The Umbrella Man from Sopot: A (Not Quite Appreciated) Street Performer
Zbigniew Majchrowski
zbigniew.majchrowski@ug.edu.plUniwersytet Gdański (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5259-3085
Abstract
This article is devoted to the street performer Czesław Bulczyński (1912–1992), known as the Umbrella Man from Sopot (Parasolnik z Sopotu). Based on scarce biographical data, the legend of his life, press accounts, visual documentation, social media, and the memories of Sopot residents, the author presents Umbrella Man as a performer who queered his own image, an emancipated forerunner of street performance, and a radical body artist who operated completely independently, outside both mainstream and alternative artworlds. The uniqueness of Umbrella Man’s performance activity is highlighted by the juxtaposition of his style with the work of other freaks with artistic ambitions: Krzysztof Niemczyk from Kraków, Tomasz Machciński from Kalisz, and Ryszard Kisiel from Gdańsk, as well as with the work of the professional cabaret artist and writer Jerzy Afanasjew. The author of the article interprets Umbrella Man’s deliberately ambivalent, subversive cross-dressing actions as experimental exercises in freedom transgressing the social norms of their time, carried out in the oppressive public space of the Polish People’s Republic, and as sociocognitive work. Umbrella Man’s street actions in Sopot, surprising passers-by for many years, are approached here as minimalist interactive performances and inclusive provocations with which Bulczyński created an affirmative atmosphere of openness to all kinds of otherness.
Keywords:
street performance, Polish People’s Republic, Sopot, queer, camp, urban folkloreReferences
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Authors
Zbigniew Majchrowskizbigniew.majchrowski@ug.edu.pl
Uniwersytet Gdański Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5259-3085
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