GROTOWSKI ON "VERTICALITY"
JERZY GROTOWSKI
Aug.
11, 1933 - Dec. 31, 1999
When I speak of art as vehicle, I refer to verticality. Verticality -- we can see this phenomena in the categories of energy: heavy but organic energies (linked to the forces of life, to instincts, to sensuality) and other energies, more subtle. The question of verticality means to pass from a so-called coarse level -- in a certain sense one could say an “everyday level” -- to a level of energy more subtle or even towards the higher connection. I simply indicate the passage, the direction. There, there is another passage as well: if one approaches the higher connection -- that means, if we are speaking in terms of energy, if one approaches the much more subtle energy -- then there is also the question of descending, while at the same time bringing this subtle something into the more common reality, which is linked to the density of the body.
With verticality the point is not to renounce part of our nature -- all should retain its natural place: the body, the heart, the head, something that is “under our feet” and something that is “over the head”. All like a vertical line, and this verticality should be held taut between organicity and the awareness. Awareness means the consciousness which is not linked to language (the machine for thinking), but to Presence.
-JERZY GROTOWSKI
Pontedera Italy; July 4, 1998
Thomas Richards (*) analyzed his perception, his individual experience
of this kind of process, and he characterized it as inner action.
(*) Thomas Richards currently heads the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski
and Thomas Richards in Pontedera Italy.
GROTOWSKI: STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES