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Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries in Contemporary Polish Art.

Analysis of Selected Examples

Article · October 2023

DOI: 10.48239/ISSN1232668243220243

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#43

Zeszyty Artystyczne

Misteria – rytuały – performanse.

Wymiar estetyczny

Mysteries – Rituals – Performances.

The Aesthetic Dimension

Uniwersytet Artystyczny
im. Magdaleny Abakanowicz
w Poznaniu

1(43)/2023
Zdjęcie na okładce
Koncert wizualny Adama Garnka, Kielce 2013
fot. K. Peczalski
Paweł Możdżyński

Holder of a post-doctoral degree

(dr hab.), sociologist and art
anthropologist at the Institute of
Applied Social Sciences of the University
of Warsaw. He researches structural art
phenomena (art institutions, institutional
rituals, ultra-conservative discourse in
21st century Polish art), anti-structural
phenomena (liminality, transgressions,
subversions), and artistic interventions
in urban space. Head of the Sociology
of Art in Public Space Laboratory of
the University of Warsaw. Carries out
reception studies for cultural institutions
and publishes in sociology and art
sciences journals.


https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9569-5447
 219

Zeszyty Artystyczne
nr 1 (43)/2023, s. 218-240
doi: 10.48239/ISSN1232668243220243

Paweł Możdżyński
University of Warsaw

Women’s Performances,
Rituals and Mysteries
in Contemporary Polish Art.
Analysis of Selected
Examples

Are contemporary female performers looking for ritual and mysterious

forms to frame their actions, performances, manifestations, and a host of
other activities? Can we even speak of rituals and mysteries in an era in
which a considerable part of women’s art (and not only!) is taken up by
projects geared towards transforming the social order, expanding the field
of women’s freedom and agency? In this text I will attempt to discuss this
topic based on selected examples of visual arts projects by women artists
in Poland over the past 10 years1.

» 1 In this text I present the results of a study of the discourse of the visual arts conducted
using an analysis of existing materials. The selection of the analysed materials is, of course,
partly subjective in nature. I have tried to select such examples of works, projects, and
exhibitions that are important for the topic at hand and aptly depict the phenomenon. I use
the term “field of art” after Pierre Bourdieu (Bourdieu 2001, 2005). Some of the findings made
in my text coincide with the results of my earlier research (see: Możdżyński 2008, 2011, 2016,
2017).
220 Paweł Możdżyński

We are increasingly seeing art projects that transcend traditional ar-

tistic media or even media called “new” (installation, video, performance,
etc.). There are more and more multimodal and multi-stage art projects
based on different techniques, articulation channels and means of ex-
pression. Here, I will look at both single performances and multi-modal
projects that take place over an extended period, often involving different
people, the results of which can be a material work, the experience of the
participants or new social relationships formed2. Contemporary women
artists pursue a variety of performative projects, which involves practices
that aim to establish temporary relationships and bonds or more perma-
nent female communities. Such projects include workshops and discus-
sions which, organised by women artists, are held in the art institutions
(galleries, museums, etc.).

In search of transgression, liminality, and subversion in 20th and

21st century art

Modern and contemporary art is to a great extent oriented towards trans-

gressions, deconstruction of the dominant conventions of morality and
the aesthetics, the political and economic order3. This is accompanied by
attempts to find the element of liminality, ways of achieving insights into
the hidden “nature of things” or alternative states of the mind, as well
as creating and recreating (para)ritual forms. I believe that modern and
contemporary art has reclaimed part of the field that was abandoned by
institutionalised religions and churches, whose structure, power relations
and interests have eliminated the sensations of the “unorganised sacred”,
liminality and the communitas4. The response to the crisis of the churches
is an interest in non-institutionalized, non-religious „spirituality”. This
is evident e.g., in the art and statements by Agnieszka Brzeżańska: “[...]
I don’t like religion at all and wouldn’t encourage its practice. On the oth-
er hand, I think that experiencing spirituality is highly necessary for us.
I myself have such a nervous system that I easily reach various mystical
states”5. Spiritual (“metaphysical”) inquiries have been pursued by art-
ists representing mystical abstraction (e.g., Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz,
Casimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian), body-art (e.g., Vienna Actionists, Ma-

» 2 See Nicolas Bourriaud, Estetyka relacyjna, transl. Łukasz Białkowski (Kraków: Muzeum
Sztuki Współczesnej w Krakowie MOCAK, 2012).
» 3 More on the theory of the structural/anti-structural liminal experiences and the communitas
in: Turner 2005a, 2005b, 2008, 2010; see Możdżyński 2011.
» 4 See Stefan Czarnowski, Dzieła, vol. 3, Studia z dziejów kultury celtyckiej. Studia z dziejów
religii, transl. Nina Assorodobraj (Warszawa: PWN, 1956).
» 5 Karolina Plinta, “Przeżyć żałobę po Ziemi. Rozmowa z Agnieszką Brzeżańską”, Szum,
07.02.2020. https://magazynszum.pl/przezyc-zalobe-po-ziemi-rozmowa-z-agnieszka-brzezanska/.
Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries... 221

rina Abramović, Natalia LL), Conceptualism (e.g., Roman Opałka, Jerzy

Rosołowicz), land-art and site-specific (e.g., Robert Smithson, Jarosław
Koziara, Jarek Lustych), as well as socially-engaged art (e.g., Joseph
Beuys, Polish critical art).
Particularly evident in performance art (art actions, happenings,
etc.) are attempts to (re)construct forms of rituals and mysteries that in-
itiate female performers into uncommon spheres of existence not (yet)
regulated by dominant political and economic relations. The performer(s)
violate taboos, deconstruct morality, shock and tear themselves and oth-
er participants out of the shackles of everyday life, violating moral and
aesthetic practices and conventions. The artist(s) approach the restaged
rituals and new mysteries in different ways. They can “play seriously” or
“pretend”6; in the latter case, they assume a great deal of distance from
the ceremonies, treat them (self-)ironically, and the language of magic and
meditations becomes a way of rising out important existential or social is-
sues. Below I will try to explore the diverse aspects of rituals and mysteries
present in the performances created by women.

