​Theatre Classics - Polish Kimchi is a series conceived and designed by Fat and Dumb an intervention into the mythology of the artist-genius. The labels feature some of the most canonical names in Polish theatre, artists whose work shaped theatrical traditions not only in Poland, but internationally.

 

The history of the theatrical “master” is not innocent. Some of these figures are also associated with controversial, authoritarian or ethically questionable working methods. Yet their canonical status has often made them unusually difficult to challenge. The mechanism through which artistic greatness can become a form of protection is fascinating. It is allowing certain behaviours to be justified, romanticised or treated as inseparable from genius.

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By turning theatrical masters into labels for jars of sauerkraut, Fat and Dumb bring the monumental back down to earth. Sauerkraut ferments by itself. So, in a way, does the theatre world, preserving its hierarchies, legends, habits and egos through endless repetition. Theatre Classics - Polish Kimchi is about who gets to become a classic, who gets preserved, and who is allowed to place themselves on the shelf.

 

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Tadeusz  Kantor

Tadeusz Kantor was one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century Polish theatre and visual art. Through Cricot 2, he radically blurred the boundaries between theatre, performance, painting and installation, making memory, objects and repetition central elements of his theatrical language. In Theatre Classics - Polish Kimchi, Kantor becomes another preserved cultural icon, sour and able to improve digestion.
 

​​Jerzy  Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski transformed twentieth-century theatre through radical experiments with the actor, the body and the relationship between performer and spectator. His concept of poor theatre rejected theatrical excess in search of what might remain when almost everything non-essential is removed. Here, theatrical asceticism finds its culinary equivalent: cabbage, salt, time and fermentation.
 

​​​​​​​​​Krystian Lupa

Krystian Lupa is one of the most internationally recognised Polish theatre directors, known for his long-form performances and his distinctive methods of working with actors. For decades, his work has occupied a central position in contemporary Polish theatre, while the power structures embedded in those methods have also become a subject of public debate. In our collection, this monumental position is compressed into the modest format of a sauerkraut label.

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​​​​Fat  and  Dumb

Extragavant duo formed by Patrycja Kowańska and Dominika Knapik, working between theatre, performance art and cabaret. Their practice uses humour and self-irony to examine artistic labour, hierarchy, precarity and the mechanisms through which cultural value is produced. By placing ourselves alongside Kantor, Grotowski and Lupa, they perform an act of self-canonisation.