THREE’S A CROWD
The exhibition covers areas ranging from Hong Kong to Slavic vixa parties. It looks at modern-day streets and dance floors, examining how – through their physical presence in the public space – bodies create temporary communities, how they transform the old reality and create new conditions. And how many people does it take to make a crowd. The autonomous, affect-driven and confusing social body is a dynamic 19th-century construct that stands in opposition to the concepts of capitalist productivity, rationalism, and social order. It is more of a manifestation of social disorder: the crowd as a horde, the crowd as a swarm. But it happens that three is already a crowd. The club culture remembers cases of criminalizing the rhythmic movement of at least three people dancing to the music based on repetitive beats. We also remember this pandemic year’s spring and autumn events, when the hearts of the Polish police beat faster at the sight of crowds of three and five people. Bodies always function in relation to other bodies. To have no body is to be nobody. Bodies shape social life in the public space through movement and stillness, gathering and distraction. Also by absence. Regardless of whether it is a grassroots form of bodily (dis)organization, self-choreographed protests, improvised social dances, artistic, activist or artivist actions, bodies become a field of social and political struggle. Together and apart.
ARTISTS:
International Festival of Urban Art OUT OF STH VI: SPACE ABSORBENCY
ARCHIVES OF PUBLIC PROTESTS IVÁN ARGOTE ALEX BACZYŃSKI-JENKINS RUFINA BAZLOVA
THREE’S A CROWD
BORIS CHARMATZ & CÉSAR VAYSSIÉ ZUZANNA CZEBATUL
CURATORS: MICHAŁ GRZEGORZEK ANKA HERBUT GREGOR RÓŻAŃSKI
BOGOMIR DORINGER ROBERT GETSO JONATHAN GLAZER & MICA LEVI
EXHIBITION
LIGHT ARRANGEMENT: JACQUELINE SOBISZEWSKI
JAKUB GLIŃSKI & DAISY CUTTER IGOR GRUBIĆ ROMAN HIMEY & YAREMA MALASHCHUK ZHANG HUAN
CONSULTATION ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE EXHIBITION: HUBERT KIELAN
STEFFANI JEMISON ANNA JERMOLAEWA
PRODUCERS:
AGATA KALINOWSKA
NATALIA BARCZYŃSKA
CONSORTIUM FOR POSTARTISTIC PRACTICES
MONIKA MARCINIAK
CHRIS KORDA DANIEL KOTOWSKI
MONIKA MUSZYŃSKA PATRYCJA ŚCISŁOWSKA
FIRENZE LAI NILS AMADEUS LANGE
ASSEMBLY:
LAS TESIS COLLECTIVE
TOMASZ KOCZOŃ
KANAS LIU & SAM TSANG
MICHAŁ PERUCKI
ANIA NOWAK
MARCIN SZALWA
NAJA ORASHVILI & GIORGI KIKONISHVILI / BASSIANI
SEBASTIAN MILEWSKI DANIEL ZYGMUNT
STEPAN POLIVANOV LUIZ ROQUE PAWEŁ SAKOWICZ ANTON STOIANOV, FRÉDÉRIC GIES ANNE DE VRIES ROMILY ALICE WALDEN MARTA ZIÓŁEK
EXHIBITION GUIDE
AND
EDITING: ANKA HERBUT
CORRECTION: KAROLINA MOROZ AND JOANNA STEMBALSKA, NATALIA BARCZYŃSKA
MARTA CZYŻ
THE AUTHORS OF THE TEXTS:
MARIANKA DOBKOWSKA
TRANSLATION:
MICHAŁ GRZEGORZEK (MG)
MAGDA DRĄGOWSKA
ANKA HERBUT (AH)
MICHAŁ FRYDRYCH
JERZY CHYB AND ANKA HERBUT
GREGOR RÓŻAŃSKI (GR)
KAROLINA GRZYWNOWICZ
SONIA MIELNIKIEWICZ
MATEUSZ KOWALCZYK THE EXHIBITION IS A PART OF THE INTERNATIONAL URBAN ART FESTIVAL OUT OF STH VI: SPACE ABSORBENCY.
YULIA KRIVICH
MOVIES SUBTITLES:
JULIA MINASIEWICZ
ADRIAN SIUTA
JAN MOŻDŻYŃSKI KUBA RUDZIŃSKI WERONIKA ZALEWSKA
CURATORS OF OUT OF STH VI: HUBERT KIELAN, JOANNA STEMBALSKA
PAWEŁ ŻUKOWSKI
VISUAL IDENTIFICATION: GRUPA PROJEKTOR
PR: KLEMENTYNA SĘGA, JOANNA WOLAN
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BWA WROCŁAW GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART, 2020
0. CHRIS KORDA (BORN 1962) is a techno producer, artist, software developer and climate activist. She is the antinatalist founder of the Church of Euthanasia, a para-religious artistic project known for a number of controversial activities, which perversely and provocatively postulates a voluntary population reduction based on four pillars: suicide, abortion, cannibalism and sodomy.
THE CHURCH OF EUTHANASIA ARCHIVES 1994-1997, USA, banner, 147 x 276 cm, stickers. Courtesy of the artist.
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The exhibition showcases materials from the demonstration and propaganda archives of the Church of Euthanasia, founded in 1992 in Boston. The organization is “a non-profit educational foundation devoted to restoring balance between humans and the remaining species on Earth”. The members of the church maintain that it can only be achieved by a voluntary population reduction. Rev. Chris Korda claims that it is the world’s only openly anti-human religion. The church’s only commandment is “Thou shalt not procreate”. The postulated cannibalism only refers to those who insist on eating meat and is strictly limited to consuming those who are already dead. Sodomy is defined as any sexual act not intended for procreation, which mainly means anal and oral sex. Their most popular and controversial slogan is “Save the Planet, Kill Yourself”. The Church of Euthanasia promotes its radical environmental views by means of sermons, performances, demonstrations, culture jamming, music, publicity stunts and direct action, highlighting the unsustainable population of our planet. Referring to the Dadaist movement, its followers find the modern world so absurd that their message must be spread by equally absurd means. (GR)
1. IVÁN ARGOTE (BORN 1983)
spiritual sphere of human life. Referring to the history of art and dance, they queer and redefine narrations and representations of bodies.
creates videos, photographs, sculptures, public interventions and performances. He investigates the city as a place of potentiality and transformation, travelling the world in search of vestigial signs of fallen power, studying the indirect manifestations of control, observing conventions and official versions of history. Through his personal stories and their relationships with ideology and consumerism, he questions the western perspective of history.