Meditations, initiations, magic

Contemporary women artists often try to draw on meditative techniques7.

For example, relaxation and meditation practices are used by Weronika
Pelczyńska and Monika Szpunar in their choreography classes. This is how
they instruct the participants of their workshops:

Next, direct your attention towards your breath. Pay attention to

your body position. Don’t try to change it, find comfort and stability
in it. Perhaps you are standing on two legs, maybe one of them more
distinctly, maybe you are sitting or lying down? Maybe your hands
rest comfortably on your body, or are in some relationship; maybe
you are holding an object or touching some surface? As you breathe,
indulge in a mindfulness journey. Listen to your body from your feet
to the top of your head. Move your attention inwards and outwards
at the same time, front and back, left and right. Notice the movement
in a posture that may seem static8.

» 6 See Johan Huizinga, Homo ludens. Zabawa jako źródło kultury, transl. Maria Kurecka,
Witold Wirpsza. (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Aletheia, 2007).
» 7 Here I will deal with a few examples that explicitly refer to practices of meditation,
relaxation, etc. I will look into other endeavours in later parts of the text in the context of
practices aimed at broadening the experience of the body, the community, etc.
» 8 Weronika Pelczyńska, Monika Szpunar, “Praktyki siostrzeństwa (sisterchód),” in: Ślady
siostrzeństwa, ed. Eliza Proszczuk, Ewa Chomicka (Warszawa: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych
w Warszawie, 2022), 294.
222 Paweł Możdżyński

In the second half of the 20th century, the paths of Western coun-
terculture were strongly influenced by Buddhism. Agnieszka Brzeżańska
invokes Buddhism in her work, heavily imbued with symbols that refer to
the worship of the Ur-Mother or the paintings of abstractionists seeking
a path to the absolute (e.g. Emma Kunz). An album accompanying one
of her exhibitions included instructions for Zen meditation9. The sculp-
tor and performer Kamila Szejnoch also set up Zen gardens in two art
projects. The first project, I Have a Dream. Sennik Śląski. Ogród zen na
hałdzie w Kostuchnie (I Have a Dream. Silesian Dream Book. Zen Gar-
den on a Heap in Kostuchna) took place on a mine slag heap in Katowice
and was part of the Katowice – a City of Gardens program. Szejnoch found
the “Zen garden” entry in the Silesian Dream Book and decided to pursue
the dream in reality. The artist and invited people planted vegetation and
then she fashioned a shape of a water drop out of white gravel. There were
yoga and zazen sessions led by one of the Zen instructors10. As part of the
Zen Beach project on the Vistula beach in Warsaw, Szejnoch, together
with invited people, drew waves and circles on the sand with huge rakes
specially made for this activity, amidst huge boulders specifically brought
to the site. The artist writes about this action as follows:

The “Zen Beach” attempts to transfer a traditional Japanese garden

onto the sand on the bank of the Vistula. In addition to stones, sand,
gravel, and occasional plants, the Zen garden contains an important
metaphysical element, in the form of the meditation process inherent
in its essence and function. [...] Meditation in the Zen garden has
been practiced, e.g., by daily raking of the sand or gravel, which gives
its surface a characteristic wave-like pattern. Special rakes are used
for this purpose. The essence of the beach activity was the raking of
waves and circles. [...] The raking is an attempt to find peace and har-
mony in the face of war, geopolitical turbulence and other disturbing
phenomena in the world. It is also a play with the appearance and
context of the beach; and finally, a personal experience, the rhythm
of “Sisyphean labour”, of the morning raking and trampling …11

Women performers resort to “magical practices” and to the persona

of a witch, symbolic of a free and creative woman, with liminal experi-
ences, free from the burdens and limitations imposed by the dominant
culture, operating outside an oppressive community. With reference to

» 9 See It All Occurs Quickly, With Ease, Grace and Joy, https://agnieszkabrzezanska.com/
portfolio/downloads/ (access: 20.11.22).
» 10  On the basis of the materials offered by the artist.
» 11  On the basis of the materials offered by the artist and participatory observation.
Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries... 223

a performative project based on choreography and song, Marta Jarnusz-

kiewicz observes: “manifestations of magical thinking in contemporary
culture are necessary and are practised”12. A similar observation is made
by Liliana Zeic (Piskorska), who uses magical practices to express her po-
litical discontent:

Let us accept with confidence that magical language has become an

equally legitimate way of talking about effects and causes, diagnoses
and phenomena. The power of the sacred flows through our country
and has a plethora of forms. The magic word is a mode of action
rather than an instrument of thought. The time has come to make or
break. Let us no longer spin intellectual discourses, let us reject logic,
which has long ceased to matter anyway.

In an engaged series of performances Unicestwić przez mówienie

(Annihilation by Speech) she performed “enchanting rituals”. Zeic intend-
ed to “recant the curse cast on Poland”: “I wish to reverse evil and remove
evil phenomena. It is written: a person who was cursed was in severe pain.
You need to recant the curse to lift the pain”. She performed the Re-en-
chanting Rituals (of annihilation by speech) e.g. in front of buildings of
the ministry of Culture and National Heritage and of the Polish Sejm,
protesting against the policy of the government13. Another example of
a collective that used the symbol of the witch was the Witches’ Chorus
active at Black Protest demonstrations (Women’s Strikes)14. In Perform-
ative Conversations with Spirits, Justyna Górowska, working in collabo-
ration with Krzysztof Gil, impersonated a brzeginka, a water or mountain
nymph recognizable from Slavic mythology. The performer rediscovered
the charm of spiritism and “conjured up” the spirit of Jadwiga Janczews-
ka, the beloved of Witkacy, on the premises of Muzeum Tatrzańskie.
Another form of investigating the world and establishing relation-
ships with subtle forces, alternative to legitimate science, is radiesthesia.
Radiesthesia was used by Kamila Szejnoch as part of her residency at the
Centre for Polish Sculpture, in a long, elaborate project to explore the
place of power15. The artist was inspired by the legend of a chakra being

