The Common Gestures| Cinema Screening (2018)

Gestures are a form of communication relying on the body. The can have various meanings: from a simple ‘yes’ made with the nod of the head to a more complex sense in the art or life (for instance, in political protest). They can accompany speech or be a sign of disappointment with the language. Gestures, if made consciously, rely on a silent ‘agreement’ that there is a common space of understanding in which they are readable and accepted. However, this agreement is usually written into power relations – visible, as well as invisible rules.

Sometimes the silence breaks and it often happens through an uncommon gesture – a disagreement with the structures existing on various levels. Paradoxically, the uncommon gesture very often allows one to discover what is really common, and what the true rules and patterns are. The artists selected for that short screening make such uncommon gestures. They are either connected with disagreement with the existing artistic rules (Ewa Zarzycka) or patriarchal relations (Natalia LL, Ewa Partum). They may question the concept of the body norms (Agnieszka Polska, Aneta Grzeszykowska), or emotional and physical borders of the individual versus others (Kwiekulk, Honorata Martin). They may also bring out the hidden structure of collective behaviours in the site-specific space marked by memory and history (Zorka Wollny, Joanna Rajkowska). The question of what constitutes the common gestures remains open.

Text&Curated by Zofia Cielatkowska

Program:

1
Natalia LL
Consumer Art, 1975
original 16’01” (fragment 5’56”)

2
Ewa Partum
Active Poetry. Poem by Ewa, 1971
5’53”

3
KwieKulik
Open Form – Game on an Actress’s Face, 1971
2’29”

4
Ewa Zarzycka
Standing Dialogue, 2011
1’04”

5
Joanna Rajkowska
Oxygenator. Grzybowski Square in Warsaw, 2007
18’05”

6
Agnieszka Polska
Correction Exercises, 2008
8’02”

7
Aneta Grzeszykowska
Bolymorphia, 2008
7’21”

8
Zorka Wollny
Unhum for 23 Musicians and 52 Passers-by, 2011
3’49”

9
Honorata Martin
Setting forth into Poland, 2013
original 17’25” (fragment 5’56”)