Bogna Burska Rebellion of the Deaf

09.11.2018 – 20.01.2019 Bogna Burska Rebellion of the Deaf

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

curator: Hanna Wróblewska
cooperation: Aleksandra Szklarczyk

Rebellion of the Deaf is a performance and film by one of the most interesting visual artists of the middle generation, an associate professor at the Chair of Intermedia of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. She also conducts classes at the Faculty of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She graduated in painting from the Academy (diploma from the guest studio of Leon Tarasewicz in 2001) and creates installations, spatial projects, using the medium of photography and video (among others, in a series of films using found footage). Recently she has also been writing and directing short literary forms — dramas and plays. They take both the form of stage performances (Nest, presented, among others at Zachęta, the monodrama Pleasant and Useful, shown at the ArtLoop Festival in Sopot and at the Zielona Góra BWA Gallery) as well as films (e.g. Tyzeyfone and Alekto made for the exhibition Blood. Uniting & Dividing at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, 2017), and audio performances (radio play entitled The End of Violence in collaboration with Magda Mosiewicz, which premiered at the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute).

The eponymous Rebellion of the Deaf refers to the protest of deaf students from the American Gallaudet University, who in 1988 fought for the appointment of the first deaf rector in history. The project was inspired by the story of a Dutch artist, a daughter of Chinese immigrants, born in Europe. When she was born, social services advised her parents to raise her without using their own language, in order to better assimilate her. The parents, who did not know Dutch, brought up their daughter practically without speaking to her: they used only about 50 of the simplest words at home. Her relationship with her family was very similar to that usually created by deaf children with hearing parents. The text, which is the basis of the film and performance, presents situations of difficult closeness, disturbed by a lack of a common language or by an inability to communicate. Another part of it is the history of deaf communities, their struggle for recognition of their cultural identity and for sign language to be granted the status of a fully-fledged language. There are also plots of deprivatory language experiments and stories of creating universal languages, which were intended by the authors to enable communication of all people.

 

The film was made at the Geological Museum of the Polish Geological Institute, in the Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences, at Zachęta — National Art Gallery, as well as in private spaces and outdoors.

Artist's works in the Zachęta collection

  • Zdjęcie pracy Road
    RoadBogna Burska2003
Rebellion of the Deaf. Spectacle
The premiere: 10.11.2018, 6.00 p.m. Subsequent performances: 11 and 12.11.2018

Playwright: Bogna Burska
Director: Bogna Burska, cooperation on the film: Magda Mosiewicz
Starring: Klara Bielawka, Ewelina Żak, Marta Kalinowska (sign language translator)
POLIN Choir: Agnieszka Górska, Agnieszka Skiba, Aneta Rajca, Anetta Przybył-Bryńska, Anna Jurkiewicz, Anna Wieczorek, Barbara Baranowska, Barbara Popławska, Barbara Szymanowska, Barbara Walczak, Bogna Różyczka, Dagmara Siwczyk, Dominika Jędrzejczak, Edyta Pawłowska, Elżbieta Balano, Elżbieta Jasińska, Elżbieta Zawada, Ewa Chomicka, Ida Sarnacka, Irena Klein, Irena Wiesiołek, Iwona Goździkowska, Joanna Olejniczak, Joanna Stankiewicz, Justyna Orlińska, Katarzyna Andrejczuk, Katarzyna Makaruk, Kinga Wołoszyn-Kowanda, Magdalena Miśkowicz, Małgorzata Berwid, Małgorzata Czmut, Małgorzata Kozek, Marcjanna Bulik, Mira Poręba, Monika Bujak, Natalia Obrębska, Octavian Milewski, Piotr Głodek, Piotr Woźniakiewicz, Urszula Iwińska, Urszula Strych, Witold Borowik.
Ewa Chomicka - curator, coordinator
Sean Palmer - composer, conductor
Jakub Pałys - composer, vocal coach
Cinematography and editing (film): Magda Mosiewicz
Sound production (film): Paulina Sacha
Curator on behalf of Zachęta: Hanna Wróblewska
Cooperation: Aleksandra Szklarczyk

Partner: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Related media
  • mediateka / audio
  • Grafika obiektu: Bogna Burska. Rebellion of the Deaf
    mediateka / posters
    Bogna Burska. Rebellion of the Deaf
  • Grafika obiektu: Bogna Burska. Rebellion of the Deaf
    mediateka / video-documentation
    Bogna Burska. Rebellion of the Deaf
    Video documentation
Related events
  • Grafika wydarzenia: Rebellion of the Deaf. Spectacle
    10.11.2018 (Sat) 18:00
    Rebellion of the Deaf. Spectacle
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • Grafika wydarzenia: Rebellion of the Deaf. Spectacle
    11.11.2018 (Sun) 18:00
    Rebellion of the Deaf. Spectacle
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • Grafika wydarzenia: Rebellion of the Deaf. Spectacle
    12.11.2018 (Mon) 18:00
    Rebellion of the Deaf. Spectacle
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • Grafika wydarzenia: Zachęta Signs! Guided tour for the deaf ( in Polish Sign Language)
    21.11.2018 (Wed) 18:00
    Zachęta Signs! Guided tour for the deaf ( in Polish Sign Language)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • Grafika wydarzenia: Looking / Seeing. Contemporary art and the seniors (in Polish)
    08.01.2019 (Tue) 12:00
    Looking / Seeing. Contemporary art and the seniors (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • Grafika wydarzenia: Meeting with artists Bogna Burska (in Polish)
    10.01.2019 (Thu) 18:00
    Meeting with artists Bogna Burska (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • Grafika wydarzenia: Rebellion of the Deaf
    20.01.2019 (Sun) 19:00
    Rebellion of the Deaf
    Spectacle (in Polish and Polish Sign Language)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • Grafika wydarzenia: Rebellion of the Deaf
    20.01.2019 (Sun) 20:30
    Rebellion of the Deaf
    Spectacle (in Polish and Polish Sign Language)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta

Information

Bogna Burska
Rebellion of the Deaf
09.11.2018 – 20.01.2019

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
pl. Małachowskiego 3, 00-916 Warsaw
See on the map

Godziny otwarcia:
Tuesday – Sunday 12–8 p.m.
Thursday – free entry
ticket office is open until 7.30 p.m.