» 12  Marta Jarnuszkiewicz, “Anaberg. Performatywne działanie kobiet z lokalnej społeczności

Góry św. Anny,” in: Ślady siostrzeństwa, ed. Eliza Proszczuk, Ewa Chomicka (Warszawa:
Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, 2022), 324.
» 13  Based on the artist’s website: http://lilianapiskorska.com/pl/praca/unicestwic-przez-
mowienie/ (access: 13.10.22).
» 14  The demonstrations and protests that followed the toughening of the abortion law in
Poland in 2019 abounded with various performative speeches. Black Protest also became the
subject of women performers’ projects such as performances, workshops, and discussions held
in galleries (see Araszkiewicz 2017). Below, in different sections, I will analyse some of them.
» 15  On the basis of the materials offered by the artist.
224 Paweł Możdżyński

located in Orońsko. She invited the master of radiesthesia Jakub Zemła,

who, using a pendulum and a wand and in the presence of the artist, car-
ried out the search. In the film that documents these activities, the radi-
esthesia practitioner and the artist can be seen walking in the park16. The
master uses a pendulum and additional materials. He also explains the
basic principles of radiesthesia: “Radiesthesia, in the simplest terms, is
the ability to consciously feel radiations”. The radiesthesia practitioner
characterises the park space under investigation: “We are standing on
some kind of terrain climax. [...] There are weak places of power here,
at the junction of the etheric and the astral. These are delicate places of
power, they are not yet spinning, this energy is stable, so it has a calming
effect”. It turned out that in the Park of the Polish Sculpture Centre there
is no chakra, i.e. a nexus of power, but there is instead a place of positive
power, where one can regenerate, relax, meditate, etc. The project also
involved the artist participating in the Therapeutic Radiesthesia and En-
vironmental Radiesthesia Attitudes Course. She admits:

Apart from preparing me for the project, the course was a real adven-
ture and opened a new “non-material” horizon for me. [...] I myself
have, moreover, experienced the workings of the subconscious using
a pendulum. The existence of the etheric and astral body, or the aura
around a person, ceased to be a matter of belief for me and became
more of a fact, even though I cannot see it myself.17

The various rites of passage known to religious historians are accom-

panied by activities involving hair. Cutting, shaving, braiding, unbraiding,
and similar practices signify a transition to a new condition, social group
(e.g., age cohort), exclusion and incorporation into a community, the at-
tainment of a new degree of spiritual development. These are just some of
the meanings of rites of passage associated with hair18. Iwona Teodorczuk
(Iwona TM) variously incorporates hair into her artistic projects (perfor-
mances, installations, and paintings). In the action Iwona TM 5.0, which
took place on the banks of the Vistula, she decided to make a transition on
her 50th birthday, the most important part of which was cutting the hair
she had grown for many years. The cutting ceremony was performed by
the artist’s friends. The artist explains that it was “a ritual connected with

» 16  The video Miejsce Mocy. Badanie radiestezyjne is available on the channel of the Centre
of Polish Sculpture on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnjpEj51dRw (access:
20.10.22).
» 17  Based on a conversation with the artist.
» 18  Arnold van Gennep, Obrzędy przejścia. Systematyczne studium ceremonii, transl. Beata
Biały (Warszawa: PIW, 2006), 167-168.
Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries... 225

the flow of strengthening energies from female friends”19. Here she draws
inspiration from the Tibetan legend of the “Black Crown, the ceremonial
headdress of the Karmapa, the highest teacher of the Karma Kagyu lineage
of Tibetan Buddhism”. As she observes: “According to Tibetan tradition,
the mystical prototype of the crown was woven by the dakinis from their
own hair and given to the Karmapa as an important symbol signifying the
Karmapa’s power to bring benefit to all sentient beings”20.

The body

Myths and rituals are obviously oriented around the body, as religious ex-
perience is always based on bodily sensations. According to Marvin Carl-
son, a performance theorist, the body is the primary tool of performers:
“Performers almost by definition do not rely on figures previously created
by other artists, but on their own bodies”21.
The corporeality of performance corresponds strongly to the embod-
iment of religious experience: „there is no religious experience without the
intervention of the senses”, wrote Mircea Eliade, who created the concept
of “mystical physiology”22. Victor Turner similarly emphasised the body’s
participation in liminal experience: “the body is regarded as a kind of sym-
bolic matrix for the transmission of gnosis, the mystical knowledge con-
cerning the nature of things and how they came to be what they are now”23.
Women artists perform sensory, moral, and aesthetic transgressions
that aim to shatter the taboos related to the body, deconstructing the can-
ons of beauty and health engineered by modern society. At the same time,
they experience all sorts of discoveries into new forms of sensation, the
“initiations” that change their perception of reality and their existential
status. Below, I will look at some contemporary performances that are
specifically focused on the body and its aspects.
In a rather radical performance, Infatumersion, in the park belong-
ing to the Centre of Polish Sculpture, Izabela Chamczyk addressed the
emotions linked to the topic of love (infatuation) and immersion. Here is
an excerpt of a statement concerning the project:

» 19  Based on a description of the event on Facebook (access: 20.10.22).

» 20  Based on the artist’s website: https://iwonatm.wixsite.com/website/wiedźmy-czarownice
(access: 20.10.22).
» 21  Marvin Carlson, Performans, transl. Edyta Kubikowska (Warszawa: PWN, 2007), 30.
» 22  Mircea Eliade, Mity, sny i misteria, transl. Krzysztof Kocjan (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo KR,
1999), 92, 107.
» 23 Victor Turner, Las symboli. Aspekty rytuałów u ludu Ndembu, transl. Andrzej Szyjewski
(Kraków: Nomos, 2006), 127.
226 Paweł Możdżyński

The performance addresses the being infatuated and enamoured that

we all get immersed in every now and then. Is this a state in which
one can function normally? Do we then need support, do we need
to get out of it, or on the contrary, are we supposed to unthinkingly
plunge into this state? Intuitively, we sense that something is dif-
ferent, maybe even wrong, and we don’t know whether to escape or
wallow in this state? The state of falling in love is classified as a men-
tal illness in the International Classification of Diseases as F63.9. Is
it treatable, then? Will it go away on its own? Does one have to suffer
through it? Do we need to fear it or go with the flow?24

