{"id":44766,"date":"2026-03-04T17:33:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/?p=44766"},"modified":"2026-03-17T16:37:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:37:04","slug":"moving-bodies-turning-sculptures-moving-on-mould-2025-by-agnieszka-mastalerz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/moving-bodies-turning-sculptures-moving-on-mould-2025-by-agnieszka-mastalerz\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Bodies, Turning Sculptures, Moving: On Mould (2025) by Agnieszka Mastalerz"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"project":[357],"project_type":[887,725,726,743],"class_list":["post-44766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","project-solitude-blog","project_type-solitude-exchange-network","project_type-formats","project_type-text","project_type-themes"],"acf":{"bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","custom_color_css_variable":"","content_type":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","_acfe_flexible_layout_title":null,"bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"Physical and health crises often relate to the notion of trauma as a kind of rupture, indicating a loss of visual representation. Recently, new perspectives in the interdisciplinary field of trauma studies suggest otherwise, as they explore a broad range of existing representations of individual and collective crisis in performance, literature, and art1<\/sup>. In her latest film Mould<\/em> (2025), Agnieszka Mastalerz conceptualized and produced a choreography of two bodies as they immerge in a spiral of improvisation, closeness, and touch. Drawing on the life and artistic practice of the Polish dancer and sculptress Danuta Kwapiszewska (1922\u20131999), Mastalerz addresses the ruptures and physical limitations within Kwapiszewska\u2019s life, urging her to turn her practice from dance to sculpture, exceeding the non-representational realm. Within the representational setting of a stage, Mould<\/em> turns our attention to the transformational power of movement in a concentrated form of attention.<\/span>\r\n\r\nShot on 35mm celluloid analogue film, Mould<\/em> presents a choreography of two female dancers as their performance is projected as a bright moving image in the dark exhibition space. In the first part of the film, a single dancer slowly spins into the frame like a static sculptural object standing on a pedestal. Suddenly, the dancer starts to create her own movements while the close-up camera slowly moves away from the choreographer, losing its proximity to the subject. Then, a second dancer joins the choreography on stage. While the camera is moving in a circular motion mainly around the upper part of the protagonists\u2019 bodies, the camera\u2018s visual principle seem to be an indecision between closeness to and distance from the subject of attention. Within these shifts and changes, dynamics of attraction and repulsion between the camera, the dancers and the viewer unfold, mapping a spectrum of minimalist and maximalist tension. The dancers\u2019 movements synchronize easily, taking up each others\u2019 gestures as if the draft of the choreography only realizes itself when the bodies are in motion.<\/span>\r\n\r\nMould<\/em>\u2019s choreography is part of a thoroughly reduced constellation of spatial elements: the soft light from the ceiling, sound recordings used only from the set, and the visible camera tracks underline the formalist approach pointing to the conditions of film production as a medium. Recently presented at Fort Institute of Photography in Warsaw, this reduced form found its continuation within the exhibition space. The black box presentation, where the film is displayed in the darkened gallery space, produces a condensed form of attention in which the viewer\u2019s gaze is focused solely on the screen. Together with the film projector\u2019s mechanical sound, this form of presentation sets the rhythm within the exhibition space. The projector\u2019s monotonous repetition produces a soundscape that contrasts with the smooth, tender, seemingly silent movements of the two protagonists.