Abstract

This collaborative performance was the outcome of a residency at West Walls Studios, Carlisle 25.06.04-01.07.04, leading to the exhibition ‘Poland-Cumbria Live Art Exchange’ 1.07.20 - 4.07.04, a Critical Forum 04.07.04 and a solo performance ‘Słupsk’ 02.07.04, all at Tullie House Art Gallery, Carlisle. This was followed by a residency, at Allenheads Art Centre, Allenheads, Northumberland 5.07.04-12.07.04. During the residency two linked but different performances were devised and rehearsed in collaboration with Magdelana Sowierszenko. These works, Przemowienie/Speech 1 and Przemowienie/Speech 2, were performed with Sowierszenko at Theatre Rondo, Slupsk, Poland 29/08/2004 and Schindler’s Factory, Warsaw. 31/08/2004 respectively. Both performances took place as part of the Zamek Wyobrazni, festival - a longstanding major international festival of performance art curated by Wladslaw Kazmierczak., involving artists from 29 countries. All the above activities were organised and funded by Poland-Cumbria Live Art Exchange, Matrix Art Projects and selected from national submissions. The first performance, Słupsk used a process of overlaying disparate bodies of information to examine the workings of cultural ignorance and assumptions about the other. These issues were explored further in discussions during the Allenheads residency and informed the development of work for both a Polish environment and an international audience. Within the context of a major international festival, Przemowienie/ Speech 1 and Przemowienie/ Speech 2. served as a meditation on the ascendancy of the English language and the political implications of this phenomenon both for individuals with English as a first language and their interlocutors. A related issue, one of control, vis-a-vis the two collaborators, was exposed and explored through part-revelation of the interpersonal dynamic between the two collaborators and the use of imposed silences.