Magda Starska's audioperformance as part of ‘Deep Listening’
Audioperformance and vernissage 18th September 2019 at 6pm. Free entry. Join us!
Deep Listening — the project draws on works of art that are mostly built with sound Deep Listening is a project combining exhibitions, lectures, performances and meetings with artists. Its title has been inspired by the concept created...
Exibition ‘Miscellaneous’
Magdalena Starska goes over the grammar of basic gestures. She employs materials such as foam, yeast, vegetables, dough, plaster and wood, to observe their changing states of matter. Transitions occur when the artist subjects these substances to various processes, letting them rot, go mouldy or evaporate. On many occasions, her repertoire combines a trance-like sway, whereby substances and objects circulate from one participant to another. After many years, these actions have evolved into quasi-rituals.
In all areas of her artistic endeavours — including performance, painting and sculpture — Magdalena Starska refers to the coexistence of species and symbiotic relationship with the surrounding environment. She has removed the Homo sapiens from its privileged position, demonstrating that this species is dependent on the same impulses and principles as other material beings.
This time, the artist initiates an action that has been inspired by the breathing process. As we breathe air in and out, we are firmly based in the present, which is parallel to the ongoing exchange. Air that fills our lungs becomes an integral part of the body. However, there is no way to accumulate it for future use or compensate for its loss in any way. The nature of air has been examined by people since the Antiquity. Anaximenes held that air was arche, the primordial force and cause of all things, as these were formed wherever the air became thicker. Later, Western thinkers forgot all about air and breathing. The reason is that invisible air eludes identification as an entity and, additionally, it transforms too quickly for the brain to register any changes. Invisible and inconstant as it is, the air has been relegated to the margins of philosophical inquiry.
