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Krzysztof Niemczyk was born on May 21, 1938 and died in Kraków on January 19, 1994. A legendary figure of Kraków’s artistic life. A writer, whose only novel was published after his death. Self-taught painter and musician whose formal education ended in primary school.

Few remaining photographs depict almost fully naked Niemczyk bathing in a fountain in front of St. Mary’s Church in Kraków. Along with a group of hippies, he carried out an action of unreeling a spool of thread from the the Kościuszko Mound to the shore of Rudawa where he ceremonially dipped the rest of the spool in the river. Another time, they tied themselves to a bus that was ready for departure (The Laocoon Group). He turned his mother into a “living statue” by tying her up to a bench in the Planty park in Kraków, in front of the Bureau of Art Exhibitions. A series of photographs depicts provocative actions typical for Niemczyk – displaying naked buttocks at various points of the urban space of Kraków.

The performance entitled „Love” (by Krzysztof Jung) was executed four times. The presentation in public  was preceded by two rehearsals in the gallery and there was a kind of recapitulation, performed in private in Krzyś’s studio in the presence of the author and his actors only.
I was present at the two rehearsals (as a photographer) and at one public show which was not documented and took place in the gallery. The action was performed by Krzyś, Słoma, and Mary in a niche prepared for this purpose, resembling a stage, in the presence of several spectators. 

During this show an important event took place which made Sławek Furmankiewicz intervene in the course of action. The first part of the show conformed with the rehearsal documented on the photographs. Using the thread, Krzyś tied together the man and the woman who were sitting naked on the floor, and then connected them to the web which filled the space of the stage. Although his movements were dexterous and purposeful, it took some time before his work was done. Then an event took place, which should be remembered — fire appeared. Unfortunately, I cannot say how and why it happened (a candle? a match?). Was it carried in by the author? However, the fire licked the threads and burst into flames in those places where the threads were densely woven together; it began to destroy the net in which the two persons were sitting. 

Sławek confirmed this event and remembered that when the hair of one of the persons had caught fire he had rushed forward spontaneously and started to quench the fire with his bare hands. I, however, remember an extraordinary aesthetic effect: tiny flames were moving up, burning the construction made of threads and hanging from the ceiling; the flames appeared at various levels and consumed the cotton tangles with varying speed, destroying the tensions and jumping onto others threads, other patches of the web. I also remember the tall figure of Sławek who was quenching each flame with his fingers. He was the person who dominated the final scene, earnestly trying to control the destructive force of the fire.   Grzegorz Kowalski 1999

Krzysztof Jung (1951 in Warsaw – 1998 in Warsaw) – Polish painter, graphic artist, performer, teacher and creator of the conception of the Plastic Theatre.

The most distinctive aspect of Jung’s work and performances was his conception of the Plastic Theatre, threading: wrapping thread around persons, objects and rooms. The idea behind the conception of the Plastic Theatre was searching for a shared, visual and at the same time sensuous equivalent of the sensual experience.

As Paweł Leszkowicz wrote: ‘The central place in the Polish artistic and homoerotic masculinity in the Polish art under communism belongs to Krzysztof Jung, whom the artist Grzegorz Kowalski considered to be the pioneer of the body art that dominated Polish art in the 1990s. I consider him to be also the precursor of ‘homosexual art’, i.e. the art that enters new regions of sexuality and sensuality that aims at opening masculinity. Krzysztof Jung, who died from asthma in 1998, would be the precursor of Polish queer art.