forged the foundation document for the Chełmno region and presented the falsified paper to the papal curia, obtaining its confirmation. The Order further concealed the agreement made with the Prussian bishop Chrystian in 1231 about the division of authority on the taken lands, in order to obtain the endowment of the whole Prussia as papal feud. Those endeavours and the conquest of Prussian land in the second half of the 13th century led to the emergence of the State of the Teutonic Knights; characterized by colonial expansion, without ethnic background, yet functioning and developing in connection with and support of the German Empire. □ Having conquered Prussia and Livonia, present Latvian and Estonian regions, and established the Teutonic administration on those lands, the Knights turned their interest to the Gdańsk Pomerania and captured its main centre Gdansk in 1309, after a massacre of the inhabitants. Although they lost their suit in the presence of papal legates and were ordered to return the Gdańsk Pomerania to Poland, they did not obey. Together with the Brandenburg Margraviate they partitioned the former dychy of Gdańsk and Sławno at a congress in Myślibórz in1309. This, however, did not last long. In 1317 the Brandenburg Margrave Waldemar ceded the regions of Słupsk, Sławno, Bytów and Darłowo to the west Pomeranian dukes Warcisław IV and Bogusław IV. The region of Bytów fell to Warcisław who, for reasons unknown to us, bestowed it as feud on his marshal Henning Behr in 1321. Eight years later the deceased marshal's sons sold the castle together with the whole land of Bytów to the Teutonic Knights for a sum of 8000 Prussian denarii. Thus the domains of west Pomeranian dukes remained within the Teutonic State until the Thirteen Years' War (1454 - 1466). □ At first the castle was a seat of a Teutonic procurator who was subordinated to the District Chief in Słupsk. Later, in the years 1342 - 1350, the District Chief Ludolf Hake resided here, and after him Bytów was again administered by procurators subordinated to the Grand Master in Malbork. The repurchased old castle did not satisfy their requirements, so having organized their administration and secured their authority, the Knights started building a new castle on a hill dominating the town from the south. On 12 July 1346 the town was given a fundation charter based on the Chełmno law by the Grand Master Henryk Dusemer. □ The building was started in 1390 and completed in 1405, the preparatory work taking about six years. In that time, building materials, stones and bricks were collected and moats were dug at the east and sout-east sides. First the defence walls were erected, laid out in rectangular ca 70x49 metres, with cylindrical turrets and a square tower in the corners. In the central part of the east wall there was a gate tower, with a drawbridge spanning the moat. The monastery building was situated at the north wall from the town; with cellars, four storeyed, with a wooden gallery at the south wall from the courtyard. The cellars, with barrel and cross vaults, were intended for storing food and household goods. On the ground floor at the west gable wall there was a bakery, and farther to the east there were the baker's room, accomodations for the castle servants and for the lansquenets. On the main, first floor there was a reflectory at the west gable wall, the procurator's accomodation, a chapel and room for the knights guarding the Teutonic dignitary. A tall attic, possibly partotioned with a wooden ceiling, served as a granary. □ Apart from the monastery house, within the defence walls there was also a two-storey kitchen building; the ground floor contained the kitchen itself and a small food store, the first floor being the coo's accomodation. □ At the south-west corner of the kitchen building there was a well with stone casing. In 1993 the site investigation was carried out and its fill-up was scooped out to the depth of ca 3,5 metres. Numerous relics of the past were found, including pieces of glass and earthenware, fragments of stove tiles, and other articles of daily use. The well's depth is not known, it may only be estimated to have been more than ten metres. □ At the north part of the east wall, between the gate tower and the monastery house, a coach- house and a stable were situated in a timbered building adjoining the defence wall. □ The fortified circumference of the castle were the defence walls, ca 10 metres high and 3 metres thick, built of stones and coped with brick battlements with loop-holes, covered by a ridge rooflet. The guard' walks ran around the castle, through the turrets, the gate and square towers, the monastery house from the town side. They also included a little tower for final defence, connected by a wooden porch, situated outside the west wall, and usually referred to as Gdanisko. □ The castle remained in such a state until early 16th century when the fortifications system was further extended. Then, during the rule of duke Bogusław X, new earthern embankments around the castle were built up, coped with wooden palisade. A wide and deep moat was dug from the east and partly south sides, and the earth was used to raise ramparts in the corners
