The body must transform into a form it does not have/ video/ 2023

Director: Aleksandra Przybysz

Performer: Aleksandra Przybysz

Cinematography: Tomasz Kawecki

Camera Operator: Tomasz Antkowiak

Sound: Aleksandra Przybysz

The video was produced with the support and funding of the Galeria Studio

the slimy is myself

Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology

I’ve been researching various theories of disgust and exploring ways to overcome it, based on my personal experience. Georges Bataille, a writer and philosopher, posits that the revulsion reaction arises from distancing oneself from anything that reminds one of their animal origins. He believes that the domain of animalistic carnality has been relegated to the shadows, hushed in silence so that it does not reverberate with its persistent existence.

Phrase „once in contact, always in contact,” underscores his argument. This legislation suggests that negative associations are formed when two substances or objects are combined, which is a situation that should not occur. The structure is logical with causal connections between statements. Similar to previous researchers, they distinguish repulsion from feelings of distaste and danger. „Repulsion differs from danger and the feeling of distaste by the fact that it is imaginative in its refusal to accept it, based on knowledge of the nature or origin of the repulsive agent”. Undeveloped forms with indefinite edges are abhorrent to many people. They find substances that are not quite liquid and not quite solid repulsive. These substances often resemble the inner workings of our bodies and their secretions. Mucous membranes, fungi, lichens, and molds are ubiquitous in the world around us and play an important role in shaping our ecosystem. Yet, they are feared by many who associate them with decay, rot, and eventual death.

One remarkable organic substance is SCOBY, which stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeasts. It is a living organism that I have experimented with in my artistic practice for the past two years. This fungus grows as it ferments and takes the form of its container. During recent years, I have multiplied it by selecting increasingly bigger vessels, with a sense of smallness that has never left me. This fragility is connected to the rejection of any association with primal nature by virtue of being human. I attempted to overcome my aversion to this primal form, which had been cultivated in me by modern culture. The sensation of revulsion derives from physical contact, experienced as an unpleasant intensity. Therefore, I decided to handle and nurture this form directly. While this substance both frightened and intrigued me, I discovered that upon contact, it adopts the same temperature as the human body and takes on a form that imitates a secondary skin.

The Viscosity project consists of three final parts – chapters. Each of them represents a different form of taming matter and transforming it. The titles of the works are drawn from an alchemical treatise on transmutation, the transformation of one body into another with completely different properties. Alchemy, much like this project, operates on the threshold between science, art, and mysticism, offering a framework for rethinking the boundaries between the human and non-human, the pure and impure, the living and inanimate.