The action took place in autumn in the CRP park. Chamczyk, dressed
in a light-coloured dress with an additionally draped transparent foil
(a wedding dress?), stood on a platform by a pond. Counting down one
by one, she threw seventeen stones (the number of the artist’s partners?),
attached to her dress, into the water. She jumped into the pond, the at-
tached stones “dragging” her to the bottom. Finally, the people gathered
helped her out of the water.
As a body practice, dance is a medium of expression of the femi-
nist agenda and a way of building a female communitas. Choreographers
Pelczyńska and Szpunar address the role of the body in their choreograph-
ic practice:

Working together, we create a space where we enhance individual

skills and embody the synergy that comes from being together and gar-
nering attention. [...] Our means of communicating sisterhood values
are choreography, improvisation and dance. We are especially inspired
by the explorations of postmodern dance and performance art artists25.

One way of using the body is through singing. Singing together be-
comes a technique for attaining communal experiences. Jarnuszkiewicz
explains the importance of singing in her project as follows:

A chorus of women working in consonance is a depiction of a female

community building bonds between themselves. Focused on interac-
tion, women create a contemporary song, evoking a range of extreme
emotions and sensations. [...] The sirens’ song, a whale call, a state of
alert, a wall of sound, a conch, and a vibrating wave are just some of

» 24  Based on the artist’s website: http://izabelachamczyk.com/zadnurzenie/ (access: 10.11.22).

» 25  Pelczyńska, Szpunar, “Praktyki siostrzeństwa (sisterchód),” 292.
Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries... 227

the buzzwords triggered in our collective imagination in preparation

for the performative action26.

Women are also rediscovering archaic, traditional singing tech-

niques: Marta Jarnuszkiewicz works with white singing, Monika Weiss
with lamentations. For Jarnuszkiewicz, the way to unlock the body and to
free a woman’s body from restrictive social norms is to scream:

Already at the childhood stage we encounter prohibitions: “don’t

shout”, “be quieter”, “control your emotions”. [...] Our voices are
thus culturally blocked; we do not know their pliability, variety of
sound or potential pitch. [...] Touching one’s true sound is therefore
a certain process of opening up, familiarisation, loosening up, and
group acceptance27.

Much has already been written about how (late)modern societies

have been relegating disease to the social margins and sick bodies be-
yond the boundaries of the visible. Monika “Mamzeta” Zielińska’s This Is
Cancer is a performative project that is also a rite of (cultural) healing28.
Mamzeta smashes the taboo that eliminates images of women after mas-
tectomy from public visual discourse. The immediate goal and material
effect of this artistic project was to adorn the artist’s body with a tattoo
after her mastectomy and breast reconstruction. The tattoo design was
to be chosen following a competition and jury decision. The title of this
project refers to a popular children’s rhyme in Poland: “Idzie rak nieb-
orak/raz do przodu, a raz na wspak, idzie rak nieborak, jak uszczypnie
będzie znak”. The documentation of this (ritual, initiation) process in-
cludes photographs and films showing the artist’s naked body after breast
reconstruction, the artist “trying on” several tattoo designs (projections
of tattoos from a beamer onto her body). In addition, the artist is paint-
ing drawings on herself, browsing, commenting live (e.g., “Lovely”), and
laughing. The half-naked artist can also be seen in the process of getting
a tattoo: first the tattooist makes a drawing, Mamzeta talks, glancing at
the mirror, observing, and commenting. In conversation with the tattoo-
ists, she talks about her mastectomy and shows her reconstructed breast.
During the tattooing process, she complains about the pain.
Post-pornography is an interesting if controversial body art phe-
nomenon outside the artistic mainstream. As the organisers of the first

» 26  Jarnuszkiewicz, “Anaberg. Performatywne działanie kobiet z lokalnej społeczności Góry św.
Anny,” 316.
» 27  Jarnuszkiewicz, “Anaberg…,” 316-317.
» 28  Analysis of work of Monika “Mamzeta” Zielińska based on the documentation from the artist.
228 Paweł Możdżyński

in Poland film post-pornography festival claim, it is based on “artistic

and visual strategies, often subversive and peripheral, yet invariably in-
clusive, significant and filtered”29. This niche phenomenon, outside the
mainstream art scene, is gradually entering the public discourse in Poland.
The mainstream Muranów Cinema, which caters to the middle class with
a more developed cultural capital, hosted the first edition of the Post Pxrn
Festival Warsaw in 2022. The event’s website announced:

The term post-pornography originated in the 1990s and arose from

the need to broaden perspectives on understanding the body and
sexuality and to critique mainstream pornography. An intersection-
al art movement, post-pornography is a platform for exploring the
relationship between culture and oppression, particularly in the con-
text of bodily autonomy, biopolitics, pleasure and identity. Post-por-
nography applies a critical approach to the dominant socio-cultural
order through testing new artistic narratives filtered through the
language of contemporary and ethical pornography seen as a branch
of visual art30.

One camera performance representing post-pornography is the Pol-

ish Sperm Bucket by Aga Szreder and Rafał Żwirek. This endeavour rep-
resents political art and radical body art, the abject aesthetics. From the
point of view of the patriotic, Catholic ideology and dominant aesthetics,
it is and is intended to be shocking and iconoclastic. The artists juxtapose
realistic images of naked genitals and sexual activity with the colours of
the national flag, the visual symbols of the national Catholic tradition and
the swastika. It is both a protest against political decisions and the sup-
pression of the right to abortion. The first scene of the action shows a ce-
ramic object shaped like a part of the female body (thighs, vagina, lower
abdomen). The object is hollow inside; it is white on the outside and red
on the inside. The upper part of the object is finished from the outside
with a pattern containing symbols of a cross, a swastika, an “anchor” (the
symbol of the “Fighting Poland” from WWII). Two male figures appear;
one can partially see their bodies shown from the knees up to the navel
level. Masturbation and ejaculation follow, with semen flowing into the
red interior of the object. A naked female performer appears (her body is
visible from thigh to neck). Her image is “projected” onto the object. The
woman uses a file to grind away with a chisel the symbols placed on the
object. She removes miniature hussar wings from her vagina. She breathes
a sigh of relief. A caption appears: “The film is dedicated to Polish women

» 29  Website of the Post Pxrn Festival Warsaw: https://ppffw.pl/ (access: 20.11.22).
» 30  Website of the Post Pxrn Festival Warsaw: https://ppffw.pl/ (access: 20.11.22).
Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries... 229

who have been subjected to repression by the right-wing government and

the Catholic Church. And to all those who do not see this. And to those
who do not want to see it”31.

