Gosia Wvodik: Body in Resistance

In the center of the work is the non-operating body of the artist herself.

The body is laying down but it is not resting. It has exhausted all its internal resources. It is suspended at the moment. When you lay down, you’re on your own time. Time is passing and being wasted, measuring things left undone. As soon as she opens her eyes, she will not be able to escape.  

Nowadays, an artist cannot remain without work if they want to remain an artist. Work is believed to be the way one finds one’s purpose and becomes a part of society.  The artist is still frequently considered a parasite who needs public funding instead of establishing themselves on the ‘free’ market. The institution pays her to burn out. The activity of the artist even if it is personal should be visible and lavish senseless consumption. 
  
She was not the first one to stop. So many artists lay down before her. Exhaustion is not an individual issue, it is a collective suffering that has social and economic causes. In the performative installation Wdowik is dealing with the question: how to make exhaustion a public feeling? The awareness of the shared experience brings us into a relationship with each other. And only in relation to others the social structures can be changed.

About Gosia Wdowik

Gosia Wdowik is a theatre-maker and active member of GILDIA (the Union of Polish Theatre-makers). She completed the master’s programme at DAS Theatre Academy of Theatre and Dance. During her studies she worked on the topic of burn-out and investigated the space between being exhausted and self-determination by applying methods drawn from activism to her practice. A major question for Wdowik is how to create change and productions from an exhausted body and a burning necessity. This topic also inpsired her 2023 performance She was a friend of someone else (CAMPO in coproduction with Frascati Producties).

Credits

concept, performance Gosia Wdowik music, sound design Agata Zemla special thanks to Aline Almos, Paul Beumer 

WORK WORK WORK

During WORK WORK WORK, Frascati will open its doors as a museum for performance art for four days. Each day the building will be open for eight hours, representing a working day. Dries Verhoeven co-curates the programme with his own work and that of others into a large number of performance, fine art and video works about the relationship between employer, employee and (art) consumer. Together, the artists explore the politics of the working body now and in the future.

Check out the other works of WORK WORK WORK