PES
2016, BG/DE/SE PVC tarpaulin, electric pump; 350 x 400 x 150 cm. Courtesy of the artists. Pes (Latin: foot) looks like a fragment of a monument, a figure of an ancient colossus whose body was destroyed by time. Its creator, Anton Stoianov, perversely combines the aesthetics of antiquity with PVC – an emblematic contemporary material – thanks to which the majestic relic gains somewhat wild attributes. It is hard to guess who exactly the mythical giant was, but we know one thing for sure – he or she was a dancer.
ALTRUISM
2011, FR, video, 01:20. Courtesy of the artist. In the recording of his Altruism performance, the artist licks and kisses a shiny metal subway bar. He engages in a game with a symbol of disgust, transmitting germs and bacteria from thousands of unknowns. Other passengers turn their heads, uninterested or embarrassed. Argote’s action makes you want to look away and stare at the same time. “Why would something that everyone touches not evoke delight instead of disgust?”, asks the artist. The affectionate act of interaction with an object of collective use provokes a reflection on hygiene and distance – when is our reaction caused solely by health reasons, and when does it become a subconscious excuse for deepening mutual detachment and fear of other bodies? (GR)
In the context of the exhibition, Stoianov’s sculpture, the performance mega-object, serves as a reference to Frederic Gies’s Dance is Ancient, a durational performance which is also a club night. Dancing nonstop for seven hours, the artist drives his body to extreme exhaustion, going through stages ranging from fatigue to ecstasy. Gies’s performance may also be understood as a physical and emotional glorification of dance and one-person protest against unambiguous categorization: Gies’s interests include Nijinsky, Duncan and Bagouet, removing differences between ballet, club and ludic dance (the work has been performed both in art galleries and e.g. the Berghain nightclub). (MG)
2. ANTON STOIANOV (BORN 1978) works in the field of painting, design, scenography, relief and installation. He experiments with atypical materials, techniques and forms. He explores the stylistic and conceptual aspects of painting.
3.YAREMA MALASHCHUK (BORN
1993) AND ROMAN HIMEY (BORN 1992)
are a duo of filmmakers from Kiev working at the junction of visual arts and cinema. In their works, they explore images of the crowd as a collective actor of history and culture, as well as the clash of old and new values functioning in society. They observe everyday life, creating a study of changes of Ukrainian identity, the complicated past and uncertain future.
FRÉDÉRIC GIES (BORN 1973)
Their works feature many references to techno and rave cultures, antiquity or the
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is a dancer and choreographer who treats dance as an inclusive and eclectic means of expression.
DEDICATED TO THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD II
LGBTQ rights, homophobia and other taboo issues in predominantly conservative Georgia. He is a co-founder of Georgia’s two largest LGBTQ rights organizations: Identoba and Equality Movement, member of the White Noise Movement and promoter of Horoom Nights at BASSIANI.
2019, UKR, video, 08:50 min, music: Stanislav Tolkachev, space: Forma. Courtesy of the artists.
The Kiev raves of the CXEMA group are reactions to the ambivalent atmosphere after the Ukrainian revolution of 2013-2014, which led young Ukrainians to euphoria followed by disappointment and need for escapism, further influenced by the nightmare of the War in Donbass. In the film Dedicated To The Youth Of The World II, the camera observes them discreetly when they dance, and after the party follows them into the morning after. The historic film studio of Oleksander Dovzhenko – a pioneer of Ukrainian cinema – is turned into a dance floor, filled with a synchronized crowd, lights and Stanislav Tolkachev’s arrhythmical, synthetic sounds. The camera zooms in and out on the romantic exaltation and modern alienation. CXEMA is an event awaited by the entire Kiev youth, a peculiar kind of escape from everyday reality and its ritualistic rejection. The film ends in near-static takes showing the faces of after-party utopia at the crack of dawn. The young ravers do not seem ready to embrace the new day or old reality. (GR)
DANCE OR DIE
2019, GEO, video, 20:34 min. Courtesy of the artists. The film was made by the founders of BASSIANI in Tbilisi, where the revolution began in May 2018, during which collective dance became a community-building instrument. Under the guise of anti-drug actions, the police raided BASSIANI and arrested one of the club’s owners, a member of the opposition party Girchi. The next day a rave protest lasting several days began, co-organized by the civic movement for the reform of drug policies in Georgia – White Noise (თ ე თ რი ხმაურის მოძრაობა). It was started in 2013, when artist Beka Tsikarishvili was sentenced to 14 years in prison for possession of marijuana. The sentence was ultimately reversed and after his release Tsikarishvili began to organize a movement. But the authors of the film delve even deeper into history, back to Georgia’s protests and birth of freedom movements in the 1980s, collapse of the USSR, Rose Revolution and ritual war dances, showing how political dance may get. Emma Goldman’s words “if I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution” best express the specificity of the tradition of social resistance in Georgia. (AH)
4. NAJA ORASHVILI (BORN 1983) is an activist and artivist, a co-founder of the Electronauts fund, aiming to support the development of electronic music in Georgia. She is a member of the Georgian White Noise Movement, fighting to liberalize the anti-drug policy, and the Equality Movement – for LGBTQ rights. She is an organizer of a local Women’s Solidarity March, founder of the underground techno club BASSIANI/HOROOM in Tbilisi and author of Horoom Nights – a series of Georgia’s biggest queer parties.
5.THE ARCHIVE OF PUBLIC PROTESTS
is an open platform for the distribution of images connected with social and political tensions in Poland. The collection documents social activity, grassroots protests against political decisions, violation of democracy and human rights. The archive is also a warning against growing populism, xenophobia and broadly understood discrimination.
is an activist, human rights defender and promoter. He is a journalist writing about
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GIORGI KIKONISHVILI (BORN 1988)
It prolongs the life of images connected with particular events, normally forgotten after their publication, e.g. in the press. The profiled and issue-specific APP platform gathers photographs in a single, easily accessible collection. The archive is available to all the users who express their willingness to communicate the values with which the collection identifies.