<\/span>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_img","_acfe_flexible_layout_title":null,"bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"img_gallery":true,"img":[44773,44775,44784,44777],"img_gallery_format":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","_acfe_flexible_layout_title":null,"bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"\u00bbMy Sculptures Dance For Me\u00ab \u2013 Danuta Kwapiszewska<\/strong>\r\nThe figure of a woman in a long, voluminous skirt raises her arms gracefully above her head; her gaze turns to the sides. Kwapiszewska\u2019s sculptural dance figure is made of plastic2<\/sup>. A personal encounter with the sculpture, which was part of the archive of the Chopin Museum in Warsaw, was Mastalerz\u2019s starting point for her research, and inspiration to develop the choreography. Kwapiszewska made the dance figures as a reaction to her physical challenges when she was no longer able to work as a dancer and started sculpting. In a reaction to her health crises, which was simultaneously connected a crisis of her artistic practice, Kwapiszewska transformed her vulnerability. Autobiographical details of Mastalerz\u2019s life intertwine with Kwapiszewska\u2019s work and life: Both were born in \u0141\u00f3d\u017a and share Warsaw as the key location of their artistic practice and life. In both of their practices, too, the materiality of plastic expands to the history of art as material without history, and transcends time to the present.\r\n\r\nThe curator Marta Zaborowska (Chopin Museum in Warsaw) describes the materiality of the sculptures in detail: \u00bbThe skeleton is made of steel wire braided with thin copper wire. The body is made of plastic, which was very popular in the 1970s. In the 1960s, it was embedded in a base, most likely made of plaster, covered with a layer of paint and locally with the material used to make the body.\u00ab3<\/sup> In the 1970s, plastic became a common material in the arts, strongly associated with fragility and brittleness, which until today, challenges the objectives in the conservation of cultural objects. But how does the fragile material of plastic relate to the vulnerability of the body?\r\n\r\nIn the arts of the twentieth century, plastic is a \u00bbmaterial without history.\u00ab4<\/sup> It came into use during the time of the historical avant-gardes, and after World War II, plastic became an everyday material. In Mythologies<\/em> (1957), Roland Barthes states: \u00bbPlastic is completely absorbed in its use; in extreme cases, objects would be invented for the sake of the pleasure of using plastic. The hierarchy of substances has been destroyed, replaced by a single one: the whole world can be plasticized.\u00ab5<\/sup> As a material without history, plastic is consumed in its use. In its dissolution it becomes brittle, dissolves, and disappears. Kwapiszewska\u2019s sculptures share the same fate: Their surface becomes brittle, producing cracks, visible in the sculptural object. The material\u2019s vulnerability becomes visible in the slender arms, the bent curves.\r\n\r\nMould\u2019<\/em>s title references \u00bbcast\u00ab and the act of casting as a sculptural process. In Kwapiszewska\u2019s history, sculpting becomes the escape, or rather a last resort after dancing. While her sculptures seem to simply \u00bbrevive\u00ab a pose, a gesture, Mould<\/em> points to the restorative dimension of dancing and sculpting in moments of rupture. In the chosen format of a loop, Mastalerz aims to produce an infinite continuity, to blur interruptions. In effect, the opposite happens. Any moments of rupture rush to the fore: sudden movements of dancers, changes in light. Similar to the cracks and brittleness of Kwapiszewska\u2019s dance figures that became visible over time, Mould<\/em> recalls moments of restoration and rehabilitation.\r\n\r\nWith no documentation left of the choreographies that Kwapiszewska had conceptualized, Mastalerz\u2019s film succeeds in blending the female body\u2019s fragile state and the plastic material history of everyday life, by trespassing on the Polish history of dance \u2013 as they appear on stage, softly lit choreographically drafted bodies, who move and become sculptures, who move and begin to dance: MOJE RZE\u0179BY TA\u0143CZ\u0104 ZA MNIE, WYSTAWA PRAC<\/strong> (transl. My Sculptures Dance for Me).6<\/sup>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nClick here<\/a> to see an image of the sculpture \u2018Fantaisie-Impromptu by Fryderyk Chopin: The Dancer\u2019 by Danuta Kwapiszewska.