A Digressive Identity
A Digressive Identity, 14’07”, video still, cam.: Andrzej Wojciechowski
It all started when…
the Polish artist Anna Baumgart asked me to create a performance for her film (about artists) The Dark Matter Of Art. I recalled my idea to impersonate a woman artist. I took the role of Olga Boznanska (1865-1940) to discuss the question of the costume and the identity of a woman and an artist. Boznańska’s costume was my point of departure: it was the long, old-fashioned dress and white apron the painter wore at her studio. The impractical, lavish dress, old-fashioned even in the artist’s times was to serve as a pretext to analyse the ageing process of Painting as a medium.
However, the presence of viewers during the performance and growing tension provoked me to a reflection on corporeality and the aggressive, assessing look. The monologue was entirely improvised. The material was shot by Andrzej Wojciechowski in late 2014; a fragment was later used by Anna Baumgart in her film The Dark Matter of Art. I edited the film several months later thanks to Agata Jakubowska, who became interested in my concept of impersonating female artists.
The video A Digressive Identity won I Prize Ex Aequo at IN OUT FESTIVAL, Center for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, 23-24.04.2016
It was later (2018) purchased to the collection of NOMUS - New Museum for Contemporary Art in Gdansk.
To see the movie: https://youtu.be/aSlnk2pV3Bc