Manual at ZODIAK at the Warsaw Pavilion of Architecture. In Marta Ziółek’s performance, the city square becomes an enclave of freedom of speech and movement, and the body – an instrument helping reclaim public space, using the medium of dance to smuggle content and emotion inconvenient for the authorities. Rendered in the spirit of choreojunk, the material combines snippets of private stories, affectations, images and practices. Dressed in Tomasz Armada’s white-and-red costume and accompanied by urban hoodlums, Ziółek clashes elements of explosive krump with afterimages of Polish catechesis, local hip hop, pantomime, street prophecies and Fokin’s classical Pavillon d’Armide. The demonstrated mechanism of muscle contraction and release corresponds to our physical functions within the social fabric, posing the question of ways of articulating them which would be powerful enough to transform the energy of anger and ultimately let it go. (AH)
APP’s contributors include: Michał Adamski, Marta Bogdańska, Agata Kubis, Adam Lach, Rafał Milach, Chris Niedenthal, Wojtek Radwański, Karolina Sobel, Paweł Starzec, Dawid Zieliński, Bartek Sadowski, Marcin Kruk, Joanna Musiał. The project was founded thanks to the financial support from the Warsaw City Hall. Warsaw, 3 October 2016, “Black Monday”. Thousands of Polish women did not go to work in support of the All-Poland Women’s Strike against the proposed legislation tightening abortion law. Numerous protesters marched in many towns and cities in Poland. Photo: Adam Lach, print, 195 x 130 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
7. AGATA KALINOWSKA (BORN 1984)
is a photographer and writer based in Wrocław. She has a soft spot for extremes, freaks, minorities and margins of the mainstream. She often photographs parties and people close to her in intimate situations. In her artistic practice, she explores the post-documentary blog aesthetics, clashing the sensitivity of grasped situations with trash, dynamising them with high-speed framing or flash overexposure. She is a bartender by passion and choice. She runs the blog relativelyhuman.blogspot.pl.
6. MARTA ZIÓŁEK (BORN 1986) choreographer, performer, director. In her work, she examines the hybrid forms of expression and embodiment. She is interested in new rituals and exploration of the transformative power of movement. She uses the language of new technologies and pop culture. Her performances include Make Yourself (2016), PIXO (2017), Pamela (2018), Poison (2020) and MONSTERA (2020).
HAH
HAUNTINGS AND ECSTASIES IN THE SQUARE (FRAGMENT)
2013, PL, photography, 100 x 330 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Concept, choreography, performance: Marta Ziółek, music: Zoi Michaliova, costumes: Tomasz Armada, ballet dancer: Emilia Cholewicka, production: Jakub Dylewski. The performance accompanied the exhibition City Squares. An Instruction
What interests Kalinowska most is the fringe of the norm and the communities functioning there. She considers it her main fetish and dubs it the minority fetish or outcast fetish. As a non-normative female, she photographed the dance floor of the gay club HAH (full name: Heaven & Hell). The self-organization of bodies on the dance
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2019, PL, performance video documentation, 04:38 min. Courtesy of the artist.
floor tends to reflect the relationships within a given clubbing community. In gay clubs, the male bodies closely packed together and facing various directions form a tight crowd in which nonverbal communication plays a crucial role – it often has not only a community-building function, but also a sexual undertone. However, in Kalinowska’s photos, the language of photographed bodies is also full of tenderness and sensuality. The face of the boy looking upwards resembles the female ecstasies from the tradition of Christian imagery, located somewhere between a sexual experience and spiritual elation. And just like in those cases, it is hard to say which dominates here – what is covered or what is bared. (AH)
presented at the New Horizons International Film Festival (5-15 November 2020). (AH)
9. ANNE DE VRIES (BORN 1977) is an artist whose works confront the abstract notions of new materialism with everyday objects, new materials, technologies and printing techniques. His works include two-dimensional photographs, 3D photo sculptures and multimedia installations. He investigates the impact of technology on our perception and experience of the world.
BOIDS
2015, NL, polystyrene with print. Courtesy of Martin van Zomeren Gallery.
8. STEPAN POLIVANOV (BORN 1994)
The Boids series of sculptures investigates the phenomenon of crowd formation. The objects are covered in “photo wallpaper” showing the biggest social, political and religious gatherings, including the Jasmine revolution in Tunisia in 2011, “Je Suis Charlie” March after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris in 2015, Mecca Hajj and Hong Kong protests in 2014. The shape of the objects resembles rods of the dangerous E. coli bacteria or bodies of nematodes, implying an organic and contagious dynamic of crowd generation. The gathering of populations and organisms may be predicted and described by means of simulations, including the eponymous Boids algorithm – a computer artificial life program simulating the flocking behaviour of birds, developed by programmer Craig Reynolds, and also used in computer games. (GR)
is a film director and artist living in Moscow. In 2016, together with Roman Naveskin, he directed the medium-length documentary Flipside about the world of wax records in Russia. Raving Riot is his feature-length debut.
RAVING RIOT
In May 2018, in an anti-drug campaign, police raided two nightclubs in Tbilisi: Café Gallery and Bassiani. Several dozen people were detained, resulting in a protest rave themed “We Dance Together, We Fight Together” on the steps of the former Parliament, a cult place for Georgian protest tradition. As a consequence, the government promised to liberalize its drug laws. In Polivanov’s coming-of-age documentary, the young – for whom techno is a natural part of life and protest a natural reaction against authorities invading their freedom – become convinced that they have enough political power to change reality. Raving Riot is a picture of the youthful energy of rave revolution, communal character of dance, rebellion and expression of the need for empowerment. Those filmed by Polivanov demand their right to the night: “The day is theirs, the night is ours”. Film
10. STEFFANI JEMISON (BORN 1981) is an interdisciplinary artist whose works arise from the influence of black history and culture on conceptual practices. She explores the limits of narrative description, politics of serial form and tension between improvisation, repetition and fugitivity.
ESCAPED LUNATIC
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2019, RU, film, 61:00 min. Courtesy of Stepan Polivanov, Sergey Yahontov and Stereotactic.
2010-2011, USA, video, 07:41 min. Courtesy of the artist.
