You can find the performance soundtrack here.
Still Standing is a site-specific living sculpture that explores the body as a memory time-machine in urban spaces. It aims to promote empathy and care towards the remnants of history. Individual bodies, carrying their own social, gender, and political qualities, become the medium for universal storytelling in relation to a site of (non)memory. Parts of the work recall the historical choreography of Israeli choreographer Noa Eshkol and her 1953 work for the 10th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In Vilnius, Still Standing takes place on the margins of the former Old Jewish Cemetery in Sznipiszok. The site’s layered history makes it a perplexing or troubling material to work in proximity with. Accompanied by an autonomous online audio recording, Still Standing shares personal stories and facts about the performance site and reflects on how to care for the past.
Dr. Aleksandra (Ola) Janus (b. 1986 in Kraków, Poland) holds a PhD in Anthropology from Jagiellonian University in Kracow, Poland. She is an activist and a researcher as well as an initiator of numerous cultural and artistic projects and working groups, and the author of academic articles and publications. In her academic work, she focuses on the Holocaust and researches memory cultures and the role institutions play in the process of institutionalisation of discourses about the past. Janus is the president of the Zapomniane Foundation, which locates, marks, and commemorates forgotten Holocaust victims’ burial sites in Poland. She collaborates closely with the Research Center for Memory Cultures at Jagiellonian University and is a member of the publishing council for the Exhibiting Theory book series.
Weronika Pelczyńska (b. 1985 in Warsaw, Poland) is a Poland-based choreographer, dancer, and performer. She holds degrees from the Experimental Academy of Contemporary Dance SEAD in Salzburg, Warsaw University of Technology, and Warsaw University’s Institute of Polish Culture. Weronika has received numerous scholarships, including DanceWEB 2013, Carte Blanche 2013 Modul Dance, and Alternative Dance Academy in 2017 and 2019. As a dancer and performer, she has collaborated with renowned international choreographers from Poland, Germany, Austria, France, and Croatia, including Matej Kejžar, D. Freeman, Maria Stokłosa, Stephanie Thiersch, Jozef Fruck, Linda Kapetanea, Johannes Wieland, Rafaële Giovanola, Anna Nowicka, and Ben J. Riepe.
Monika Szpunar (b. 1993 in Kraków, Poland) is an international dance artist, performer, and choreographer, primarily working between Poland and the UK. She received her training at ACTS/Ecole de danse contemporaine in Paris, London Contemporary Dance School, and Unicamp University in Campinas, Brazil. Szpunar’s choreographic experience spans from creating black box pieces and serving as a movement director for theatre and film productions to developing site-specific and outdoor performances. Often working in collective and interdisciplinary settings, she explores non-hierarchical methods of collaboration and creation. She is a co-creator of THEBANDTHATDANCES (formerly The Yonis), a member of alternative jazz band Robert Diabeł, a participant in the choreographic initiative of sisterhood practices (praktyki siostrzeństwa), and a member of the Body Laboratory (Laboratorium Ciała) at the Kracow Choreographic Centre. Her recent artistic works include Three sculptures/bodies (2022), a performance around Ursula von Rydignsvard’s sculptures at the National Museum in Krakow; Tanecznie I Solidarnie (2020), a dance protest; and the prize-winning short dance film 100m (2022).
Performance credits
Concept: Aleksandra Janus, Weronika Pelczyńska
Performance: Monika Szpunar, Weronika Pelczyńska
Voice-over: Irmina Liškauskaitė, Aleksandra Janus
Audio realisation and production: Aleksander Żurowski
Translator: Monika HaberProduction: FestivALT, Krakow
Premiere: 3 October 2020 in the green outdoor site of KL Płaszów – a former concentration camp in Krakow, Poland
Performance sponsor
Video by Vytautas Tinteris
Photos by Andrej Vasilenko
