mud, muck, marsh

feet slowly detach from the floor

every move is like wading through a dense mass

one step forward and two steps back

trickle oozes from a leaky form

skin emits

drop after drop

heavy water

tired

—Zuza Golińska

Zuza Golińska’s performance mud, muck, marsh alludes to mourning rituals, professional burnout, fatigue and isolation, manifested by physical strain and slow loss of strength. A surreal figure roams the corridors and staircase of the museum. Its arduous journey through the spaces of the building occurs in repeated cycles. The elaborate, layered dress is an extension of the character’s body and gathers in the space, creating a physical distance between the figure and the environment.

Zuza Golińska is a multidisciplinary artist. She studies the impact of architecture and public space on the person. Her art attempts to answer the question of how the psychology of space in a time of civilizational acceleration and late capitalism affects the physical and mental conditions of humans. She often disrupts the clear division between the functional and the aesthetic, analysing the operation of spatial forms on the emotions and decisions of users. She is a graduate of the Studio of Spatial Activities at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and held fellowships from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In 2018 she won the ArtePrize of the Delfina Foundation in London. In 2022 she won the Dorothea von Stetten Art Award at Kunstmuseum Bonn. She has shown her works at such institutions as MSN Warsaw, the Yokohama Museum of Art and the National Gallery Prague, and at the Yokohama Triennale. She has participated in residencies at Fogo Island Arts in Canada, the Artists Development Programme of the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, and MetaLab in Ukraine.

The performance will feature Anna Steller - performer, dancer, choreographer, mother of three children. She has appeared onstage since 1993. For many years she has created dance shows, performance pieces and choreographies, which are presented at some of the biggest festivals in Poland and abroad. As a performer, she focuses on the transparency and honesty of the message, and radical artistic solutions. Her recent works touch on themes of motherhood, corporeality, the organic, and composting. She is a member of the collective Caring People, with whom she won the grand prize at the 7th Gdańsk Biennale of Art in 2023. She has presented her works at such venues as the Berliner Festspiele, CSW Łaźnia Gdańsk, the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław, the Gdańsk City Gallery, Kronika in Bytom, the Miami Performance International Festival, the L1 Contemporary Dance Festival in Budapest, and the Body/Mind Festival in Warsaw.

Gosia Golińska is responsible for the costume. She works and collaborates across numerous fields, as a graphic artist, designer, curator, scenographer and costume designer. She has taken part in such exhibitions as M/morze: Gosia Golińska, Body Works at the State Gallery of Art in Sopot, and my grrrl at the Gdańsk City Gallery. She runs an open studio and organizes unique educational workshops at various cultural institutions. She leads Art Exercises with students at the University of the Third Age in Sopot, and cooperates with the Poor Relations Theater at a social welfare center in Sopot. She has contributed to the costume and stage design for numerous theater and film productions.

Conception: Zuza Golińska
Performer: Anna Steller
Costume: Gosia Golińska
Makeup: Aleksandra Dutkiewicz