A steady stream of black figures run across the screen, sprinting, jumping and rolling through the streets of Houston. The work is part of a trilogy that borrows its narrative structure from early 20th-century cinema. In this part, the artist makes use of the chase film genre, which often depicts African Americans as fugitives fleeing various forms of authority. While she was living in Houston, Jemison shot the video with a local parkour team. The history-inspired structure boldly links the unjust conditions of urban life and representations of blacks in media and culture. The quickly moving figures become symbols of fugitivity, which historically have always marked black life in America. (GR)
Main Post Office to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland as a protest against the illegal organization of elections at the expense of citizens’ security. The size of the letter also made it possible to keep the covid distance between the people carrying it who, when asked to show their IDs, confirmed that they were “at work” and continued the action. During the second detention in front of the parliament building, the group received two tickets in the amount of PLN 10,000 each for the alleged “creation of an epidemic threat”. The penalty was canceled after the intervention of the Human Rights Defender, who referred, inter alia, to the fact that the epidemic ban on assemblies is inconsistent with the Constitution of Poland. The new letter replaces the “live not, die” slogan from May this year with one of the main anti-government slogans used during the protests against the tightening of the abortion law. (GR)
11. MARTA CZYŻ, MARIANNA DOB-
KOWSKA, MAGDA DRĄGOWSKA, MICHAŁ FRYDRYCH, KAROLINA GRZYWNOWICZ, YULIA KRIVICH, JULIA MINASIEWICZ, JAN MOŻDŻYŃSKI, KUBA RUDZIŃSKI, WERONIKA ZALEWSKA, PAWEŁ ŻUKOWSKI
12. LAS TESIS an interdisciplinary, feminist group based in Valparaiso, Chile, formed by Lea Cáceres Diaz, Paula Cometa Stange, Sibila Sotomayor Van Rysseghem and Daffne Valdés Vargas. In their activities, Las Tesis translate feminist thought into the language of activism, holding into account state institutions which perpetuate violence. In 2019, their performance A Rapist in Your Path became an anthem for women’s movements all over the world. In 2020, together with the Russian feminist group Pussy Riot, they released an A.C.A.B. anthem against police brutality entitled 1312, with its accompanying Manifesto Against Police Violence.
an informal, temporary group of activists concentrated around the Letter action Authors of the new version of the Letter:
MARTA CZYŻ, MARIANNA DOBKOWSKA, MICHAŁ FRYDRYCH, KAROLINA GRZYWNOWICZ, MATEUSZ KOWALCZYK, KUBA RUDZIŃSKI, YULIA KRIVICH, WERONIKA ZALEWSKA, PAWEŁ ŻUKOWSKI LETTER
A RAPIST IN YOUR PATH (ORIG. UN VIOLADOR EN TU CAMINO)
The banner letter to the authorities presented at the exhibition is a reconstruction of the letter that took part in the action carried out on May 6, 2020 in Warsaw. Its form refers to a happening by Tadeusz Kantor in 1967, when six postmen, assisted by the militia, transferred a scaled letter from the post office on Ordynacka Street to the Foksal Gallery. Over fifty years later, Kantor’s gesture was repeated on the route from the
2019, CHL, video, 04:45 min. Courtesy of the artists.
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2020, PL, 220 x 1500 cm. Courtesy of the artists and Museum of Contemporary Art
On average, 42 cases of sexual abuse a day are reported to the police in Chile, but only 8% of all reported rapists are convicted. Nine women die every day. Inspired by the works of Rita Segato, an Argentine-Brazilian academic and feminist, the performance A Rapist in Your Path was first shown on 25 November 2019 in Santiago de Chile, on the
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It was a voice stating that sexual abuse is a political, not a moral problem. It went viral, almost immediately becoming an anthem for Chilean feminists, opposing the culture of rape, blaming the victims. On the level of movement, the performance is built on the tension between the oppressive choreography staged against the female body by the police during detentions, and emancipatory gestures, including the one indicating the culprit. In various textual variations, depending on the local socio-political context, the performance has been shown approximately 400 times in over 50 countries. (AH)
the legs spread wide, knees bent, a dodge, tilted torso, covered face. A body arrangement resisting a sinister force. A body which refuses to subdue. A body which becomes a weapon. (MG)
15. BORIS CHARMATZ (BORN 1973) is a dancer and choreographer combining movement with visual arts. In the years 2009-2018, he was the director of the Museum of Dance – National Choreographic Centre in Rennes, France. In his artistic practice, he explores the body as a space for archiving art, challenging the existing museum structures, hierarchies and institutional frameworks. He often subjects dance to formal limitations, looking for new possibilities for bodies and tensions between them.
13.THE ARCHIVE OF PUBLIC PROTESTS (look: 5)
Warsaw, August 8, 2020, Polish women give their government a red card in protest of tightening the abortion law.
CÉSAR VAYSSIÉ (BORN 1967)
Photo: Rafał Milach, print, 49,5 x 62,5 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
is a French visual artist and director. As a filmmaker, he is a member of the Académie de France-Villa Medici in Rome. He produces films which fuse the boundaries of visual arts and dance, venturing beyond the limits of cinema and blurring genre differences. His films include Ne travaille pas (19682018), Elvis de Médicis (2000) and UFE (Unfilmévénement) (2016).
14. FIRENZE LAI (BORN 1984) paintings of the artist are full of anonymous figures, frozen in everyday situations. Despite their focus on ordinary activities like waiting for the bus, talking to a friend or a subway ride, the pictures are laden with unrest. The artist is interested in depicting complex interpersonal relations, individual-collective dependencies and relationships between the body and mind. The figures in her paintings cover almost the entire canvas – we see them at a moment of reflection, hardship and trouble.
LEVÉE (ORIG. LEAVEN)
TYPHOON
2014, FR, video, no sound, 14:22 min, director: Boris Charmatz, César Vayssié, camera and editing: César Vayssié, production: Musée de la danse – Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne, based on choreography to Boris Charmatz’s Levée des conflits. Courtesy of the artists.
A closer inspection reveals that the figures in Firenze Lai’s painting are not dancing. It is a couple fleeing the typhoon. The destructive force of nature and a sense of danger impose a specific choreography, also to be seen in other works at the exhibition:
Levée is choreography without a beginning or end, addressing the paradox of the mobility of individual bodies versus the immobility of the whole. Shot on Halde Haniel in the Ruhr District, it is transferred from the stage to an unfamiliar terrain – a cultural no man’s land, where it forms a labyrinthine, self-generating structure of
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2012, oil on canvas, 50,5 x 50,5 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space.
variable geometry. Levée is a snapshot of subsequent, overlapping gestures forming various spatial and temporal arrangements – the movement circulates, slides from body to body and drifts amongst them causing the dust of mining waste to lift, creating an unreal landscape which oscillates between visual abstraction, science fiction, documentary and genre cinema. And we don’t know if it is a working-class rebellion, an extreme flash mob or a fleeting social monument that can only be seen from a bird’s eye view, in which the struggle with movement and matter, and the never ending exhaustion propel the organic and mathematical choreographic machine. (AH)
here. Irrespective of the interpretation, Czebatul’s sculpture is an overt criticism of neoliberalism, whose hideous tentacles spare nobody, from the art world, through night dance floors, to scarecrows. (MG)
17. FIRENZE LAI (look: 14) TILTED CIRCLE
2018, HK, oil on canvas, 110 x 140 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space.