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Credits Mould<\/em> (2025):\r\nConcept and direction: Agnieszka Mastalerz\r\nDirector of photography: Marcin Go\u0142\u0105b\r\nSecond director: Kuba Gry\u017cewski\r\nChoreography & performer I: Adrianna Mrowiec\r\nPerformer II: Agnieszka Janosz\r\nProduction company: Papaya Films\r\nExecutive producers: Sebastian Jurczek, Tomasz Skrodzki\r\nProducer: Ma\u0142gorzata Kozie\u0142\r\nProduction assistant: Zofia Kszczotek\r\nFocus puller: Tomasz Czerwi\u0144ski\r\n2nd AC\/ loader: Kuba \u017bukowski\r\nGrip: Piotr Wicik, Adrian Kubicki, Marek Rumak\r\nGaffer: Grzesiek Strzelecki\r\nLighting technicians: Kamil Gajewski, Artur Nowak\r\nSet rigging: Miko\u0142aj Mi\u0142kowski\r\nCostumes: Monika Tomczak\r\nMake-up: Aneta Paciorek\r\nPJM interpreters: Magdalena Schromova, El\u017cbieta \u017burawska\r\nStills: Oliwia Zaj\u0105c\r\nCamera equipment: Panavision\r\nLighting equipment: Heliograf\r\nStudio: Transcolor Lucjan Siwczyk\r\nOn-set sound: Alex Banaszkiewicz\r\nSound post-production: Natalia Ptak (ptakova)\r\nPost-production: BlackPhoton (Kamil Rutkowski, Micha\u0142 Krajewski, Maciej Mika, Andrzej Hajdaniak)\r\nPost-producer: Zosia Krajewska\r\nConforming: Bart\u0142omiej Kuszpit\r\nColor grading: Hania Rudkiewicz\r\nVFX: Julinna Lachowicz-Wr\u00f3bel, Iwona Borucka\r\nMastering: Iwona Borucka\r\nFilm stock: Piotr Karniewicz, Kodak Polska Sp. z o.o.\r\nFilm processing & scanning: Film Laboratory \/ WFDiF\r\nFilm output: Cinelab Bucharest\r\nHistorical consultation on Danuta Kwapiszewska: Marta Zaborowska, Fryderyk Chopin Institute\r\nSpecial thanks to Tomek Kozera, RIOTS Film\r\nThe project was realized thanks to the Young Poland scholarship program, granted by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_footnotes","_acfe_flexible_layout_title":null,"bgcolor":"","footnotes_list_hide_numbers":false,"footnotes":[{"footnote":"See Arleen Ionescu\/Maria Margaroni (eds.): \u00bbArts of Healing. Cultural Narratives of Trauma,\u00ab in: Critical Perspectives on Theory, Culture and Politics.<\/em> London 2020."},{"footnote":"\u00bbDanuta Kwapisyewska. Moje Rze\u017aby Ta\u0144cz\u0105 za mnie, wystawa prac,\u00ab exhibition at Zach\u0119ta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, December 12, 1984 \u2013 January 1, 1985."},{"footnote":"Marta Zaborowska: \u00bbFantaisie-Impromptu F. Chopina. Tancerka, Danuty Kwapiszewskiej\u00ab at Fryderyk Chopin Museum Warsaw, February 15, 2022 \u2013 April 10, 2022: https:\/\/muzeum.nifc.pl\/pl\/muzeum\/wystawy-czasowe\/58_15022022-10042022-fantaisie-impromptu-f-chopina-tancerka-danuty-kwapiszewskiej\/1\/<\/a> (accessed November 29, 2025)."},{"footnote":"Monika Wagner (ed.): \u00bbLexikon des k\u00fcnstlerischen Materials,\u00ab Munich 2002."},{"footnote":"Roland Barthes: \u00bbMythen des Alltags,\u00ab Frankfurt am Main 1964, p. 81. \u00bbDas Plastik geht g\u00e4nzlich in seinem Gebrauch auf; im \u00e4u\u00dfersten Fall w\u00fcrde man Gegenst\u00e4nde erfinden um des Vergn\u00fcgens willen, Plastik zu verwenden. Die Hierarchie der Substanzen ist zerst\u00f6rt, eine einzige ersetzt sie alle: die ganze Welt kann plastifiziert werden.\u00ab"},{"footnote":"See the exhibition Danuta Kwapiszewska, MOJE RZE\u0179BY TA\u0143CZ\u0104 ZA MNIE, WYSTAWA PRAC\" (transl. My Sculptures Dance for Me), Galeria Kordegarda, 12.12.1984 \u2013 01.01.1985."}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","_acfe_flexible_layout_title":null,"bgcolor":"has-bg-grey","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"

Anna Kipke<\/strong><\/span> is an art historian and art critic. She is a member of the Collaborative Research Center 1512 \u00bbIntervening Arts\u00ab at Leuphana University L\u00fcneburg and Free University Berlin. In her doctoral thesis, Emma Kunz. Therapeutic Lines<\/em>, she examines how institutionalized art forms intersect with therapeutic practices in twentieth-century art. Most recently, she co-edited the volume Drafts in Action. Concepts and Practices of Artistic Intervention <\/em>(Diaphanes 2025).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Agnieszka Mastalerz <\/strong><\/span>is a visual artist based in Warsaw\/Poland. She studied at the Studio of Spatial Activities with Miros\u0142aw Ba\u0142ka at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (MFA, 2018). In 2019\/2020, she continued her studies at the Braunschweig University of Art with Candice Breitz and Eli Corti\u00f1as on a DAAD scholarship. She uses a poetic visual language to analyze restrictive rules established within intimate relationships, communities, states or companies, and toward the natural environment.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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