Brakarki (Workers of lack)
Producer: Central Muzeum of Textile in Łódź
The hum of the machinery of the Łódź textile mills is history, the new era is that of knowledge-based industry. Looms have been replaced by computers. In our performance, however, we return to the tradition of hard body work and look for links with another fabric – dance.
In working on the performance, we juxtaposed the movement of the dancers’ bodies with the history of the Łódź textile workers. Together we wondered what the similarities of working in such different spaces were.
What emerges from the memories of the Lodz seamstresses is a picture of physically demanding work. Tons of material, meticulous control of every centimetre of fabric and the main task – eliminating errors (lacks). So we asked ourselves – what would a lack in dance be? Can the non-normative body be part of the creative industry? Is what we are doing a mistake or a new quality?
We offer a new perspective. In bodies heated by work, we observe what is most often discarded. We focus our attention where tired material abrades itself, stretches in unexpected ways, takes unexpected shapes and creates something unique.
Premiere: 5.10.2024
- Director: Jacek Owczarek
- Director’s assistant: Kacper Klimczak
- Choreography: Krzysztof Skolimowski
- Dramaturgy: Filip Pawlak
- Performance: Adrianna Mrowiec, Justyna Olczak, Milena Starzec, Ulyana Zaruba
- Music: Patryk Zakrocki
- Costumes: Anna Adamiak
- Set design: Radosław Pacholczyk
- Production manager: Magdalena Gonera
- Poster: Filip Appel
The performance uses excerpts from a conversation conducted as part of the ‘Tales from the City of Fiberglass’ project of the Lodz Association of Urban Initiatives ‘Topographies’.
Interviewed by Joanna Kocemba-Zebrowska
Interwiever: Danuta Narojczuk, Jadwiga Stysińska
Project co-financed by the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled “Sensitive Culture” programme