In her works, Firenze Lai refers to the Occupy Central campaign in Hong Kong. She is interested in relations and structures which emerge not only among the protesters, but also the clashing groups. When does a citizen generate a collective body? Do they all defend a single idea? How are the powers and the roles distributed in such groups? Are we all able to save the movement from collapse? The tilted circle of figures in the painting rests on an unknown, pressing force. Is it a human chain that the aggressive police cannot break? Or perhaps a sense of exhaustion and despair creeping into the group of protesters? (MG)
16. ZUZANNA CZEBATUL (BORN 1986)
is a sculptor exploring power relations (both in terms of structure and aesthetics) through objects and decorations. She concentrates on the visual, seductive force of artefacts and architectural elements – attributes of power – revealing the kinship and conflicts between them. The artist’s major inspirations include, only seemingly contradictory, the aesthetics of ancient sculptures, contemporary exhibition forms and club culture of the 1990s.
TRISTAN, KEWIN & JOSS
18. KANAS LIU (BORN 1986)
2015 PL/DE foam, polyester, metal; 150 x 140 x 135 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
is an independent documentary filmmaker. Since 2014, she has been filming social protests in Hong Kong. She has produced two documentaries about the Umbrella Revolution: Van Drivers (2015) and Van Drivers 2 (2016), as well as a series of five short films documenting the anti-extradition protests: Not One Less, Trial and Error, Be Water, The Time of the Individual and Comrades.
Czebatul’s sculpture has a dual nature: it may be viewed as an apotheosis of vitality, praise for club activism, or even queer intimacy, but another, less optimistic vision comes to the fore. One cannot help but see the work in the context of a trancelike, apathetic dance, an erratic dummy performance. Activity and agency have both an euphoric and gloomy character
SAM TSANG (BORN 1979)
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The three pairs of tracksuit bottoms frozen in mid-motion are characters who were not granted life but were named by the artist: Tristan, Kewin and Joss. Who are the performing boys (boys?) and what does their enigmatic choreography serve?
is an independent documentary filmmaker. His materials were used by local and international media, including VICE News or Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc. (TBS). In 2019, he started documenting social movements protesting against the
extradition bill. He lives and works in Hong Kong.
19.THE ARCHIVE OF PUBLIC PROTESTS (LOOK: 5)
NOT ONE LESS
Warsaw, April 14, 2020, a car protest at the Women’s Rights roundabout, in connection with the planned changes to the abortion and sexual education laws. Public assemblies were then banned worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Karolina Sobel, print, 50 x 75 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
2019, HK, film, 15:00 min, director: Kanas Liu, Sam Tsang. Courtesy of the artists. The film documents mass protests against the introduction of a bill allowing extradition of Hong Kong citizens to China and limiting the region’s autonomy. In a gradual, bottom-up way, the protesters worked out strategies activating people to stand together against oppressive authorities, instruments assuring better effectiveness and safety, principles of decentralized leadership, horizontal co-operation, changeability of tactics and geographical dispersal. In their documentary Not One Less, Kanas Liu and Sam Tsang film the clashes with riot police on 31 August 2019 and night-time singing during a vigil outside the Lai Chi Kok prison, where the protesters were detained. The authors concentrate on the communal experience of a protest, following with a camera lens the civic endeavor to reclaim public space, where everyone is responsible for everyone.
20. ZHANG HUAN (BORN 1965) is a conceptual artist and performer. In his works, he refers to Chinese traditions and history, from prominent political, intellectual and religious figures to anonymous portraits and landscapes. When living in an artistic community located on the impoverished margins of Beijing, Zhang created metaphorical performances and actions in public space.
TO RAISE THE WATER LEVEL IN A FISH POND
1997, CHN, photographic prints, 23 x 16 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
TRIAL AND ERROR
2019, HK, film, 12:00 min, director: Kanas Liu. Courtesy of the artist.
The artist invited an anonymous group of about forty participants – migrant labourers who had just arrived in Beijing to work as builders and poorly paid fishermen. The physical aim of the performance was to raise the water level in a fish pond by a metre. In the Chinese tradition, a fish is the symbol of sex, and water – the source of life. The group performance refers to the Chinese proverb saying that a single man makes no significant difference in a larger environment. In this case, Zhang Huan does not entirely agree with the maxim, proving the agency of a collaborating crowd. Despite the fact that the task was performed, the experiment exudes an aura of uncertainty when the participants look impassively at the artist, and – consequently – at us as well. (GR)
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Two months after the outbreak of the protests in Hong Kong, in direct response to police brutality, the local airport, one of the largest in the world, was completely paralysed. All flights were cancelled. In reaction to the government’s project of compulsory relocation of citizens, the protesters launched a counter-strike – blocking the economic flow, they formed a stronger, more troublesome collective body which wants to decide itself whether it moves or not. In her film Trial and Error, Kanas Liu documents the fourth day of the mass protests at the airport (12 August 2019), when the protesters began to fear real institutional violence following the increasingly bloody repressions on the part of the police force. (AH)
21. ANNA JERMOLAEWA (BORN
RUN FROM THE GUN, #JABACKY (FROM THE SERIES THE HISTORY OF BELARUSIAN VYZHYVANKA)
1970)
in her artistic practice she combines visual arts with socio-political commitment and criticism of culture. In 1989, for political reasons, she left Russia for Vienna, where she lives to this day. In her works, she often deals with issues connected with marginalised communities and everyday life, which she sees as a metaphor of social and political processes.
