Once upon a time, the demonic Południca haunted field workers, tempting them to engage in a deceptive dialogue. This legendary figure, borrowed from Slavic folklore, poses a metaphor for our contemporary anxieties related to ecological and social unease. The combination of text, video and digital doubling creates a setting that is at once archaic and futuristic.
The performance unfolds as a hybrid narrative that seamlessly blurs presumed polarities, such as subject and the environment, nature and technology, real and virtual. –lalia is split between two locations: it is performed in the foyer of the theatre, while a live stream connection mediates the performance on the stage. Thus the ordinary structure is reversed, preventing the audience from being able to see the performance in its totality and instead only grasp fragments of the live act and its virtual duo.
Dorota Gawęda (b. 1986 in Lublin, Poland) and Eglė Kulbokaitė (b. 1987 in Kaunas, Lithuania) are an artist duo based in Basel, Switzerland working in multiples across performance, painting, sculpture, fragrance, and video installation where language breaks down and one genre morphs into many. Both are 2012 graduates of the Royal College of Art in London. They are the founders of the YOUNG GIRL READING GROUP (2013–2021). Transfusing different bodies of knowledge across space and time, Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė nurture a research-based practice that weaves together seemingly disparate fields of ecology and technology, science and magic, nonhuman intelligence and shared speculation.
They have exhibited at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Kunsthalle Mainz; EPFL Pavilions, Lausanne; ar/ge Kunst, Bolzano; Shedhalle, Zürich; Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna; Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris; Kunstverein Hamburg; Istituto Svizzero, Palermo and Milan; Kunstverein Leipzig; Swiss Institute, New York; Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf; Fri Art – Kunsthalle Fribourg; Futura, Prague; Lafayette Anticipations, Paris; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Cell Project Space, London; 6th Athens Biennale; Kunsthalle Basel; ICA, London; MoMA, Warsaw; Berlin Biennale 9; MaM, Paris among others. They are the recipients of the Allegro Artist Prize 2022; CERN Collide Residency 2022 and laureates of the Swiss Performance Art Award 2021.
Performance credits
Performer: Giulia Treminio
Hair and Makeup: Edvinas Mikulskis
Original music: Bill Kouligas
Sound design: Haraldur Thrastarson
Costumes: Situationist
Voice Actors: Justyna Chaberek, Niklas Draeger, Leila Hassan, Oskar Pawełko.
Performance partner
Video by Vytautas Tinteris
Photos by Andrej Vasilenko
