Hommage à Zofia Kulik

The photographs Hommage à Zofia Kulik and Hommage à Natalia LL hold a similar position in the output of Sędzia Główny (Chief Judge group) as the work Beznadziejnik [Trash Bash Rejectamenta], and are a commentary to the performances which are the core of the artistic activities of the Kubiak-Wiktor duo. The expression “hommage à” (tribute to) indicates that the collective’s endeavours are very close to the art of Zofia Kulik and Natalia LL.

Both the series contain problems and themes addressed in the oeuvre of the two mistresses. In Hommage à Zofia Kulik, one of the performers poses in a manner similar to Zbigniew Libera in the photographs by Kulik. The victory sign, the swastika and the Lenin gesture appear quite frequently in Kulik’s work, including the series Archiwum Gestów [Archive of Gestures] (1987–1991), while the setting of the photographs amidst the ruins of the church in Gubin are reminiscent of Kulik’s Gotyk Między-Narodowy [Inter-National Gothic] (1987–1990). In Hommage à Natalia LL, the two performers decided to use a banana and fruit jelly – props used by Natalia LL in Sztuka konsumpcyjna [Consumption Art] (1972 and 1974) and Sztuka postkonsumpcyjna [Post-Consumption Art] (1975).

The Hommages are a critical and self-thematic reflection on the place that Kubiak and Wiktor occupy in the tradition of performance. The extent to which their art is influenced by such artists as Kulik, Natalia LL and other female performers, such as Marina Abramović, is still to be researched. The photographs reveal the complexity of the student-master relations. While in the works by Natalia LL the action of eating the banana by a model provokes erotic associations and reflects the perspective of a man, in the case of the duo’s work, eating the banana together or feeding each other raw meat lead to a very different situation. Eroticism has been pushed out by repulsion, and the heterosexual character has been replaced by gender ambiguity. Similarly subversive are the references to the art of Kulik, who presents a man being subservient to authority regardless of the gestures of power he makes. In Hommage à Zofia Kulik, the subservience to the authority exerted is mutual between two women. Though they are naked, they are far from subordinate as the gestures and symbols of authority shield them from the appropriating gaze and help maintain a dominant position.

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