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Andrej Woron

Andrej Woron, "my studio" - from his cyclus "inner spaces"

 

Stages of his life

Andrej Woron and I met in Warszawa 1981, that is when martial law had led to a complete closure of the border and only medical and food transports were allowed in. Henryk Baranowski introduced us.

Very soon it was decided to take back with us in the now empty trucks his paintings.

Soon he followed his paintings and came to Berlin at the invitation of Henryk Baranowski who directed at that time the 'Transform' Theatre. Located in Kreuzberg, and more precisely on Zeughofstrasse, Andrej became his practical assistant and stage designer.

This meant, however, in practical terms after having completed his artistic work upstairs, Andrej Woron would go downstairs to the Greek restaurant at the corner and work as a waiter to earn some money. The contrast could not be greater as to what took place. When still upstairs he would show students and actors something about his art of making objects come alive, while downstairs he was the waiter for the very same students now his clients.

We had worked together at a Free Art School called 'die Etage' near Südstern. He made it possible for me to follow a dream and to teach what I really love: art history in combination with philosophy.

Andrej Woron said at that time that he does not want to explain to his students learning to paint what it means when he tells them not to paint like Vincent Van Gogh; this is where I would come in. He wanted me to give them that information, indeed historical background to the development of the arts.

So I started to teach philosophy and art history and he painting at the ETAGE. Despite being theoretical stuff, it became practical with students sometimes answering by doing a Pantomime or else bringing into class their paintings. We looked at slides and discussed why Expressionism, but not Surrealism had such a strong presence in Germany. It was good to have the Memorial library build with the help of American money after the war to provide the slides.

So while Andrej Woron became fully immersed in both his classes and in his own painting, we explored what art could stand for and do. The main aim was to strengthen the self-understanding of the students so that they could stand to what they wish to express to their future audiences. This meant exploring such fields as art therapy but also why Surrealism never caught on really in Germany with Max Ernst a big exception but who left to live first in Paris and then in America.

It was a wonderful combination which lasted for two years, 1985-87. It ended by the school throwing me out due to my demands for more democracy, but by that time I was already on my way to Greece. Interestingly enough my last class there was about Greek myth as expressed best in the poetry of Ritsos, Elytis and Seferis and explained in a historical context by film director Angelopoulos. Together with the class we saw his film "The Troubadours - or the wandering theatre players."

 

Painting style: Abstract Expressionism

Andrej Woron painted around that time different angles within spaces illuminated by a certain light. That made him follow a style called 'abstract Expressionism'. Insofar as he captures in his paintings a special force expressed as light, he attempts to show how light works by following certain configuration of lines. Within such a specific space he struggled always to make the abstract become concrete.

 

In search of faithfulness

Andrej Woron "Faithfulness"                                                     Etching Berlin around 1985

One key motive in his work of art was then and continues to be so a dedicated search for faithfulness. The latter must not be understood necessarily in terms of love between a man and a woman, but includes faithfulness as a belief in something which could make art become 'holy'. Here the Polish influence can be felt. Naturally, faithfulness extends itself to the man-woman relationship to give love an ethical dimension. In order to symbolize that he would introduce a third element, fore mostly a dog being more faithful in his belief than man himself and there he would include himself.

Expression in such a form turnes out to be an articulation of a desired synthesis of trust and staying power within one and the same relationship. He acknowledges constantly through his work that it will never be easy nor self-understood. He knows better that there shall always be other forces at work, forces which shall attempt to persuade one that it might be better to flee then stay in the same relationship. To have 'faith' in life to be shared with just one another person is like declaring matrinomy to be the most holy rite. With it go many unwritten rules and laws, different opinions and values, but important in this closely knitted involvement with the other is to realize what it does to artistic and all other work.

Art means to Andrej Woron to discover your own personality in the process of becoming aware as to what drives one on. It may in his words be sadness or equally happiness. The latter can be gained from just looking at a child playing in the street. Yet his look is special as he never ceases to be amazed and enthusiastic when something works and becomes phenomenonal by simple distinction. This is gained by taking on a life all of its own whether now a chair, a park bench or a person struggling to make it within society. There is nothing random about the feelings which accompany such a process of becoming true to oneself.

