“The Dividing Line”, happening (1965)

A photograph from Tadeusz Kantor second happening, “The Dividing Line”. It took place at the Art Historians Association in Krakow on 18th December 1965. It was accompanied by a sort of manifesto, in which the artist called for the ‘dividing line’, drawn by him standing on a ladder during the happening, to be “drawn everywhere and always, quickly and with determination, because regardless of our will it will keep working automatically and relentlessly, leaving us on one side of the other. If we draw it ourselves, even if we end up on the wrong side, we will still feel like we had free choice or accept the necessity.” The happening also included sequences of uncoordinated activities that seemed unexplainable or simply absurd, such as eating pasta from suitcases with ones hands – as shown in the photograph.