Endgame Karaoke Sp. z o. o. | Justyna Banaszczyk/FOQL

Muscha, the central protagonist of the film Dekoder, works in a burger bar, his life filled with little more than the smell of burnt meat until he makes a surprising discovery: swapping the easy listening music in his restaurant for industrial noise, he can instigate skirmishes, even bring about a revolution against a menacing force which is approaching.

Visions of industrial music as a radical protest against patriarchal oppression appears in the work of Justyna Banaszczyk (FOQL) – the first participant in the show guesting: Sound, which accompanies performances of Markus Öhrn's show Three Scenes from a Life.  

Three windmills, located in the theatre foyer, collect surrounding sounds, modifying and giving them up to audiences in the form of an odd composition, a psychedelic experience staged in a trash “cut up” aesthetic. Banaszczyk creates a work which formally refers to so-called functional music (Muzak, but also marketing jingles, elevator and background music), which piped into bars and shops was designed to not only increase employee productivity, but also encourage customers to make more purchases. Banaszczyk also sees muzak as a metaphor for patriarchal sounds and narrations, for officially approved templates, filler and something which silences other voices, along with other (than male) experiences. The female voice, functioning in the public space as an intruder, noise or pollution, is in the composition a relentlessly returning irregular chorus, which is impossible to overlook. The anger, frustration and resignation found in these looping soundscapes reflects so many contemporary female stories, as according to Anne Carson: every sound which we make is a bit of autobiography. 

Voice provided by: Edka Jarząb

The Approaches exhibition featuring: Sound focuses on contemporary works by Polish artists whose performative and para-performative activities represent the main area of interest in their arts practice (though they can be delivered in less than obvious ways).

The artists invited to take part have prepared new sound works, which thematically or formally refer to a chosen theatrical play: they represent an artistic answer, touching on similar questions or else offer up differing perspectives. These sorts of approaches allow a reading (listening) of individual pieces in the context of theatre or outside of it, as separate works. The body, superficially reduced to sound, becomes a starting point for all the projects.

Artists approach human beings in terms of dynamically occurring environmental, social or economic changes, as well as their consequences: the removal of governing structures or negotiations involving existing status-quos.

Programme: 

14-19.09 Justyna Banaszczyk/FOQL will comment on the show 3 Episodes of Life by Markus Öhrn

28.09-4.10 Gregor Różański will reference the show Imaginary Europe by Oliver Frljić

13-19.10 Kem will be inspired by Dries Verhoeven's video installation Guilty Landscapes

2-8.11 Przemysław Branas will comment on the show Farm Fatale by Philippe Quesne

30.11-5.12 Zorka Wollny will reference the show  I love you, Goodbye by Gob Squad