The THREE’S A CROWD exhibition covers areas ranging from Hong Kong to Slavic vixa parties. It looks at modern-day streets and dance floors, examining how – through their physical presence in the public space – bodies create temporary communities, how they transform the old reality and create new conditions. And how many people does it take to make a crowd. The autonomous, affect-driven and confusing social body is a dynamic 19th-century construct that stands in opposition to the concepts of capitalist productivity, rationalism, and social order. It is more of a manifestation of social dis- order: the crowd as a horde, the crowd as a swarm. But it happens that three is already a crowd. The club culture remembers cases of criminalizing the rhythmic movement of at least three people dancing to the music based on repetitive beats. We also remember this pandemic year’s spring and autumn events, when the hearts of the Polish police beat faster at the sight of crowds of three and five people. Bodies always function in relation to other bodies. To have no body is to be nobody. Bodies shape social life in the public space through movement and stillness, gath- ering and distraction. Also by absence. Regardless of whether it is a grassroots form of bodily (dis)organization, self-cho- reographed protests, improvised social dances, artistic, activist or artivist actions, bodies become a field of social and political struggle. Together and apart. ARTISTS: International Festival of Urban ARCHIVES OF PUBLIC Art OUT OF STH VI: SPACE PROTESTS ABSORBENCY IVÁN ARGOTE ALEX BACZYŃSKI-JENKINS CURATORS: RUFINA BAZLOVA MICHAŁ GRZEGORZEK BORIS CHARMATZ & CÉSAR VAYSSIÉ ANKA HERBUT THREE’S A ZUZANNA CZEBATUL GREGOR RÓŻAŃSKI BOGOMIR DORINGER ROBERT GETSO CROWD LIGHT ARRANGEMENT: JONATHAN GLAZER & EXHIBITION MICA LEVI JACQUELINE SOBISZEWSKI JAKUB GLIŃSKI & DAISY CUTTER IGOR GRUBIĆ CONSULTATION ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE ROMAN HIMEY & YAREMA EXHIBITION: MALASHCHUK HUBERT KIELAN ZHANG HUAN STEFFANI JEMISON ANNA JERMOLAEWA PRODUCERS: AGATA KALINOWSKA NATALIA BARCZYŃSKA CONSORTIUM FOR POST- MONIKA MARCINIAK ARTISTIC PRACTICES MONIKA MUSZYŃSKA CHRIS KORDA PATRYCJA ŚCISŁOWSKA DANIEL KOTOWSKI FIRENZE LAI NILS AMADEUS LANGE ASSEMBLY: LAS TESIS COLLECTIVE TOMASZ KOCZOŃ KANAS LIU & SAM TSANG MICHAŁ PERUCKI ANIA NOWAK MARCIN SZALWA NAJA ORASHVILI & SEBASTIAN MILEWSKI GIORGI KIKONISHVILI / BASSIANI DANIEL ZYGMUNT STEPAN POLIVANOV LUIZ ROQUE EDITING: PAWEŁ SAKOWICZ ANKA HERBUT ANTON STOIANOV, FRÉDÉRIC GIES ANNE DE VRIES CORRECTION: ROMILY ALICE WALDEN KAROLINA MOROZ AND MARTA ZIÓŁEK JOANNA STEMBALSKA, EXHIBITION GUIDE NATALIA BARCZYŃSKA AND MARTA CZYŻ THE AUTHORS OF THE TEXTS: MARIANKA DOBKOWSKA TRANSLATION: MICHAŁ GRZEGORZEK (MG) MAGDA DRĄGOWSKA JERZY CHYB AND ANKA HERBUT ANKA HERBUT (AH) MICHAŁ FRYDRYCH SONIA MIELNIKIEWICZ GREGOR RÓŻAŃSKI (GR) KAROLINA GRZYWNOWICZ MATEUSZ KOWALCZYK YULIA KRIVICH MOVIES SUBTITLES: THE EXHIBITION IS A PART OF THE INTERNATIONAL JULIA MINASIEWICZ ADRIAN SIUTA URBAN ART FESTIVAL OUT OF STH VI: SPACE JAN MOŻDŻYŃSKI ABSORBENCY. KUBA RUDZIŃSKI VISUAL IDENTIFICATION: WERONIKA ZALEWSKA GRUPA PROJEKTOR CURATORS OF OUT OF STH PAWEŁ ŻUKOWSKI VI: HUBERT KIELAN, JOANNA STEMBALSKA PR: KLEMENTYNA SĘGA, BWA WROCŁAW GALLERY OF JOANNA WOLAN CONTEMPORARY ART, 2020 3 0. CHRIS KORDA (BORN 1962) is a techno producer, artist, software devel- oper and climate activist. She is the antina- talist founder of the Church of Euthanasia, a para-religious artistic project known for a number of controversial activities, which perversely and provocatively postulates a voluntary population reduction based on four pillars: suicide, abortion, cannibalism and sodomy. THE CHURCH OF EUTHANASIA ARCHIVES 1994-1997, USA, banner, 147 x 276 cm, stickers. Courtesy of the artist. The exhibition showcases materials from the demonstration and propaganda archives of the Church of Euthanasia, founded in 1992 in Boston. The organization is “a non-profit educational foundation devoted to restoring balance between humans and the remaining species on Earth”. The