2020, BR, digital collages, 35 x 35 cm. Courtesy of the artist. In her works, Rufina Bazlova responds to the protests which broke out in Belarus in August 2020. The title of the series from which the presented works originate is a pun – vyshyvat means to embroider, while vyzhyvat – to survive. Sticking to the aesthetics of Belarus folk art, the digital embroidery becomes a political instrument, often picturing brutal and dramatic events from the mass demonstrations which were reactions to the elections rigged by the regime. The colours refer to the flag used by the opposition – that of the Belarusian People’s Republic declared in 1918, later captured by the Soviet Union and Poland. Years after the collapse of the USSR and regaining independence, Belarus still used its folk handicraft as a key element in the country’s promotion and tourist advertising. According to ancient beliefs, embroidery helped chase away evil spirits. In Bazlova’s art, the evil spirits are oppression and totalitarian violence. (GR)
METHODS OF SOCIAL RESISTANCE ON RUSSIAN EXAMPLES
2012, RU/AUT, mixed-media installation, video, 94:00 min. Courtesy of the artist. In 2011, the rigged presidential elections triggered a surge of protests in Russia. The film, containing interviews with members of the Russian opposition, which is a part of Jermolaewa’s installation, presents methods of resistance used at that time in Russia: from traditional methods like blog posts, leaflets or hunger strikes, through performances of the feminist group Pussy Riot, to a demonstration of toys in the Siberian town of Barnaul, where – in response to the ban on public meetings – the protest gathered 100 Kinder Surprise toys, 100 Lego minifigures, 20 toy soldiers, 15 plushies and 10 Matchbox cars. The organizers’ request to legalize the next protest of that kind was duly rejected on the grounds that “Chinese toys are not citizens of Russia”. Anna Jermolaewa offered her friends from Barnaul that she would pack the rebellious toys in a suitcase and help them express their objections herself. Methods of Social Resistance on Russian Examples is a work in the spirit of laughtivism, combining activism with the mighty power of mockery. (AH)
↘ All the works presented at the exhibition are for sale. The total revenue from the sale will be allocated to the victims of the regime in Belarus. For more information, contact the reception of the gallery.
DAISY CUTTER (TOSIA ULATOWSKA, BORN 1996) is an activist and DJ, organizer of the FLAUTA clubbing events supporting organizations for persons with refugee backgrounds, curator, co-founder and CEO of Radio Kapitał – Poland’s first independent community Internet radio station.
22. RUFINA BAZLOVA (BORN 1990)
23. JAKUB GLIŃSKI (BORN 1985) 23
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is a Belarusian artist, illustrator, performer and scenographer, currently living and working in Prague. Her works are inspired by prehistoric culture and philosophy, as well as proto-Slavic mythology.
is a painter and performer exploring the industrial aesthetic of trash, waste, error, as well as auditory and visual noise. He creates
pictures and installations following his intuition on the basis of a grey-blue palette, using an airbrush and visual quotes from murals, pop culture, tattoo and children’s drawings.
view, dancing bodies show the grammar of affection and nonverbal communication, as well as patterns of socio-political behaviour. Regardless of the venue, whether in a student or gay club, in the Balkans or Netherlands, they resemble cells of a live organism observed under the microscope, forming solitary islands, sets and constellations. In Doringer’s work, the clubbing subculture is a system of spontaneously regulating, stabilizing and transforming relations between the individual and collective body, as well as the physical and social body in the ever-changing cultural landscapes and social tensions. It is therefore not only a reflection of current contexts, but also a reaction to the established format of the socio-political sphere. (AH)
EUPHORIC GROUND
2020, PL, installation, object: 348 x 770 cm, music set: 30:00 min. Courtesy of the artists. Euphoric Ground is a fleeting immaterial space which may be experienced in a club – through the co-presence of dancing bodies and ephemeral unity of a temporary community. It is a place of euphoria which melts within our bodies and then abandons them imperceptibly, leaving behind a bitter-sweet yearning. The aim here is to form an audio-visual framework for a symbolic monument to the party as a “non-place”. The authors were inspired by their own story, which began in club space, and creative collaboration within it. The seemingly elusive club or party experience often leads to strong, lasting relationships and friendships, as well as unique psycho-physical, worldview and identity bonds. (GR)
25. PAWEŁ SAKOWICZ (BORN 1988) a choreographer and dancer. He combines intellectual inspirations embedded in the realm of books and dance history with sports stage practice. Recently he has been particularly interested in borderline physical states of the body and cultural appropriation in the field of choreography. His works include TOTAL (2016), Thriller (2018, with Anna Smolar), Masakra (2019) and DRAMA (2020).
24.BOGOMIR DORINGER (BORN 1983)
JUMPCORE
is a researcher, artist and curator, working mainly in the fields of choreography and technology. The starting point of his longterm research project on clubbing as a reflection of social and political changes were club events in Belgrade, where he hid from NATO bombings as a teenager. His projects include Faceless, I Dance Alone and Dance of Urgency. In his research and artistic practice, the dance floor is a form of protest.
2017, PL, dance performance, 40:00 min, choreography and performance: Paweł Sakowicz, dramaturgy: Mateusz Szymanówka, music: Indecorum, costume: Doom 3k, production: Maat Festival, Scena Tańca Studio, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art. The work belongs to the collection of the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art. Courtesy of the artist and the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art.
I DANCE ALONE
In his I Dance Alone project, Bogomir Doringer documents individual and collective choreographies of various social groups on various dance floors, thus exploring mechanisms of crowd formation and its internal dynamics. Filmed from a bird’s eye
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2015-2019, NL, video installation, 17:24 min., no sound. Courtesy of the artist.
In his performance Jumpcore, Sakowicz explores gravity-defying jumps, stemming from various choreographic practices and dance floors – from club jumpstyle, through hardjump and release, to modern dance and classical ballet. At the same time, he works in a specific state – an effect of long, intensive activity leading the body and mind to exhaustion, and possessing the power of resetting them. The choreographer is
inspired by the tragic story of Fred Herko, the American dancer known from Andy Warhol’s early films. It is not entirely clear if Fred Herko planned to finish his intimate performance with a suicide death. He took a bath, turned on Mozart’s Coronation Mass and began to dance naked in his friend’s living room. He approached an open window several times. When Sanctus resounded, he ran and jumped out the window of the apartment on the fifth floor of New York’s Cornelia Street. After all, ballet dancers are said to believe they can fly. And indeed, suspended for a second in a jump, they do. (AH)
gender, racial and class hybrids of identities, in which sensual choreography articulates the tension between public space and the bodies inhabiting it. (AH)
27. ROMILY ALICE WALDEN (BORN 1987)
is a transdisciplinary artist whose work centres a queer, disabled perspective on the fragility of the body. Their practice spans sculpture, installation, video, curation and printed matter, all of which is undertaken with a socially engaged and research-led working methodology. They work both individually and collectively as an organising member of Sickness Affinity Group; a group of sick, disabled and care-giving art workers and activists who work on the topic of sickness/disability, care and labour conditions.
