2017
Bogna Burska / Ewa Hevelke / Michał Januszaniec
performed by: Klara Bielawka, Anna Ilczuk, Andrzej Kłak
music: Sean Palmer and Jakub Pałys
performed by: POLIN Choir – Elżbieta Balano, Iwona Goździkowska, Anna Jurkiewicz, Wiesław Majos, Natalia Obrębska, Sean Palmer, Jakub Pałys, Karol Zdziech
costumes: Pola Tyszowiecka and Maldoror’s dress
curators: Małgorzata Stolarska-Fronia, Natalia Andrzejewska
choir curator: Ewa Chomicka
medical consultation: Piotr Hevelke
special thanks to: Barbara Hanicka, Natalia Andrzejewska, the Culture Office of the City of Warsaw, and the Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw

In a complex production made for the POLIN Museum in connection with the exhibition Blood: Uniting & Dividing, the artist returned to blood-related themes. However, she was no longer focused on exposing the presence of violence in pop culture. The title Tisiphone and Alecto, referring to the names of two of the three Erinyes (Furies), clearly indicates that the artist is reaching back in time – to Greek mythology but also to the Bible, with the opening dialogue referencing the Book of Genesis.

In the play’s “intergenerational” performative action, a symbolic “drop of blood” moves between the Erinyes – who originally came into being from the blood spilled during the castration of Uranus, and who onstage are connected by a red thread and in constant motion. All of this is interspersed with confessions of toxic family relations and a story told by Michał Januszaniec, co-author of many of Burska’s films, about the marital entanglements kept hidden away from the world by the narrator’s forebears. The film as a whole not only exposes certain obsessions with the notion of kinship and inherited traits, but also reveals eugenic convictions about racial hierarchy deeply rooted in post-Nuremberg society. The absurdity of such thinking is emphasized by the choir singing scientific descriptions of how blood functions in the human body.

It is worth noting that this production was preceded by the famous Black March in Poland, which revealed the potential of women – the titular Furies, who are tireless avengers in Burska’s work. The mass protests led by Polish women in the fall of 2020 provided confirmation of their strength.

From the text by Wiktoria Kozioł Strangely Practicing All the World’s Imperfections. The Tragi-grotesques of Bogna Burska, catalogue Blood and Sugar. Bogna Burska 2000-2021