Archive for February, 2020

Still from Stabat Mater Dolorosa. Musical about Death and the Maiden, 2018

~ S C R E E N I N G

Stabat Mater Dolorosa. Musical about Death and the Maiden 61′
The Last Train to Warsaw 22′

DATE: Thursday 27th of February 2020
TIME: 19:00 – 21:00

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Upominki cordially invites you to join them for a double screening by independent Polish artists and filmmakers from the generation of ’80 and ’90.

SIKSA and Dom Mody Limanka carry a certain commonality; with their exceptional autonomous approach they gained a recognition in both: the underground and the institutional context. The meeting of two opposite poles, is precisely what drives their work the most. By bringing these two productions and practices together, we wish to open up a discussion about the current political climate, and the socio-economical problems Poland is facing today. To what extent are they exclusive to their national context? Or are they rather universal concerns that should be discussed on a global scale?

This screening is a first of a few encounters realised in collaboration with emilia dudziec, Upominki’s current guest artist.

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SIKSA. Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Musical about Death and the Maiden

Directed: Piotr Macha + SIKSA
Script: Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Cast: Check yourself
Production: Hardcore DIY
2018, PL

Musical based on SIKSA’s Stabat Mater Dolorosa is a performative dream of making a movie come true, where both the dream and the movie are like chewing gum that has been tasteless for too long. A nostalgic invitation to a dancing story about a girl returning to her childhood, when she dressed up as different women using her mother’s wardrobe, and all the roles she played to please herself. This film is a tool for reconstructing the scenes from the youth, as well as a baroque farewell to all the glitter and unicorns. Stabat Mater Dolorosa is like a bayonet slashing through modern times. She gives us micro-performances with all her body, and at her own risk. SIKSA’s music is the scenario rejected, grinded, spat out, negated and intensified by the characters. Piotr Macha’s camera is one of the murder weapons that SIKSA would like to use to fuck up the modern reality. It’s a language of art that SIKSA has been using almost unnoticed since 2014. A gun, a girl and death – those are the times we live in.

SIKSA
Siksa (Alex Freiheit: scream and lyrics & Piotr Buratyński: bass guitar noises) is the most divisive Polish artist in recent memory, whose radical and brutally honest performances are smashing the patriarchy one gig at a time. Coming from punk, literary and theatre backgrounds, her shows dissect the Polish consciousness. To quote her own words, she’s a girl on a mission.

Production: Dom Mody Limanka, Jakub Dylewski
Camera: Jakub Dylewski
Director’s cooperation: Aleksandra Maciejczyk
Script: Monika Estera Dembińska
Sound and film editing: Asia Szczęsnowicz
Music: Marcel Baliński
2019,  PL

The Last Train to Warsaw is a final video production of the artist collective whose 5 minutes of fame has passed. The main characters are faced with the choice whether to move to the capital – Warsaw, and leave Lodz, a city completely destroyed and troubled by scarcity. Staying in Lodz would mean continuing their utopian project i.e. leading an artistic practice on the periphery.

DOM MODY LIMANKA
aka DML (Limanka’s Fashion House) an artist collective from Łódź (PL) operated between 2017 and 2019. The group’s activities were mostly focused on organising events in a rented flat – previously gynecological practice. In DML’s work art and life were interwoven. Just as in their flat, where the private: home, would always meet the public: a studio, gallery, showroom, or a shooting set for their last video.