15/12/2024
performance and discussion workshop
Sensitization. Reading with the Body
Pola Salicka, Ukojenie (Zuzanna Kofta i Gosia Wrzosek), Dominika Wasilewska, Weronika Zalewska
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How can we experience literature with all our senses? How can we feel it with our body? Can the words and sentences we read have a specific texture, smell, and taste?
- During the event, we will ponder these questions and attempt to make the written word nourishment not only for our minds, but also for our senses – touch, sight, hearing, and taste.
- The starting point for the event will be the book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, translated into Polish by Dominika Wasilewska and Weronika Zalewska, and published by the label Współbycie on 13 November 2024. Undrowned is a meditative and poetic record of lessons given to the author by marine mammals. After hundreds of hours of observing and interacting with the inhabitants of aquatic ecosystems, Gumbs began to notice an analogy between the wisdom passed on to her by her “water cousins” and the teachings and practices of Black feminism.
- We will begin by slowly immersing ourselves in fragments of Undrowned, sharing reflections on the issues, motifs, and topics raised. Having thus become familiar with the book, we will move on to the collective creation of a soothing soundscape under the leadership of Gosia Wrzosek and Zuzanna Kofta of Ukojenie. Pola Salicka will also join us in this sensual exploration, inviting us to interact with an edible installation she has created. A large-format textile installation by Weronika Zalewska, featuring excerpts from the author’s poems and fragments of Gumbs’s book will provide another opportunity for a sensual experience of literature.
- We want this workshop to be a moment for us to take a deep breath and relax our bodies in a joint meditation on Gumbs’s writing. We invite all those who wish to relax in a warm space, share anecdotes about their favorite marine mammals, and enjoy a soothing massage with collectively produced sounds.
- Ukojenie
- are a sound collective founded by Gosia Wrzosek and Zuzanna Kofta. Gosia and Zuzanna focus on a vocal practice based on intuitive singing, often inviting others to sing along. They host a show together on Radio Kapitał, conduct workshops, and perform live.
- Pola Salicka
- is a designer and artist, a member of Zakole, a collective working with the Wawer Bend wetland in Warsaw.
- Weronika Zalewska
- is an intermedia artist and researcher. She practices video art and installation as a way of telling stories on different scales, at the intersection of documentary and speculative fiction.
- Dominika Wasilewska
- is an educator, translator, publisher, and independent researcher. Together with Aleksandra Kardaczyńska, she runs the publishing label Współbycie.