of the new fortified circumference. Construction of a new bridge was also begun. Those works were completed during the rule of duke Barnim IX. Also new buildings within the castle courtyard were erected, the most important of which was a summer house built ca 1540 opposide the monastery house. This was not to last long though, as already in 1560-1570, that is still under the rule of duke Barnim IX, the castle courtyard undergoes extensive development. Duke's residence, occupying the full width of the courtyard, was built at the south defence wall, and duke's chancellery at the west wall opposite the entrance. Facades of the two buildings, with projections in the from of sguare towers containing brick staircases and numerous twin windows situated in there rows in the front wall, gave the duke's residence a Renaissance appearance. □ The ground floor of the residence contained an armoury in the east part, servants' and stablemen's room in the west part. Two upper floors constituted the duke's residential quarters, with the knights' hall, dining room, chambers of the family, the duke's servant's rooms, guest chambers, bathrooms and toilets. The halls and the chambers were heated by fireplaces and stoves of green or cherry - red tiles. □ The chancellery, built ca 1570, was laid out in rectangular ca 20x10 metres, with a stairs tower (jutty) projecting before the front wall. The north gable wall of the chancellery adjoined the south 1638. The chancellery building had no cellars. It had three storeys partitioned by wooden ceilings, and a tall attic. There was a cloch on the front wall of the highest flight of stairs. □ On the ground floor of the chancellery there was a stable with entrances near the south and south-east corners. The ceiling over this floor was supported by two solid stonebrick pillars and by the exterior building walls and the west defence wall. The horses' stands were situated at the west and east walls, separating them from one another with a strip of brick floor 1,8 metres wide, running medially between the pillars. Relics of the pillar and the floor were discovered during the 1993 site investigation. □ On the first floor there were the chancellery office rooms and a clerk's accommodation adjoining the cook's dwelling in the old kitchen. On the second floor there were more dwellings for the clerical staff, partitioned by a corridor leading to the west defence wall porches. The attic had receptacles for food stores and small granaries. □ Also in this building, like in the duke's residence, there were fireplaces and tile stoves nearly in every room. □ After the courtyard extension works and reconstruction of the entrance gate, the castle changed its severe Gothic appearance into a more subtle, disarticulated and richer in its artistic expression; that of a Renaissance palatial art. It survived in such form until least 1623, when at duke Bogusław XIV's order a dowagers' residence for duchess Zofia, duke Franciszek's widow, was erected at the west defence wall in the site of old coach-house and stable. It was laid out in rectangular ca 18x10,5 metres, connecting its north gable wall to the gallery of the monastery house. The three storeys of the residence contained chambers of the duchess and of her servants, while in the north part, under the kitchen, there was a cellar for storing food. □ The period of Westpomeranian dukes' rule was a golden age for the Bytów castle. What followed was a gloomy night of the Swedish "Deluge", when in 1656 the Swedish troops blew up the square tower and burnt down the whole castle. After those destructions and change of the owner to the Elector of Brandenburg in 1657, the Bytów castle was never to regain its splendour, despite a relatively prompt restoration of the burnt down wings, containing the duke's residence and the chancellery. Also then it lost its function of ducal residence, becoming first a seat of the Elector's representatives, then of government offices, and finally a prison. Frequent changes of function as well as inadequate care and neglect reduced this magnificent medieval stronghold to a state of almost complete ruin. In the first place, Gothic vaults suffered destruction; then the chancellery, the well and the kitchen building were demolished, to be finally turned into prison cells, which completely changed the previous architecture. It was not until the late thirties of the 20th century that the reconstruction and restoration works were undertaken on the monastery house, the square tower, the duke's residence and the dowagers' residence. The vaults in cellars and in the other storeys of the monastery house were restored at that time. Also the portals on the ground and first floors were restored to their original appearance. The entrance gate was reconstructed to look "Renaissance" - like. Those works lasted until 1939 when the World War II broke out, and in consequence of which Bytów came to be within Polish borders. For several years after the war the castle was only partly used as storing place. In the sixties and seventies, new developmental plans were prepared to suid the new purposes. Namely, the old monastery house was to be a museum, the east wing should house a library, and the
south wing a hotel and a restaurant. The constructional and restoration works took a very long time. First, the adaptation of the east wing for a library was completed and the library was opened in 1974. Six years later the hotel and the restaurant were opened. The museum, founded in 1972, did not start its existence until the repairs in the monastery house were finished in 1991. It took a few months to arrange the exhibitions, and the official opening of the West - Kashubian Museum was on 10th April 1992. □ The basic collections consist of ethnographic objects presenting the material culture and the folk art of the west Kashubian region. There are shown on the permanent exhibition in the ground floor rooms of the monastery house. The next two floor contain objects of sacral art, furniture, as well as modern painting, drawing, engraving and ex-libris. Also the two highest storeys of the Mill Turret are prepared for exhibition of the archeological and historical collections which will ilustrate the history of the castle in Bytów, basing on the research and archive sources. □ Krystyna Sawka


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