↘ We will inform you about the date of the Jumpcore show on the BWA Wrocław website and via social media.
26. LUIZ ROQUE (BORN 1979) is an artist using the language of visual arts, cinema and critical theory. In his artistic practice, he combines queer bio-politics with the legacy of Modernism, pop culture and science fiction. Exploring social tensions – especially on a local basis – he examines power relations and speculates on possible scenarios for the future. He lives and works in São Paulo.
NOTES FROM THE UNDERLANDS
2019, DE, video, sound, 10:00 min. Commissioned by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, for “Manifestos for Queer Futures”. A project by HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Supported within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Berlin. Courtesy of artist.
S
Notes From The Underlands is a performative text from the depths of queer disability culture. It is both a future-orientated vision of a sick, disabled and care-giving Utopia, and an urgent call to action in the now. The text is performed through video, audio, large-scale print and subtitles; challenging the notion that the body must be physically present (and abled) in order to perform. (MG)
In S, the atmosphere of violence and revolution to break out any minute is almost palpable. The post-apocalyptic, blackand-white underworld of an unknown city, empty subway cars and tunnels resemble the spaces of the proletarian revolution in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis from 1927. But here, the anger of persecuted communities is expressed by a dancing group of gender-fluid people of various skin colours, whose gestures may be interpreted as the message: “we will invade your homes and burn down your cars, you will never feel safe again”. The ritual choreography performed here derives from breakdance and voguing – emancipated dance practices with their roots in black, Latino and queer communities. Roque’s queer imagination generates a world of
28. ANIA NOWAK (BORN 1983)
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2017, BR, video, 05:00 min. Courtesy of the artist and Mendes Wood Gallery.
works in broadly understood choreography, where she speculates on what the body and language are capable of these days. She explores performance, shifting its boundaries towards other formats: text, video or exhibition. She is interested in the material
dimension of the body and its non-physical aspects – emotions, feelings, intuitions – as starting points for the development of embodied practices of care and community. For Nowak, the body is important in the context of sexual activity, the experience of illness, and mourning, as well as the ethics of pleasure in the times of a climatic and political crisis.
30. NILS AMADEUS LANGE (BORN 1989)
is a performer, choreographer and sculptor who attaches great importance to art history and the notion of an art institution, and consequently – canon and representation. In his works, he queers the accepted definitions and patterns, undermines authorities (of e.g. museums and collections) and calls into question the narrations built around them. Instead, he tends to look for meanings on nightclub dance floors (Young Boys Dancing Group), in mixing up existing orders, or in jokes verging on the border of good taste. The consequences of his revolutionary activity is the establishment of new meanings, but above all – allowing groups normally devoid of a voice to have a say.
TO THE ACHING PARTS! (MANIFESTO)
2019, PL/DE, video, sound, 10:00 min. Commissioned by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, for “Manifestos for Queer Futures”. A project by HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Supported within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Berlin. Courtesy of the artist.
SONG TO THE SIREN, A FOUNTAIN FOR THE PUBLIC SPACE
“Desire, unite, name” – says the artist to the audience in her poetic manifesto, touching the most painful emotions of non-binary communities: internal exclusions, non-solidarity and lack of agency. Using her micro-choreography and idiosyncratic, cryptic language style, Nowak calls for mutual care and building difficult alliances. However, the artist’s work goes beyond a community lament because the real danger for the queer people lurks elsewhere and is getting more and more vocal. In such situations, an individual manifestation becomes a collective voice. (MG)
DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND SAM
2020, CH, video, 03:00 min., water. Courtesy of the artist. Camera: Alvaro Kreyden With: Sita, Timon, Ronja, Rufio, Annina, Lara Thanks to Rabea Grand and Gessnerallee Zürich. In his latest work, together with a group of performers, Nils Amadeus Lange builds a fountain out of their own bodies. Referring to the images of very well-known fountains (Manneken Pis in Brussels, Di Trevi Fountain in Rome and Jet d’Eau in Geneva), he arranges an intimate choreography, a human pyramid in which the circulation of water is replaced by the exchange of urine. This special form of intimacy has nothing perverse about it, neither is it an expression of dominance or submission. It is an attempt to embed human biology, the gentle encounter, in the urban fabric, in which the human body, with all its crevices, fluids and filth – is a taboo. (MG)
0.0. CHRIS KORDA (look: 0) THE CHURCH OF EUTHANASIA ARCHIVES
1994-1997/2020, USA, stickers, 15 x 8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
29. THE ARCHIVE OF PUBLIC PROWarsaw, October 26, 2020, Women’s Strike – a street blockade. A protest against the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling on tightening the abortion law. Photo: Agata Kubis, print, 73,5 x 125 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
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TESTS (look: 5)
31. THE ARCHIVE OF PUBLIC PRO-
interpersonal relationships and communication, especially in the context of perception of socially marginalized persons.
TESTS (LOOK: 5)
Warsaw, 8 August 2020, demonstration in support of the LGBT community after the arrest of Margot, an LGBT activist. Photo: Rafał Milach, print, 66x50 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
A PERSON WHO CANNOT USE SPEECH IS NO HUMAN (ORIG. CZŁOWIEK, KTÓRY NIE POSŁUGUJE SIĘ MOWĄ, NIE JEST CZŁOWIEKIEM)
2020, PL, video, sound, 01:03 min. Courtesy of the artist.
32. ROBERT GETSO (BORN 1962, DIED 2014)
Daniel Kotowski is inspired by Mladen Stilinović’s work An Artist Who Cannot Speak English Is No Artist (1992) in order to – just like Stilinović – approach exclusion, except he does it from the perspective of the deaf. In 1992, the Croatian artist pointed to something that is universally accepted today – the dominance of the English language in the global art world. Kotowski concentrates on the dominance of communication through the medium of speech. In his work, the artist uses a fake sign, stylized to resemble a word expressed in sign language. In reality, the multiplied gesture is a rude, even arrogant act expressing a disrespectful attitude towards someone else’s utterance. A sign everyone recognizes.
was an educator (undergraduate/graduate levels) and artist. His work tends to feature HIV/AIDS activism, particularly the direct action of ACT UP in its heyday from 1987 through the early 1990s, as well as other healthcare issues. His interest was in the politics of urban gay life and HIV/AIDS, because “the AIDS crisis isn’t over”.
