Vasili Vikhliaev - THE UNLIKABLE I (Lecture performance)
Natalia Sliwowska - Polish Funeral Commerce (Lecture)
Please note: to enter MACA you will need a valid Corona Entry Pass
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Vasili Vikhliaev - THE UNLIKABLE I (Lecture performance)
Vasili's work revolves around the net of relationships that shape his position as a migrant, a foreigner. He uses the camera to reveal family dynamics, marked by exile, rigid gender roles, privilege and exclusion. The camera becomes an instrument for self-analysis and a shield to hide behind, while craving proximity.
Through this play with memory and performative interventions Vasili confronts the gaps in his identity by facing the trauma of his brother, Vova, a trauma for which he is partly responsible (something Vasili doesn’t remember because forgetting is easy).
The camera is more than just a passive observer. Sometimes the protective layer of the lens is needed to face the things that make your hands sweat: the parts of yourself that drive you mad or cause you shame. The unlikable character appears on film footage. Where does he go from there?
During the exhibition Vasili will present a performance lecture with a film screening, and a audiovisual installation.
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Natalia Sliwowska - Polish Funeral Commerce (Lecture)
Suspecting that someone is performing feels unsettling. Natalia Śliwowska, however, takes that discomfort in regular interactions, and uses it as an asset. The camera is treated as an accelerator of performativity, opening cracks that uncover the story that her protagonists conceal (consciously or not). She plays the role of a director too, carefully accentuating aspects of her personae to what the material requires- from a new-agey healer to the annoying younger sister insisting on answers. Through this approach to performativity she surmounted cathartic and strangely synchronistic situations.
One of them is described in Walking on Eggshells, her photographic novel (co-written with Viola Żelazny) - a rumination on the protagonist confessing a criminal offence during an acting experiment. Besides conceptual engagement with performativity, Natalia is currently gathering research material that reveals the absurdity of death commodification. This research began as a way to cope with her sudden fear of death - a byproduct of her research into mourning and trauma (Insurance Against Meteorites with J.A.Galama). While conducting interviews with morgue workers, gravediggers and the CEO of a cemetery navigation software, she opens a research thread. What was at first intended as the visual exploration around the aggressive commercialisation of the Polish funeral culture, transformed into an insight into levels of alienation vs fulfillment that the people experience working with death.