A female communitas

As Turner demonstrates, a communitas is an element of anti-structure. It

is a community based on equality, transgressing values and norms, hier-
archies, inequalities, and interdependencies that inform social structure.
A female communitas, known in pre-modern (e.g., tribal) societies from
the studies by Eliade and other scholars is called “female clandestine so-
cieties”. They were contingent on the “desire to gather in women’s circles
to celebrate mysteries related to conception, fertility, and general fecun-
dity”32. Women thus fought to be free from the standards imposed by men
and to obtain a higher social status: “gathered in secret societies, women
acquired a magical and religious prestige that allows them to emerge from
a state of despicable submission to their husbands and enjoy a certain
freedom”33.
Without a doubt, female art has tried to establish more permanent
communities. The central term which has entered the language of wom-
en’s art is that of “sisterhood”. The curators of the Traces of Sisterhood
exhibition observe:

These categories of community and solidarity are the core categories

on which most debates referring to the idea of sisterhood are built.
They point to the commonality of women’s experiences, the need for
mutual support, the need to strengthen women’s voices and actions to
improve the status of women, and to fight together for equal rights34.

The construction of a female identity and the quest for ways to

strengthen female solidarity in Liliana Zeic’s (Piskorska’s) performance
project took the form of rejecting her previous surname inherited from
her father (Piskorska) and changing it to her mother’s surname (Zeic).
The artist applied for a change of name to the Registry Office, writing in
justification of the application, among others:

» 31  Description on the basis of video footage received from the artists.
» 32  Mircea Eliade, Inicjacja, obrzędy tajemne. Narodziny mistyczne, transl. Krzysztof Kocjan
(Kraków: Znak, 1997a), 113.
» 33  Mircea Eliade, Inicjacja, obrzędy tajemne…, 113.
» 34  Ewa Chomicka, Eliza Proszczuk, “Ślady siostrzeństwa: warsztaty,” in: Ślady siostrzeństwa,
ed. Eliza Proszczuk, Ewa Chomicka (Warszawa: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, 2022), 9.
230 Paweł Możdżyński

Returning to the maternal lineage is for me a symbolic and femi-

nist gesture. From one generation to the next, we lose our mothers’
names, we lose them again and again, only to lose them once more the
next moment. The history of our genealogy is a history of forgetting,
a history written along the male line, a history of transmission (of
identity/ownership) through the father’s surname to that assumed
from the husband35.

Sisterhood presupposes a reformulation of social relations to be de-

void of hierarchy and structural correlations, while the search for a female
communitas leads to an understanding of art as a space for the estab-
lishment of relationships36. This, of course, requires a deconstruction of
the role of the artist as a genius who creates outstanding works. Instead,
“The artist primarily initiates [...] and structures collective processes. The
focus is on the collective consciousness and collective action”37. The artist
sometimes takes on the role of coordinator of an emerging non-hierarchi-
cal community38:

For the next six months, my role was mainly to arrange and mod-
erate meetings. It was important to me to create a horizontal and
non-hierarchical structure in which each person had an equal say.
I wanted to avoid a dominant role and wanted to be in the position of
one of the participants. Our art project became a process of creating
space for imagination, developing new ideas and actually improv-
ing the lives of the participants. We focused on aspects of leisure
and dreaming. Leisure time spent together in the open air played an
important role here: growing a vegetable garden together, planting
and tending the calla bush that welcomes visitors and guests to the
settlement of Finnish cottages, Otwarty Jazdów, where the project
participants meet39.

» 35  The work was part of the series Micro-commissions by a left-wing center Warszawska
Świetlica Krytyki Politycznej. Based on the artist’s website: http://lilianapiskorska.com (access:
13.10.22).
» 36  See Bourriaud, Estetyka relacyjna…, 2012.
» 37  Marta Romankiv, “Możesz na mnie liczyć. Od sztuki do pierwszego związku zawodowego
domowych opiekunek,” in: Ślady siostrzeństwa, ed. Eliza Proszczuk, Ewa Chomicka (Warszawa:
Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, 2022), 347.
» 38  An interesting issue is the possibility of realistically equating the status of the artist(s)
with the participants(s) in performance activities. In the context of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept
of symbolic violence, this seems doubtful. I addressed the topic of symbolic violence in
performances in an earlier publication (Możdżyński 2017).
» 39  Romankiv, “Możesz na mnie liczyć…,” 347.
Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries... 231

The construction of women’s consciousness also finds expression in

political events. An important performative event in the field of engaged
(political) art taking the form of a political manifestation was the pro-
ject 100 flag na stulecie uzyskania praw wyborczych przez kobiety (100
Flags for the Centenary of Women’s Voting Rights). The collective made
up mostly of women was an open invitation to participate in the venture
to create flags for the centenary of women’s suffrage40. This undertaking
was one of the few feminist events that took place in the year in which
the centenary of Poland’s independence was celebrated. Made by artists,
flags with feminist, liberation, and LGBTQ-friendly messages, as well as
other objects that loosely alluded to the form of the flag, were carried in
a procession from Castle Square in Warsaw to the BWA Gallery41. They
were later presented in exhibitions, including at the Museum of Modern
Art in Warsaw.
The sought-after practices of women’s communality take the contem-
porary form of workshops, discussions, and meetings. The curators write
about the workshops held during the exhibition Traces of Sisterhood:

This three-day meeting kicked off a multi-year project on sisterhood

as a form of social organisation, and more broadly on being in the
world. [...] During the workshop, the perspectives of women from
the worlds of art, culture, activism, and science met. We became
acquainted with various approaches to sisterhood and the different
forms of its practice in everyday life, in artistic or activist practice, in
social research. We tried to grasp its main values, reflected on new
forms of solidarity and the potential of sisterhood as a model for the
organisation of the future42.

