Agnieszka Polska | The Body of Words
Opening on May 1, 2015, 6 to 9pm
The artist will be present.
The exhibition will run between April 30 and June 20, 2015
ŻAK | BRANICKA is pleased to present, as part of of Gallery Weekend Berlin 2015, The Body of Words, the second solo exhibition by Agnieszka Polska at our space. The show will be comprised of three new video installations and her new series of photo-based collages.
“The Body of Words, confronts us with the question regarding the origin and nature of language. As exemplified in The Talking Mountain (2015), Polska’s most recent video, the way to the origin of language situates us prior to language. The animistic landscape of The Talking Mountain, and the dialogue it generates, perform the shift from that which proceeds language— noises, sounds, voices—to that which is part of language—words, names, statements. The question raised by The Body of Words is both phylogenetic and ontogenetic: it joins a long lasting discussion which takes us back to the beginning of civilisation, as well as to the emergence of each human being as a speaking organism and as a unified, self-aware body. In Watery Rhymes (2014), the way to the origin of language goes through examining the difference between spoken and written language, or more precisely, the tension between speech and writing. (…) In I Am the Mouth (2014), the physicality of language takes a different direction, addressing the human body.”