Alea iacta est, Paweł Sosnowski,
Polish exposition project at the 50th Biennale in Venice 2003
Referring to the slogan of the Biennale is ‘Dreams and
Conflicts’ is a real challenge. It is so easy to turn it into a
banal, illustration or an anecdote.
That is why the project by Stanisław Dróżdż ‘ALEA IACTA EST’
seems to be almost an ideal proposal. The game is an archetype
of the conflict and the simplest symbol of the relation
dream-conflict whereas the dice are the European symbol of the
game.
The artist proposes the game of dice thereby referring to the
core of the conflict which is not an objective but a subjective
situation which exists in everyone. Even the innocent ambitions,
desires and dreams could be the basis for the conflict.
The artist makes the viewers face a giant wall composed of dice
and provides them with thousands of possible solutions, tempts
and provokes them. A lonely chair and the table with dice on it
invite the viewers to play. When the viewers take the dice with
their hands, they will cross the Rubicon River and enter the
game being a tantamount to entering the conflict with oneself.
Once the game is started, the situation becomes irreversible –
they may either win or lose.
Each game, even the simplest one, needs the rules. In our case,
we also have an appropriate instruction. The artist seems to
make a courteous gesture placing on the wall the rules of the
game translated in several dozen languages (which is the highest
possible number) of languages. He talks to every viewer
individually in their native language. Nevertheless, this is a
deliberately provoking trick because although everyone has an
opportunity to read the text in their own language but first
they should find this language among many other ones. In this
way, the artist from the very beginning makes the viewers join
the game and evokes in the ambitions, desires and dreams of
being the winner.
The project by Stanisław Dróżdż, likewise all his previous ones,
refers to the issues exceeding simple interpretations. In this
case, it refers to the relation between the dream and the game
and the form of describing the reality based on a pure chance
which, in spite of its apparent order, is based on conflict.