During the anthropological and artistic project known as Group

Practices, Liliana Zeic meets with various feminist groups, sometimes
associated with the Black Protest or the Women’s Strike. The result of
these encounters is an archive composed of notes and photographs that
the artist has taken of members of the collectives43. A permanent form of
community resulting from the performative project is also the formation

» 40  The collective was composed of: Tomasz Chwiałkowski, Agata Korba, Dorota Podlaska,
Aleka Polis, Anna Sałata, Marta Skuza, Aga Szreder, Lena Wilemska, Krzysztof Wiluch,
Agnieszka Żechowska, Rafał Żwirek, and Natalia Żychska.
» 41  Based on information about the event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/100flagkobiet/posts/
pfbid02shRr9e2vpjGnxCrUmKwsZr6pNG1eTV44zfna45yT2KaFibL6SNLgkjPaVmS6hAnql
(access: 23.09.2022).
» 42  Chomicka, Proszczuk, “Ślady siostrzeństwa…,” 8.
» 43  Based on the artist’s website: http://lilianapiskorska.com/pl/praca/praktyki-grupowe/
(access: 13.10.22).
232 Paweł Możdżyński

of the Trade Union of Domestic Workers, bringing together immigrant

women and men44.

The magic of weaving and embroidery

The search for practices/ceremonies/techniques that constitute female

community-building by contemporary visual artists leads to a rediscov-
ery of the “magical” power of the rituals of weaving, embroidery, etc.45
The extensive symbolism of weaving practices, known from the history
of religion, is always linked to the sacred feminine aspect. It concerns the
Cosmos, the basis of human existence: time and fate. Eliade wrote that
the activity of weaving is the principle that explains the functioning of
the World46. The rituals of weaving manifest the „tacit linkages between
female initiations, spinning and sexuality”47.

Eliade observes that in some cultures, after the confinement, the girls
continue to meet at the old woman’s house to spin together. Spinning
is a dangerous craft, and therefore can only be practised in special
houses and only at certain times and during certain hours48.

Women performers, implementing ancient myths in contemporary

reality and in present-day art, see weaving as an opportunity to meet the
feminist demands. The art historian Eulalia Domanowska explains in the
catalogue of the Traces of Sisterhood exhibition: “Textile art is one of
the vehicles of the development of the feminist agenda and the idea of
sisterhood”49. A workshop held during the exhibition was titled A Sister-
hood Tablecloth (moderators: Eliza Proszczuk, Ewa Chomicka). The pho-
tographs in the catalogue show the artists sitting in a circle, embroidering
a large piece of fabric.

Embroidering a tablecloth together became a pretext to talk about

themselves, to get to know each other as a group of workshop par-

» 44  Romankiv, “Możesz na mnie liczyć…,” 353–355.

» 45  The work of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, an artist with Polish-Roma roots, is very significant
in this context. Her textile works are devoted to the history of the Roma, their culture and
forms of community, and is at the same time imbued with mythological, magical, and
astrological symbolism. The artist’s works were exhibited at the Polish Pavilion in Venice in
2022. See: Przeczarowując świat, https://labiennale.art.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/
PRZECZAROWUJAC_SWIAT_katalog.pdf (access: 20.10.22).
» 46  Eliade, Inicjacja, obrzędy tajemne…, 70.
» 47  Eliade, Mity, sny i misteria…, 260.
» 48  Eliade, Inicjacja, obrzędy tajemne…, 70-71.
» 49  Eulalia Domanowska, “Sztuka tkaniny – herstorie,” in: Ślady siostrzeństwa, ed. Eliza
Proszczuk, Ewa Chomicka (Warszawa: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, 2022), 84.
Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries... 233

ticipants and to exchange ideas about sisterhood. The activity drew

on social practices: the tradition of embroidering tablecloths togeth-
er and the group concentration and conversation that accompanies
embroidery50.

As an artist, Eliza Proszczuk has for a long time delved into weaving
techniques. This is how she comments on her endeavours:

When dealing with embroidery and more broadly with textiles,

I notice the traces that women have left behind in history. Learning
from female folk artists and using my own skills, I create textiles
whose form and content are contemporary, while the manufacturing
technique remains traditional. I am keen for my work to explore the
theme of sisterhood, i.e. the formation of female alliances, mutual
care and support, and to use natural materials51.

As the artist assures us, weaving in a group “gives us each a pleasura-

ble sense of community. The ladies make up a small local community, they
are much older than me, a generation from the end of the war”52. Video
footage and photographic documentation shows the artist weaving togeth-
er with the women. The women talk, explain what weaving is all about,
and make comments. One of the artist’s projects, which was made collec-
tively, is rich in female symbolism. Proszczuk intentionally incorporates
the figure of the great mother, the vagina and floral motifs53. In another
project, the artist sewed and embroidered a dress from lamb intestines,
a reference to the taboo of menstrual blood and the rite of seclusion for
the menstruating woman in Jewish tradition54.

Nature, water, and eco-feminism

Water symbolism has been a common feature in women’s rituals, for

example in the form of the “sacred bath ritual”55. Water symbolises “the
primordial substance from which all forms originate and to which they
return”. Furthermore: “contact with water invariably entails regeneration:

» 50  Chomicka, Proszczuk, “Ślady siostrzeństwa…,” 12.

