State of zero

Powdered rococo, which, while presenting itself pompously, at the same time hides beauty deficiencies resulting from improper hygiene practices and lifestyle under lavish clothes and make-up, is an exceptionally apt metaphor for the human condition – even today. Rococo hides behind lace, shell and gold.

And behind what – contemporaneity?

In inviting us to the closing performance of the Rococo exhibition, we started from the idea of the finale as a ‘de-characterisation’ of a certain museum space and restoring it, as it were, to a ‘state of zero’.

Rococo is a very unusual visitor to the Museum of Contemporary Art, so we wanted to visually characterise the two aesthetics and show the transition between them – from Rococo back to the museum’s contemporary whiteness. The specific prudery of Rococo, which hides various sometimes twisted moral practices under numerous masks, was stripped down in front of the viewer – literally and metaphorically. To underwear, to whiteness, to humanity. To contemporaneity – which also has, as we know, its rituals of concealment.

performers: Monika Ćma, Ika Dac, Elżbieta Dudź, Anna Lorenc, Maciej Makosch, Katarzyna Mazurkiewicz, Justyna Oleksy

Guest: Bartłomiej Bednarz

concept, direction: Justyna Oleksy

movement direction: Magdalena Górnicka-Jottard

costumes: Dominika Chochołowska-Bocian (concept, performance), Maciej Makosch (concept)

baroque cello: Justyna Knapczyk.

resounding: Johann Sebastian Bach – Cello Suite No. 1 in G major: Prelude and Minuet,

variations on a Lanzetti theme,

Improvisation ‘State of Zero’

Rococo make-up: Żaklina Małolepsza, assistance: Emilia Cendrowska

performance production: Exhibition Production Team MNWr

sound system: Wojciech Olszewski

set editors: Mirosław Gaj, Ryszard Lech, Wojciech Olszewski, Andrzej Służyński

cinematography, film editing: Kiki