NYC GO-GO (POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE) 2014, USA, digital printout, 60 x 48 cm. Courtesy of Tim Landers.
A half-naked man performs an erotic dance next to a New York skyscraper. You may imagine that before he takes off his skimpy shorts, he strolls like a sex god or King Kong down Manhattan – Trump’s playground and a sanctuary of neoliberalism. Those who have remained in hiding so far – sex workers, drag queens, ghosts of the epidemic – take to the streets to rule the city: tear it down on a whim or turn it into a place of endless pleasure. Getso talks about exclusion using his own experience, back when he worked in gay bars in Texas and as an ACT UP activist during the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In his works, he broaches the subject of marginalized social groups in America of the 1970s and 80s, turning the spotlight back to those rejected by the binary society. (MG)
The work provokes a discussion about the limits of visibility and audibility of persons whose senses (of sight, hearing or others) are impaired. How can a very quiet, barely audible voice fight for its place in a discussion about the world? How to build new platforms of meeting and communication without basing them on old, exclusive models? (MG)
34. IGOR GRUBIĆ (BORN 1969) is a visual artist who has been involved in activism and politics for many years. His works include interventions in public space and film production. The poetic language he uses in his works addresses the burning issues of social and political life.
is a visual artist and performer for whom the experience of being deaf is a starting point in artistic practice. He often refers to the notions of biopower and biopolitics. His fields of interest include social politics,
EAST SIDE STORY
2009-2013, HR, two-channel video installation, 14:00 min. Courtesy of the artist.
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33. DANIEL KOTOWSKI (BORN 1993)
In his East Side Story, the artist juxtaposes material documenting events that took place during the Gay Pride demonstrations in the streets of Belgrade (2001) and Zagreb (2002) with a performance referring to both of them. The documentary material shows aggressive behaviours of neo-Nazi groups, conservative organizations, and other citizens towards the participants in both parades. The recording of the performance, taking place in the original demonstration venues, is an artistic re-enactment in which the dancers reconstruct direct and symbolic violent gestures, as well as choreographies of the protesting bodies. Just like in the musical West Side Story, Grubić appropriates the language of violence and hate, processing it through art. The dance becomes real action, which Dejan Sretenović calls a “counter-monument” or a “monument of extreme fragility” that reactivates repressed images. Are Grubić’s images so different from those we see in the streets today, despite the almost two decades that have elapsed since the work was originally created? (MG)
35. JONATHAN GLAZER (BORN 1965) is a British film director and screenwriter. His music videos include those for Nick Cave, Radiohead and Massive Attack, and acclaimed commercials – for Levi’s, Wrangler, Nike and Sony. The feature films he has directed include Sexy Beast (2000) and Under the Skin (2014).
The film is inspired by the dance epidemic, started in 1518 in Strasbourg by Frau Troffea, who danced alone in public and refused to stop. A month later, as many as 400 people danced with her. They were unstoppable. In terms of choreography, it was a gestural disaster, manifested in tics and spasms, impulsivity, lack of control or coordination. But on the social and political level, the dancing plague is interpreted today as disciplining bodies getting out of control in a rationalized public space. Between the 7th and 18th centuries, self-choreographed temporary communities of dancing bodies appropriated city squares and streets. The vision of taking power by a chaotically dancing crowd loomed over the authorities, so the collective practice of unacceptably moving bodies was labelled an epidemic. Strasbourg 1518 was made during the pandemic in collaboration with the dancers of Sadler’s Wells by means of basic equipment, and rehearsed on Zoom. Using recordings of dancers closed in confined spaces, Glazer distilled the energy of the lockdown suppressed within the body, treating dance as a symptom of an illness, a cure, poison and therapy in one. (AH)
36. ALEX BACZYŃSKI-JENKINS (BORN 1987)
is an artist and choreographer who deals with queer affect, corporeality and relationality. His works operate in the context of the politics of desire through the use of gesture and touch as well as the issues of collectivity and sensuality.
MICA LEVI (BORN 1986)
FAGGOTS, FRIENDS (TRAILER)
2019–, PL, video, 03:00 min. Courtesy of the artist.
is an English composer, music producer and singer, also known as Micachu. She created the score for the Jonathan Glazer film Under the Skin, for which she received the European Film Award, and Pablo Larrain’s Jackie, which brought her an Oscar nomination. She is a member of the band Good Sad Happy Bad (formerly Micachu and the Shapes), which released the album Shades.
Camera: Krzysztof Bagiński, performance: Agata Grabowska, Billy Morgan, Filip Rutkowski, Dawid Nickiel, Gracjan Smolinski, Ola Rusinek, music: Jaś Rabiej and Krzysztof Bagiński.
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STRASBOURG 1518
2020, GB, video, 10:00 min. Courtesy of the artists and Salaud Morriset.
Faggots, Friends was initiated in 2019 as a commission by Kunsthalle Basel, and it continues as an ongoing work, being developed further with each exhibition invitation, with no determined end or final
Special thanks to:
outcome. The project is as much invested in the documentary form as it is in fiction, and something akin to a cine-performance, one in which relations develop over time and are returned to as the film is reiterated, extended and re-performed. The protagonists are Warsaw-based performers and the film follows their friendship, depicting the experiences of home and home making, pleasure, longing, and belonging. Intimacy and togetherness are traced here as modes of resilience in hostile environments.
Magdalena Komornicka, Tim Landers, New Horizons International Film Festival, Rasmus Myrup and Cruising Pavilion, Łukasz Rusznica, Ewa Szabłowska, Joanna Szymajda, Martin Van Zomeren, Vitamin Creative Space, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art and Karolina Zajączkowska.
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The film emphasises other ways of living and being together. The notion of the queer home is invoked through moments of shared (dis)orientation; a place to depart from, an experience of being out of place and simultaneously a destination of care and desire. Amongst various venues, the performers visit the neo-baroque Villa Pietrusinskiego, where they read fragments of The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions written by Larry Mitchell in 1977 – a part story and part manifesto for collective living and mutual support, where communities come together in order to survive and to overthrow the ruling heteropatriarchal order. (MG)
International Festival of Urban Art OUT OF STH VI: SPACE ABSORBENCY
THREE’S A CROWD EXHIBITION
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