2020
Preserves / A woman with two cats
Performative conservation of memory
(in the name of out-group Mukha)
'Preserves / A woman with two cats' is a 3-hour performance of conservation of memory objects. By memory objects I understand personal possessions of two categories: deriving from the body (hair, blood, cat fur, smoked cigarettes, medical analysis, safety masks, dust from the apartment) and belonging to the body (expired products from the fridge - jams and caned vegetables of all kinds, sanitiser). By combining and preserving these two types of objects I was telling a story of loss, obsession with memory and impossibility to keep alive what's already gone. Two very personal moments were encompassed in this gesture - enclosure in the apartment during covid followed by a break up with a partner. By the performance 'Preserves / A woman with two cats' I attempted to close this chapter in my life - physically and metaphorically. The visitors of this performance were both viewers, listeners and contributors.
Process
"It may seem that preserving life is a detachment, a liberation from the haunting elements of the everyday. But to say now (when all the cans are firmly closed and the memories slide inside the vacuum of glass surfaces) that it became easier—no, it did not. But it became beautiful. And I thank art for its ability to turn any pain into beauty."
Final
Preserves / A woman with two cats, 2020
Performance, objects

Performed at the headquarters of out-group Mukha in December 2020.
The project derives from an input of out-group Mukha. In summer 2020 they conducted a performance "Market of Ideas" where every participant could become the owner of the ideas developed by Mukha. The contract of ownership specified the time frame in which the idea ought to be realised and the conditions of payment - either with money or with the name. The 'name' payment meant that the idea should be realised in the name of out-group Mukha. Thus, acquiring the idea named 'Preserves' I signed to do it in their name, leaving myself a role of a performer.

The idea of 'Preserves' became a starting point and further transformed into a 3-hour performance of preservation of memory objects with an additional title 'A woman with two cats'.
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Made on
Tilda