"Please, don't be!"

To celebrate the opening of the Museum of Modern Art's headquarters in Warsaw, artist and performer Ndayé Kouagou (@youngblackromantics, b. 1992) will prepare a new performance commissioned by MSN. The starting point for the artist's practice is his original texts, which draw on the expressions and poetics of the digital landscape of Tiktok and Instagram. The artist's performances appeal to the extreme emotions we experience at the intersection of the private and the public: anxiety, fragility, self-confidence, a sense of agency.

In "Please, don't be!" an interactive performance, Ndayé Kouagou shares essential and supposedly universal questions about everything and nothing, inviting the audience to jump into their own point of view and to compare them with others. By asking his audience questions, the artist initiates a conversation in which the answers are given in both words and movements, shifting attention onto the spectators and making the piece about them as a group. Bringing them into a multidirectional conversation through what seems to be a game, the artist raises more serious topics and questions specific to the western world we live in.

Ndayé Kouagou (b. 1992, @youngblackromantics) has presented his work at Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris), Wiels (Brussels), Frieze London curated section (London), Centrale Fies (Dro/Italy), Athens Biennale (Athens) and Centre George Pompidou (Paris), among others.

In a performance entitled "Please, don't be!", Ndayé Kouagou shares fundamental and supposedly universal questions, inviting the audience to take a stand and compare it with the point of view of others. By asking questions of the audience, the artist initiates a conversation in which answers are given in both words and movements. He shifts attention to the audience and makes the performance about them as a collective. It engages in a multi-directional conversation through play; it addresses themes and questions typical of the Western world we live in.

Ndayé Kouagou (b. 1992, @youngblackromantics) has presented his work at Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris), Wiels (Brussels), Frieze London curated section (London), Centrale Fies (Dro/Italy), Athens Biennale (Athens) and Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), among others.

Curator: Natalia Sielewicz
Producer: Paweł Nowożycki