[+] WLADYSLAW KAZMIERCZAK/EWA RYBSKA (POLAND)
performance
The idea of performance came from the catholic iconography and liturgy. A monstrance is a special tool to exhibit perfection. A monstrance in the shape of the sun is a vessel used in the Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, and Anglo-Catholic Churches which is designed to exhibit the object of piety, the consecrated Eucharistic Host, and for the adoration of the Body of God (in fact it is kind of bread, water mixed with white flour). The word monstrance comes from the Latin word monstrare, meaning ‘to expose’. It is known in Latin as an Ostensorium (from ostendere ‘to show’) and as a monstre/monstral in England. We can’t say that we transform different substances into Body and Blood, we just want to experience the presentation of our bodies in a special way.
Wladyslaw Kazmierczak was born in 1951 and has worked as a performance artist since 1974 creating hundreds of unique performances at major galleries, festivals, alternative venues, and sites in 25 countries throughout the world. Since 1997 he has collaborated on duo performances with Eva Rybska (born 1958). Rybska & Kazmierczak have produced over 100 political performances dealing with aspects of freedom, traumatic themes, political hypocrisy, issues of oppression, and the elimination of cultures by the process of globalization. Their performances are often ironic and nihilistic, especially when dealing with empty fashionable values. In 2006, they relocated from Poland to the UK.
Wladyslaw Kazmierczak will also be talking to Anne Seagrave as part of the talks programme.
photos by Anne Seagrave