Wilson's Island: A Video-Essay on the Watermill Center

«One would be mistaken to come to the conlusion that one is only looking at an apartment combined with a study and a place where workshops and rehearsals take place. This place is also not solely meant to be an area for keeping a collection of famous chairs, gathered over the years by Wilson. Watermill is meant above all to be a place that shapes its' inhabitants and reflects the ideals that make up the meaning of life for the author of this house. This is precisely what the video essay attempts to convey. To put it in a very high minded manner; it is supposed to express the philosophy of the artist.

The idea for the video essay came about while Martius and Wirth were staying at the Watermill Center. The material is dedicated to the relationship between architecture, theatre and memory. The focus is the Watermill center, although the authors also take up the subject of Bayreuth (Wagner), Bauhaus (Gropius) and Hellerau (Palluca) - utopian places where art is synthesized. In Poland, Wilson's Island could be seen twice: once at the Malta Festival in Poznań and again at the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatrical Institute in Warsaw.

What kind of island is this, then? What is its' purpose? Wirth and Martius begin their essay by recalling to mind images of Venice and Las Vegas - two very "unrealistic" places, which can be looked upon as fatamorgana or as simulations. These are also two polar opposites in a sense, the unification of which can be seen as an indication of the theatre of Robert Wilson. Venice is a utopia tied to nature while Las Vegas is a utopia tied to advanced technology.

In the Watermill, these two powers combine, creating an image of raw walls and cold, metalic finishing forever in tension with lively greenery, a fragment of a forrest and birds going about thier lives just outside the windows. Similar to Venice and Las Vegas, Watermill is a labyrinth, which escapes terminology and cannot be categorized easily. One of its' basic characteristics is everlasting mystery. The authors of the video essay do not even want to solve this mystery or name it. They treat their stay at the Watermill as a journey, during which reflections are born, images come to mind, and experiences lived. As Kawafis wrote in his poem:

"If you see that she is poor, Itaka has not disappointed you.

You have become so wise, so experienced,

that you now can understand what Itaka means."

Taking into consideration the Polish-American-German biography of Andrzej Wirth, these words take on an added weight.»