Svea Duwe

Resistance

Year of birth: 1972 Field: Visual arts, performance City: Wrocław

A visual artist, performer and lecturer based in Dresden, resided for the first time in the capital of Lower Silesia in the summer of 2015 (after she applied for an open call for the artists from Wrocław's partner cities.) She came back here to produce a motor performance in a public space. For her project called “Resistance” she invited twelve dancers (Ola Kugacz, Agnieszka Ćwieląg, Katarzyna Donner, Magdalena Górnicka, Agata Gregorkiewicz, Diana Kubicz, Monika Prędkowska, Róża Zamolojko, Barbara Wysoczańska, Joanna Męczyńska i Mateusz Czyczerski) and Marek Gluziński – an artist and curator working for Studio Matejka and The Grotowski Institute in Wrocław.

Water is a perfect metaphor, because it creates a web of references. It's weight stops the movement, just like social norms and rules can limit our personal growth. However – both water and the pressure stand for energy and power. The most enjoyable thing here is the surprise factor, just like in a game: nobody knows when the caps are going to pop, but the dancers' decision to induce the explosion can be secretly aggressive. The performance is balancing between resisting to inner or external pressure, but the resistance itself is an explosive and quite humorous declaration.

“Resistance” was performed at the heart of Wrocław, the intersection of Kazimierza Wielkiego and Świdnicka streets. The dancers were showing up one by one in the crowd causing astonishment and curiosity. Duwe chose this place intentionally: the very center of the city, main transport hub, space associated with the fast pace, restaurants, consumerism got interfered by the sound of metronome and the rhythm of dancers' marching. The performers' movement was getting increasingly intense and aggressive, evolving after several minutes into a protest and next into a battle. The tension grew until last moment, exceeding the symbolic point od caps' popping off the bottles attached to the dancers' bodies. The explosions of water along with the intense movement, highlighted the moment of purification and released the accumulated tension. Last minutes of the performance, when a group of soaking bodies was lying on the ground of one of the main streets in the city, became a moment of catharsis both for the dancers and the public. After a symbolic glass of champagne the group gave their thanks and disappeared suddenly, leaving the audience without any explanation in a situation full of understatements and question marks.