"The three oddest words" is a creation of a dance film based on the poem by the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska (Nobel Prize in Literature 1996) and its translation to English by S.Baranczak and C. Cavanagh. The three words described in the poem ("Future", "Silence" and "Nothing") were turned into three choreographic scenes, each one set in a different space and location and performed by different dancers.
Kiedy wymawiam słowo Przyszłość,
pierwsza sylaba odchodzi już do przeszłości. Kiedy wymawiam słowo Cisza, niszczę ją. Kiedy wymawiam słowo Nic, stwarzam coś, co nie mieści się w żadnym niebycie. |
When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past. When I pronounce the word Silence, I destroy it. When I pronounce the word Nothing, I make something no non-being can hold. |
By Wislawa Szymborska | Translated by S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh
Word of the creator
The poetry of Wislawa Szymborska leaves questions without giving precise answers and triggers the mind and imagination to look at everyday subjects in a new way. It is also very sober and simple in its form and because of that I see a possibility in it to connect it to dance and movement creating a bridge between those two art forms.
The words, which are very defined and have a lot of connotations, are transformed into an abstract and poetic language of dance which brings the words and their meaning into a different context. The choreography is strongly connected to the locations where the scenes were shot, the movement is defined by the space and the context it brings meaning to the dance.
The music was composed specially for the film to create three different landscapes accompanying dance and visual images appearing in the story.
It’s a short, strong and compact visual interpretation of the poem in a collaborative project between three art disciplines: dance, film and music.
-Marta Kosieradzka