In the autumn of 2018 Dorota Ogrodzka, in cooperation with the ZEMOS98 team, designed a performative experience devoted to the study and support of solidarity practiced within an organization working for culture and society.
Together with four members of the core ZEMOS98 team, based on in-depth interviews and conversations about their dreams, frustrations, desires and reflections regarding the relationships between the way of work, the mission of the organization, private life and professional aspirations, artist designed a full-day performative rally around the city of Seville.
It was kind of "tuning of reality", experiment composed of experiencing situations, previously mentioned by ZEMOS team as atypical, dreamlike, allowing to break the crust of declared values and the burden of the organization’s mission. For fifteen hours in costumes of the Spiderman, the Catwoman, Batman and Superman each of ZEMOS team members wandered the city facing surprising situations designed by an artist or the rest of the group, based on the knowledge gathered in previously made interviews. A go-kart race, kayak trip, common dance and common rest, games based on questions and answers, alternative guided tours in the museum, finally: visiting important places connected with the ZEMOS history – all these experiences, intensified and cumulated in time, became an opportunity for a transition, from well-known identity and form, towards prototyping another mode of action, where there’s time and place not only for desires but even for cravings.
Masquerade turned out to be a supportive and solidarity formula because, like the carnival, it combines the lightness and frivolity of dressing up, with a serious operation on the growing tension. It allows one to ventilate and gives one a chance to recover. "Tuning of reality" is not activism. It does not bring immediate change. Rather, it provides inspiration for experiments on consciousness and imagination, the artificial performance provokes the gaps of authenticity which have a chance to translate into thinking about oneself, his or her needs, desires, true expectations from life and culture. It also gives a chance to meet together as people, friends, letting oneself for a moment of weakness, unveiling and giving each other encouragement and support in a fun atmosphere.
Video by Julia Cortegana (in Spanish and English, with English subtitles)
Artists/researchers: Dorota Ogrodzka (Poland) in collaboration with Miguel López (Spain) and ZEMOS98 team
Place: Seville, Spain
Time: October 31st 2018
Video: Julia Cortegana
Participants:
Sofía Coca
Pedro Jiménez
Felipe González Gil
Lucas Tello Pérez
Production: Krytyka Polityczna, ZEMOS98, European Cultural Foundation