» 51  Eliza Proszczuk, “Ślady siostrzeństwa, poszukiwania...,” in: Ślady siostrzeństwa, ed. Eliza
Proszczuk, Ewa Chomicka (Warszawa: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, 2022), 108-109.
» 52  Proszczuk, “Ślady siostrzeństwa, poszukiwania...,” 110.
» 53  Based on the description on the artist’s website: http://elizaproszczuk.com/portfolio/2210/
(access: 20.10.22).
» 54  “Ślady siostrzeństwa, poszukiwania...,” 119.
» 55  Mircea Eliade, Traktat o historii religii, transl. Jan Kowalski (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo KR,
2000), 214.
234 Paweł Możdżyński

first, because dissolution is followed by a ‘rebirth’, and secondly, immersion

fertilises and therefore enhances the resource of life and the capacity to cre-
ate”56. There is a clear representation of aquatic symbols in ecofeminist ac-
tions. Interesting in this context is a series of recurrent community artistic
projects by Agnieszka Brzeżańska and Ewa Ciepielewska Flow/Przepływ.

In them, the river becomes a starting point for artists, curators and
community activists to be and act together, in order to revamp the
idea of art as an experiment without preconceived outcomes or the
need to produce objects. [...] FLOW/PRZEPŁYW is also an exercise
in a different economy, in sharing and making that is not a cog in the
financial circuit or institutional structures57.

Brzeżańska and Ciepielewska invite artists and social activists to long

cruises along the Vistula on a galley. The catalogue Ślady siostrzeństwa
(Traces of Sisterhood) includes a photograph from Flow/Przepływ, show-
ing people bathing in the river. The caption reads: “Becoming a guide, the
river refreshes the creative practices of artists, curators and social activists,
their being and acting together”58. Brzeżańska and Ciepielewska link the
projects with social engagement: “The result of these experiments are ac-
tivities carried out as part of civic engagement in wildlife conservation and
artefacts that successfully function in the institutional circuit of the arts”59.
A project by Iwona Teodorczuk Możdżyńska (Iwona TM) titled Sawa
i Wars. Transfiguracja/równonoc jesienna performans z udziałem syre-
na, który powstał z nadwiślańskich śmieci (Sawa and Wars. Transfig-
uration/Autumnal Equinox, a performance featuring a male mermaid
created from the rubbish lifted off the Vistula) was rife in aquatic and
cosmological symbolism60. In the first phase of the project, the artist and
the neighborhood’s residents collected several bags of rubbish, from which
she created the figure/sculpture of the “Siren”, a male equivalent of half-
man and half-fish (a reference to the Warsaw legend of Wars and Sawa).
According to the artist, the male mermaid both personifies the patriarchal
culture that enslaves women and is aimed at exploiting and destroying
nature, and its victim. The performance with local residents and artists

» 56  Eliade, Traktat o historii religii…, 207–208.

» 57  Based on the description on the Fundacja Pamoja website: http://www.pamoja.pl/akcja/
flow-przepływ (14.10.22)
» 58  Photo caption in the catalog Ślady siostrzeństwa, p. 22.
» 59  Agnieszka Tarasiuk, „Cała Ziemia parkiem narodowym,” in: Agnieszka Brzeżańska. Cała
Ziemia parkiem narodowym. Przewodnik po wystawie, (Warszawa: Muzeum Narodowe
w Warszawie, 2020), 17.
» 60  Analysis of the action on the basis of participatory observation and the description of the
action on the artist’s website: https://iwonatm.wixsite.com/website/sawa-i-wars-transfiguracja
(access: 20.10.22).
Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries... 235

took place on the day of the autumnal equinox and the full moon. The
performer “fished” the Mermaid out of the Vistula, freed herself and him
from the restraining nets (symbolised by a piece of cloth), and carried
out “healing” activities using fire, incense and a blue pigment symbolising
Medicine Buddha in the Tibetan tradition61. At the end, she distributed
the healing pigment to the people gathered. An explanation posted on the
artist’s website underlines the feminist significance of this project:

At the magical time of the autumnal equinox, Wars and Sawa, the
two elements contained in the city’s name, male and female, were
transfigured. The well-known legend about Warsaw which reflects
the dominance of patriarchal culture over the feminine element has
been deconstructed. Now, can the new myth become the basis for
a restoration of balance, where patriarchal culture, based on the ex-
ploitation of nature, is transformed into a culture of rebirth, based
on a partnership between woman and man, culture and nature, en-
vironment and civilization?62

Earth’s symbolism in the history of religions is very extensive. As-

sociated with the female element, the Earth symbolises the circle of life
and death, both fertility, growth, regeneration as well as the return to the
primordial, descent into the abyss, and death63. Some ancient rituals are
indicative of a yearning for the womb, of a return to the “chthonic uterus”
and unity with the creative core of life. Eliade quotes Rigveda: “Creep to-
wards the ground, creep towards your mother”64. In this context one can
mention the project Trouble by Michalina Kuczyńska and Anna Rutkows-
ka. Michalina Sablik comments on the project as follows:

The body tightens, muscles and bones are visible, veins swell with
blood. It assumes awkward positions, painfully inscribing itself in
the lines defined by the horizon, the lines of tree branches, rocks or
dried-up stream beds. Like lichen, moss or various species of grass,
it becomes a bio-indicator, a bio-identifier whose state indicates im-
minent ecological hazard. The body is shown as lying on the ground

» 61  The artist often uses blue pigment in her performances as a symbol of healing energy.
» 62  Based on the documentation on the artist’s website: https://iwonatm.wixsite.com/website/
sawa-i-wars-transfiguracja (access: 20.10.22).
» 63  Eliade, Mity, sny i misteria…, 231, 207-209; Eliade, Traktat o historii religii…, 276-280.
» 64  Mircea Eliade, Historia wierzeń i idei religijnych, vol. 1, transl. Stanisław Tokarski (Warszawa:
PAX, 1997b), 29.
236 Paweł Możdżyński

or creeping upwards, arrow-like. It assumes positions reminiscent of

magical rituals, as if it wished to cast a spell on and subdue reality65.

In a series of photographs documenting the project, a woman’s na-

ked body can be seen stretched out on the grass, sprawled on dry soil
and stones, half-covered, stretched out on the wire fence around the farm
field. “The artists were fleeing large concentrations of people towards na-
ture. They sought a connection to the organic Mother Earth,” writes Zab-
lik. Trouble exudes anxiety. Nature is not portrayed here as “joyful” and
“friendly”; the artists sense an impending climate catastrophe.