 

Someone who sells himself 'other' news

In that elementary sense of life turned into a search for a special kind of faithfulness, it reflects as well the dilemma of being in one way or another in exile. There was no going back to Poland after he came to Berlin. When Jaruselski departed finally from power, and Poland like the rest of Eastern Europe changed after 1989, it was no more a matter of choice for Andrej Woron whether to stay on in Berlin or else to return. Rather he had overcome some inner fears and decided to stay but in his own way of living in exile on a semi-permanent basis.

Among those fears was included the fear to drive in a car. For a long time, he could not drive himself and trusted no one to drive him but his faithful companion Susan. She came originally from Canada and defended him whenever needed like a Tiger. It was, therefore, a complete surprise to hear during this visit many years later, that is in November 2011, that he had learned in the meantime to drive by himself. It says something about a learning curve or the ability to adapt as long as there is given time and a real necessity to do so. Once his engagement took him to places like Bremerhaven, that is outside of Berlin, it must have become clear to him that was a necessity. Looking back, it shows how he had learned to survive and to cope despite many initial inhibitions and doubts he had and still has especially about himself.

One key sentence Andrej Woron articulated during one of my visits to his atelier when he had it just behind Kotbusser Tor, the main entry point into the Kreuzberg world of mixed cultures and sometimes dominated by those who had turned to the Islamic world once Chomeiny had returned to Iran in 1979.

Andrej Woron look at me with excited eyes. I knew he was about to tell me something of extreme importance to him. He said then around 1985: "even though Germans and I may read the same newspapers, nevertheless I sell to myself a different news!" This was the voice of the one in permanent exile. Threats and dangers are perceived differently from those who grew up in society under terms considered to be a part of normal socialisation. And naturally as citizens of this state they do not encounter or experience the same endangerments to their existence as does the immigrant who shall always feel to be an outsider to this society.

What struck in me a chord and what I am thinking about constantly when remembering him saying that was that he declared to be 'selling' to himself a different news. It meant he bought that particular news since of importance to him. He casts with that not merely news in an entirely new context - Kant defined news as the coming together of the expected with the unexpected -  but revealed the material basis of such news which has importance to some persons but not to all. Cultural differentiation depends after all on the nuances in understanding as well news items.

All this reminded me of how Jean Amery described himself sitting on a bench in Zurich in 1933 and when reading a newspaper suddenly realized that he was no longer considered to be a German citizen, but only a Jew. The news pertained to the new law which had been issued once Hitler seized power in 1933. Amery survived three years of Auschwitz.

 

The painter turned stage designer for theatre and opera

There is still another side to Andrej Woron: not the painter but the stage designer, theater director and who knows what else when bringing pictures of his rich imagination onto the stage. It is like paintings coming to life when actors begin to act out scenes within a setting he imagined would fit that specific interpretation of the play.

That side of him I don't know really well as his success with Theatre Kreatur began after I had left Berlin to live in Athens. Only recently we met again and then by coincidence at an exhibition shown at the Academy of Arts. The exhibition was about two cities having problems with water: Venice with too much water, Las Vegas nearly without! He greeted me with great happiness to see me again. The feeling was likewise.

We had worked together at a Free Art School called 'die Etage' near Südstern. He made it possible for me to follow a dream and to teach what I really love: art history in combination with philosophy. Andrej Woron said to me at that time that he does not want to explain to his students learning to paint what he means when he tells them not to paint like Vincent Van Gogh; this is where I would come in. He wanted me to give them that information, indeed historical background to the development of the arts. So I started to teach philosophy and art history. Despite being theoretical stuff, it became practical with students sometimes answering by doing a Pantomime or else bringing into class their paintings. We looked at slides and discussed why Expressionism, but not Surrealism had such a strong presence in Germany. It was good to have the Memorial library build with the help of American money after the war to provide the slides. So while Andrej Woron became fully immersed in both his classes and in his own painting, we explored what art could stand for and do. It was a wonderful combination which lasted for two years, 1985-87. It ended by the school throwing me out due to my demands for more democracy, but by that time I was already on my way to Greece. Interestingly enough my last class there was about Greek myth as viewed through the poems by Ritsos, Elytis and Seferis.

About his work as stage designer and theatre director, more needs to be said later. When we were visiting him, he was preparing two sets for operas, one in Bremerhaven and the other in Halle. One of them had to be ready by January, the other three months later in April 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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