Crab
The brain speaks or the body – it’s your animal.
It belongs to you, and what you are faced with is the puzzle of a human being.
Jerzy Grotowski
I assume interaction with the Audience.
I enter a dialogue with the Audience.
I am asking questions.
I’m making various sounds.
I am making various movements around the Audience.
I look at the viewer as if I was looking in the mirror.
I am referring to the issue of finding and naming your own identity.
I am referring to the process that accompanies finding one’s identity.
I am trying to grasp the nature of myself
I am showing the inner conflict of a human being entangled in the nature-culture dichotomy.
I am creating space for exploring the manifoldness of human identity.
I’m sniffing like a dog.
I am like an animal.
I am a human being.
I’m looking for my bone.
Crab
I don't know people who surround me.
They try to get in touch with me.
Some comment on the situation, some provoke,they come closer,
talk to me or shout something from the distance.
They put beer, vodka and other things next to me.
They try to provoke me to leave the counter.
I am separated.
I don't get in touch with anybody.
I don't talk, and I don't answer anybody's questions.
A girl approaches me; she tries to get in touch with me.
She is looking into my eyes, she is asking questions.
She grabs my legs finally and with the help of the others she moves my body into the other end of the room.
I don't move, I don't react, and I don't change the position of my body.
They put me in an armchair.
I come back to the counter.
The girl moves me again.
She tries to get in touch with me again.
She strokes my hair; she puts it behind my ears.
She moves my glasses so they hold my hair.
She strokes my head, she leaves.
Now my face is exposed.
People look into my face and make comments. They try to talk.
They deliver their monologues addressed to me.
The situation change its intensity. An interest in me constantly rises and falls down.
After five hours of sitting on the counter I leave.
End of the action.
Swine
Anna Kalwajtys is lying on the floor; she’s almost naked, wearing only sunglasses and tights pulled up as high her chest. She’s pouring red wine over her head. Wine spills in puddles on the floor. The performer, still resting on her side, starts to crawl. She’s facing the wall. One of her arms extends upwards, the hand is clutching onto a piece of raw meat. The artist and the viewers are in one space together. The viewers move out of the performer’s way as she crawls across the room. It’s as if they were locked in a cage with a predator. We watch how the artist’s muscles tense up and release in the effort of making another move. She is using mostly her right arm and leg to crawl around the space of the room, still facing its walls. The association that comes is that of exploring and marking a new space. Suddenly, the performer turns onto her other side and now she’s facing the viewers. Her chest is bare. She pulls up and adjusts her tights every so often. The viewers are silently watching, cautious not to be in the way. Kalwajtys pauses for a moment, takes a deeper breath, and continues further. On her way she encounters a wire lying on the floor; someone helps out by removing it. The performer is getting visibly tired, she is changing positions more frequently. When she completes a circle, she crawls towards the middle of the room. One of the viewers is in her way. The artist stops and slowly gets up on her feet. The piece of meat is still in her hand. She’s holding it in from of herself. We can hear a hissing sound she’s making, as if trying to scare away what she’s holding in her hand. She’s staring at the piece of meat, shaking all over her body. Suddenly she runs out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Wine, which the artist was pouring over her head, symbolises a communion between her and the piece of meat. The trail of wine she was leaving behind looked like a trail of blood. The body and the meat were giving off the same sound when hitting the floor. Body as a piece of meat. Human as an animal in her crawling, hissing, snake-like eyes hidden behind the sunglasses. All these elements and associations make us see a human being and an animal that the artist embodies. The division between culture and nature is unclear. When the performer gets up onto her feet – changes position from horizontal to vertical – she becomes a human being. The viewer whom she encountered on her way becomes a mirror that reflects her humanity. Upon seeing that she rejects that what is alien to being human, the raw piece of meat, and she runs away. What she runs away from is her own nature and its animal side, as well as the other.
Natalia Uziębło
http://www.obieg.pl/recenzje/4226
Big smile on the face
I enter the room.
I turn my head to the right and to the left.
I smile at the people gathered.
My feet are close to each other.
I start to walk making very small steps.
I cross the room like this.
I turn and repeat everything several times
I say a sentence -big smile on the face-
Very quietly to start with.
It gets louder and louder with time.
From an upright position I go into slouching.
I start moving like an animal;
I imitate a monkey.
The sentence big smile on the face changes into animal-like sounds
I imitate monkey cries.
I move among the people, interact with them.
I go back to an upright position.
Again I start repeating the sentence big smile on the face
I start shouting the sentence.
I walk among the people
And shout big smile on the face
I stop at the exit from the room
Shout big smile on the face
I leave the room
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