Anna Baumgart: “My mother’s songs which she sang while she rocked my youngest siblings to sleep as I listened lying on my pillow were the story of moral ‘hierarchy’s, cruelty e.g. “A duckling cries to daddy, daddy can I easily love a red poppy, it’s not easy to love a red poppy said daddy, because when a poppy would like to marry a duckling the whole world will shout out in disgust, duckling look how very very big poppies are and you have only short legs like any other duckling. The duckling sees that poppies are red like a rose and that ducklings are short and such is life." It is interesting that the message of this lullaby is in complete contradiction to that of the mainstream fairytale Cinderella. Songs about love „a young fisherman every night dreams of a miller’s daughter from a certain village in which she laughs at him and says to him ‘forgive me but your love is useless to me, forgive me and don’t be angry, I’m leaving and you will never see me again. With proud steps she walks into the world and for many years enjoys herself greatly and when she comes back to her village (and once again meets the fisherman) and she says to him do you want to love this poor woman now and the fisherman responds with forgive me but your love is useless to me (...)" About parenthood “when she turned 16 she rejected her father and rejected her family home where her mother died... now in Warsaw she enjoys herself and is greatly entertained all night long... etc.. Emily met hardtimes and saw her father and stroked his grey hair but he no longer lived." The whole catalogue of human behavior lulls us to sleep, these songs are our map of the world How should this theatre of childhood be performed? I want a young woman /a young mother /an old mother and a young girl to dance to newly arranged traditional songs. The visualizing of the project a mother’s room / a child’s room picture, video or even models. Dolls maybe brought to life through actors? Mother’s songs are a series of life scripts given to us in connection with ‘family patterns and familial recommendations’, with an under-riding message which says ‘be a tough guy, a little bit deceitful and you can become a hero’. Such maternal scripts remain unchanged  and are one of the most useful and direct sources of historical knowledge, These present to us a pre-defined plan for our life and what our final destination is going to be. I’m also  interested in the differences between Polish, German, Irish etc. songs and fairytales. And in which ways they determine personal and national histories.

…a ring, a ring a Rosie a pocketful of tea "a tissue ,a tissue we all far down"

This Irish song is a looking glass in which is reflected the history of this community. The other one “Rock-a baby, in the tree top. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock ,when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall And down will come baby ,cradle and all"

Who and why did put the baby on the top of the tree?

The first stage of my work is to collect different interesting songs from many countries. The key to the project can be differing national stories, pragmatism and romanticism, winners and losers and if these are reflected in children’s songs and if  these children once grown-up subconsciously carry these with them when they live in other cultures.

The second stage is the arranging of the music.

The third is the dramatization of the performance through movement and the visualization of the dancers."

From the catalogue of Romaeuropa Festival 2006:

Anna Baumgart_I got from my mother
A contemporary rereading of the nursery rhymes that we heard as children, before falling asleep. A collection of texts from various countries, sharing the themes of good and evil, that are depositaries of an ancient wisdom handed down orally. The treasure of an entire catalogue of human behaviour, a map to find one’s bearings in the moral universe that is handed down from mother to son. Actors and dancers give life to dolls and characters of fableland and their teachings in a setting representing the most intimate part of a home, the children’s room, viewed under a totally unexpected light.

Anna Baumgart
After obtaining a diploma at the art academy of Danzic (Poland), Baumgart’s activity focused on the issues raised by feminism, in particular on the mother-daughter relationship, on the dependency of woman to man, on the influence of popular culture and religion on the division of traditional roles. Madonna at the Dresden Kunsthaus; Beyond the Red Horizon at the Moscow National Centre for Contemporary Arts; and Polka at the Warsaw Contemporary Arts Centre represent the various stages of her research in the past year (2005). Her career started in the mid-Nineties with her debut performance Fulguration (1995). Anna Baumgart is Polish and was born in 1966.