So Emotional

Emotionally overloaded forms circulate online and offline sculpting the surface of our bodies and identities. In So Emotional, two performers hidden behind white theatrical masks inhabit images of ecstasy and despair, anger and fear to explore historical and contemporary forms of emotions and the emotionality of the form itself. While shadowing each other, they browse through artworks, memes, gifs, scenes from films and music videos. They hack them, pile them up and set them in motion to consider the body’s ability to act, resist and transform individually and collectively.

If the body is a battleground and affect is a new frontier of political struggle, how can we prepare for it? And how can we cultivate micro resistance trapped in a never-ending chain of repetition and appropriation?

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A clever project, based on profound observations, carefully implemented. And further proof, that the still very young Przemek Kamiński is an excellent new young dancer in the city.

Frank Schmid, kulturradio.de

Stylistically sophisticated costumes, over-aestheticised stage vibe, sound collages of club and pop music, ironic deconstruction of the movement apparatus, rich video projection. Yes, very contemporary. Performers, who are consciously rejecting virtuosity, surrender to their own vulnerability, at the same time embodying a relaxed, cool pose, which sometimes becomes the (undisguised) vanity.

Alexandra Henning, Berliner Zeitung

Fluid or contrasting interfusion and collision of images is the structural basis of the performance. (…) Artists investigate if and how one can affect (infect) other mind-bodies using cultural images of emotions. They become triggers for affective infection. Their collision produces a brilliance of inner movements and associations. Images of passionate, affected, emotionally charged bodies are assembled on a stage montage line. (…) Does recognising quoted sources make sense? (…) What happens in “So Emotional” is, after all, equally interesting on a non-referential level, that is, based on visual experience and affective arousal, not resulting from recognising the trace of what is familiar.

Magdalena Zamorska, choreobiota.pl

They [artists] elicit affective reactions of an audience, full of emotional involvement. They draw an audience in a common experience of fleeting joy mixed with a longing for the past.

Piotr Ziółkowski, New Critical Force

CREDITS

So Emotional
2017, performance, 50 min

Concept: Przemek Kamiński, Marta Ziółek, Mateusz Szymanówka
Choreography & Performance: Przemek Kamiński, Marta Ziółek
Dramaturgy: Mateusz Szymanówka
Music: Lubomir Grzelak
Light Design: Aleksandr Prowaliński
Video: Katarzyna Borelowska

Production: Nowy Teatr
Support: Visegrad Artist Residency Program - Performing Arts, Art Quarter Budapest, Adam Mickiewicz Institute

Photos: Katarzyna Szugajew, Maurycy Jan Stankiewicz