O przerwaniu. Przepracowywanie przeszłości a sztuka ………. 179

ON BREAKING AWAY: REWORKING THE PAST AND ART

The article offers a critical reflection on interruption as both a cognitive framework and an artistic strategy in times of historical rupture. It examines theoretical perspectives developed by Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, placing them in dialogue with Tadeusz Kantor’s artistic practice in postwar Poland. Particular emphasis is placed on the concept of Umfunktionierung and the figure of the “stranger” as mechanisms for disrupting dominant systems of representation and ideological production. The discussion addresses avant-garde movements such as Dadaism, constructivism, and epic theater as experimental sites of interruption, while also acknowledging their historical and political limitations. The author further explores the tension between artistic autonomy and ideological instrumentalization, especially in the context of socialist realism and postwar cultural policies. Kantor’s theater and visual works are interpreted as material enactments of interruption that expose suppressed historical forces and challenge established aesthetic conventions. Ultimately, the article argues that interruption functions as a nonconformist and refractive practice, enabling critical engagement with the past and resisting assimilation into dominant cultural frameworks.