2018
duration: 41 min. 40 sec.
text: Bogna Burska
direction: Bogna Burska, in collaboration with Magda Mosiewicz
performed by: Klara Bielawka, Ewelina Żak, Marta Kalinowska (sign language interpreter)
as well as Agnieszka Górska, Agnieszka Skiba, Aneta Rajca, Anetta Przybył-Bryńska, Anna Jurkiewicz, Anna Wieczorek, Barbara Baranowska, Barbara Popławska, Barbara Szymanowska, Barbara Walczak, Bogna Różyczka, Dagmara Siwczyk, Dominika Jędrzejczak, Edyta Pawłowska, Elżbieta Balano, Elżbieta Jasińska, Elżbieta Zawada, Ewa Chomicka, Ida Sarnacka, Irena Klein, Irena Wiesiołek, Iwona Goździkowska, Joanna Olejniczak, Joanna Stankiewicz, Justyna Orlińska, Katarzyna Andrejczuk, Katarzyna Makaruk, Kinga Wołoszyn-Kowanda, Magdalena Miśkowicz, Małgorzata Berwid, Małgorzata Czmut, Małgorzata Kozek, Marcjanna Bulik, Mira Poręba, Monika Bujak, Natalia Obrębska, Octavian Milewski, Piotr Głodek, Piotr Woźniakiewicz, Urszula Iwińska, Urszula Strych, Witold Borowik.
POLIN Choir led by:
Ewa Chomicka – curator, coordinator
Sean Palmer – composer, conductor
Jakub Pałys – composer, vocal coach
cinematography and editing: Magda Mosiewicz
sound direction: Paulina Sacha
curator: Hanna Wróblewska
collaboration: Aleksandra Szklarczyk
project partner: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
special thanks: Geological Museum of the Polish Geological Institute and Katka Blajchert / CIACH Fryzjer, Paulina Celińska, Katarzyna Szaniawska and Lula, Pola Tyszowiecka, Michał Woliński / Piktogram Gallery, Daniel Kotowski.

The titular “Revolt of the Deaf” refers to the protest of deaf students at Gallaudet University in the United States, who in 1988 won the appointment of the first deaf president in the institution’s history. The project was inspired by the story of a Dutch artist, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, who was born in Europe. When she was born, social services advised her parents to raise her without speaking to her in their own language, in order to support the girl’s assimilation. Her parents, who did not know Dutch, thus raised their daughter speaking to her only rarely: at home they used no more than around fifty of the simplest words. Her relationship with her family was very similar to those typically formed by deaf/Deaf children with hearing parents. The text on which both the film and the performance are based presents situations of difficult closeness, disrupted by the lack of a shared language or the inability to communicate. Another part of it is the history of the deaf/Deaf community, their struggle for recognition of their cultural distinctiveness, and for sign language to be granted the status of a fully fledged language. It also includes themes of language deprivation experiments and stories of attempts to create universal languages that, in their authors’ intentions, were meant to enable communication among all people.

The film was produced at the Geological Museum of the Polish Geological Institute, the Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, as well as in private spaces and outdoor locations.

(source: https://zacheta.art.pl/pl/wystawy/bogna-burska-bunt-gluchych)