The pandemic

The time of the Covid-19 epidemic was a liminal period: anxiety, suffer-
ing and death abounded. Many social norms were suspended, human re-
lationships and bonds were broken. The dramatism of this period was
well reflected in Izabela Chamczyk’s projects. During the lockdown, which
suspended art life in the real space, the artist made four performances
online, broadcast in real time as well as recorded and later posted on the
website. During the action The Beginning of the End66, the artist investi-
gates the lens, applies make-up with lipstick, slowly smears the lipstick,
applies a white substance to her face, blows at the lens, gradually smears
the red and white substance. After a while, her face is smeared in white
and red (the colours of the Polish flag?), gradually turning red. Chamczyk
whispers movingly all the time; towards the end of the performance, the
whispering turns into moaning:

More infections. Fewer infections. Masks do not protect. You can

eat in the pub. You can’t take off your mask. You can take it off when
you are eating. You can’t take it off when you pay and order. This is
absurd. I don’t believe in the virus. Let’s meet. Let’s not touch one
another. Take precautions. It’s just like before. It will never be like
before. When will we come back to normal. It will never be normal
again. It will never be like it used to be. When will it be possible to go
dancing. Weddings of up to 150 people are legal. Are gatherings legal
now. You must wear a mask indoors. I don’t know what to do. Will
there be holidays at all. One will need to wear a trikini. Always main-

» 65  Michalina Sablik on the project “Trouble”. Based on the documentation received from
Anna Rutkowska.
» 66  Początek końca (Beginning of an End), the first online performance from the Codzienność
(Everydayness) series. The series is made up of three actions: Beginning of an End, Złoty środek
(Golden Means) and Koniec końców (End of Ends). Based on the description on the artist’s
website: http://izabelachamczyk.com/poczatek-konca/ (access: 10.11.22).
Women’s Performances, Rituals and Mysteries... 237

tain a distance of 2 metres. In gyms, a spacing of 1.5 metres. There

is no limit to the number of people on buses. You can fly abroad.
Borders are not yet open. Do projects online. Coronagalleries. You
can finally go to a shopping mall. I don’t want to go to a restaurant
yet. I’m scared. The virus is not an invention. There is no virus. Limit
social contact. Keep your distance. [...] Panic floods the brain...

No conclusion: a source of power

The political struggle for women’s rights and social status continues in the
field of visual arts. Polish women artists are leaving their hiding places
and the margins they have been stuck on. They are breaking glass ceilings
in exhibition institutions, fighting for equal treatment in masculinized
academies. Female performers are increasingly empowered. Their artis-
tic actions are aimed at deconstructing norms, social conventions and at
creating sister communities. They fight for rights in politics and speak out
against state oppression perpetrated on their bodies.
Do the reconstructed ritual forms, mystery themes and rituals help
the performers in their struggle for freedom and equal rights? Do archaic
rituals once practised by women’s clandestine societies and now incorpo-
rated in workshops at art institutions empower contemporary women art-
ists? Are transgressions aimed at liberating the body and sexuality useful
in artistic creation and political struggle? Does the experience gained dur-
ing liminal and/or communal practices make their art more expressive?
I believe so. I think that rituals, customs, and women’s magical practices
bring female performers closer to the source of creativity and causality.
After all, entertainment is a source of culture67.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Izabela Chamczyk, Monika “Mamzeta” Zielinska, Anna

Rutkowska, Kamila Szejnoch, Iwona Teodorczuk-Możdżyńska, Aga Szre-
der, and Rafał Żwirek for providing documentation of the performances.
The video footage, photographs and descriptions enabled me to conduct
the analysis of the works in this text. ●

Abstract

The subject of the text is the search for contemporary forms of rituals and mysteries in
women’s performances in the latest Polish art. Using the methods of sociological dis-
course analysis, the author examines photographic and videographic documentation

» 67  See Huizinga, Homo ludens…, 2007.

238 Paweł Możdżyński

of performances. Paweł Możdżyński focuses on the issues of liminality and communi-

tas, corporeality, and female symbolism in performances. The author shows that these
performers combine meditation practices, rituals and magical rites with feminist ideas
and the fight for women’s rights.
Keywords:
sociology of art, anthropology of art, contemporary visual arts, performance, liminal-
ity, anti-structurality, magic, rituals, sisterhood

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Websites and documentation

Agnieszka Brzeżańska, website: https://agnieszkabrzezanska.com/ (20.11.22).

Agnieszka Brzeżańska, a Vimeo.com channel: https://vimeo.com/user2238178
(12.11.22).
Izabela Chamczyk, website: http://izabelachamczyk.com/ (10.11.22).
Eliza Proszczuk, website: http://elizaproszczuk.com/portfolio/2210/ (20.10.22).
Iwona Teodorczuk-Możdżyńska, website: (Iwona TM) https://iwonatm.wixsite.com/
website (20.10.22).
Liliana Zeic (Piskorska), website: http://lilianapiskorska.com/ (13.10.22).
Kamila Szejnoch, Miejsce Mocy. Badanie radiestezyjne film on the YouTube channel
of the Centre of Polish Sculpture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnjpEj51dRw
(20.10.22).
Website of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s exhibition “Re-enchanting the World” at the 59th
Biennale in Venice 2022, https://labiennale.art.pl/wystawy/przeczarowujac-swiat/
(20.10.22).
Website of Post Pxrn Festival Warsaw, https://ppffw.pl/ (20.11.22).
FLOW / MOTŁAWA, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Ewa Ciepielewska, Fundacja Razem
Pamoja Gdańska Galeria Miejska, 2016-07-23 do 2016-07-23. http://www.pamoja.
pl/akcja/flow-motława (14.10.22).
FLOW / PRZEPŁYW, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Ewa Ciepielewska, Fundacja Razem
Pamoja bd, http://www.pamoja.pl/akcja/flow-przepływ (14.10.22).
241
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