SIEMIENIEC

2020

mixed media installation (textile sculpture, song, photographs)

live performance

sound fragment

The multi-media installation consists of remains from a performance ritual addressing so-called free-LGBT zones in Poland. The performance was developed during the ‘To Be Real’ residency at U-Jazdowski Castle in Warsaw in 2020. Curators Mateusz Szymanowska and Michal Grzegorzek invited artists Sebulec, Niels Amadeus Lange, and collective Oramics to explore the political potential of club culture. The group created a magical evening to undo the homophobic laws in Poland through collective dance, performances, herbal incents, and fun in an inflatable bouncy castle juxtaposed with the historical building of the art center. 

Siemieniec was a Polish ritual dance, making the dancers lose and find the rhythm until total exhaustion, connected to fertility magic. Holubowska’s performance seeks to undo the archive, by searching for queerable moments in Polish traditional music and magic or engaging them in exploring the queer experience in the Polish context. In this instance, Siemieniec is a rave that celebrates the queer life and queer right to exist. What is left from the performance is a nearly 40 min rainbow ribbon braid chain and low-quality phone video, like trash after a party.