members of the church maintain that it can only be achieved by a voluntary population reduction. Rev. Chris Korda claims that it is the world’s only openly anti-human religion. The church’s only commandment is “Thou shalt not procreate”. The postulated cannibalism only refers to those who insist on eating meat and is strictly limited to consuming those who are already dead. Sodomy is defined as any sexual act not intended for procreation, which mainly means anal and oral sex. Their most popular and controversial slogan is “Save the Planet, Kill Yourself”. The Church of Euthanasia promotes its radical environ- mental views by means of sermons, perfor- mances, demonstrations, culture jamming, music, publicity stunts and direct action, highlighting the unsustainable population of our planet. Referring to the Dadaist move- ment, its followers find the modern world so absurd that their message must be spread by equally absurd means. (GR) 4 5 1. IVÁN ARGOTE (BORN 1983) spiritual sphere of human life. Referring to the history of art and dance, they queer and creates videos, photographs, sculptures, redefine narrations and representations of public interventions and performances. He bodies. investigates the city as a place of potential- ity and transformation, travelling the world PES in search of vestigial signs of fallen power, 2016, BG/DE/SE studying the indirect manifestations of PVC tarpaulin, electric pump; 350 x 400 x control, observing conventions and official 150 cm. Courtesy of the artists. versions of history. Through his personal stories and their relationships with ideology Pes (Latin: foot) looks like a fragment of a and consumerism, he questions the western monument, a figure of an ancient colos- perspective of history. sus whose body was destroyed by time. Its creator, Anton Stoianov, perversely ALTRUISM combines the aesthetics of antiquity with 2011, FR, video, 01:20. Courtesy of the artist. PVC – an emblematic contemporary ma- terial – thanks to which the majestic relic In the recording of his Altruism perfor- gains somewhat wild attributes. It is hard to mance, the artist licks and kisses a shiny guess who exactly the mythical giant was, metal subway bar. He engages in a game but we know one thing for sure – he or she with a symbol of disgust, transmitting was a dancer. germs and bacteria from thousands of unknowns. Other passengers turn their In the context of the exhibition, Stoianov’s heads, uninterested or embarrassed. Ar- sculpture, the performance mega-object, gote’s action makes you want to look away serves as a reference to Frederic Gies’s and stare at the same time. “Why would Dance is Ancient, a durational performance something that everyone touches not evoke which is also a club night. Dancing non- delight instead of disgust?”, asks the artist. stop for seven hours, the artist drives his The affectionate act of interaction with an body to extreme exhaustion, going through object of collective use provokes a reflec- stages ranging from fatigue to ecstasy. tion on hygiene and distance – when is our Gies’s performance may also be understood reaction caused solely by health reasons, as a physical and emotional glorification and when does it become a subconscious of dance and one-person protest against excuse for deepening mutual detachment unambiguous categorization: Gies’s inter- and fear of other bodies? (GR) ests include Nijinsky, Duncan and Bagouet, removing differences between ballet, club and ludic dance (the work has been per- formed both in art galleries and e.g. the 2. ANTON STOIANOV (BORN 1978) Berghain nightclub). (MG) works in the field of painting, design, sce- nography, relief and installation. He exper- iments with atypical materials, techniques 3.YAREMA MALASHCHUK (BORN and forms. He explores the stylistic and 1993) AND ROMAN HIMEY (BORN conceptual aspects of painting. 1992) are a duo of filmmakers from Kiev working at the junction of visual arts and cinema. FRÉDÉRIC GIES (BORN 1973) In their works, they explore images of the crowd as a collective actor of history and is a dancer and choreographer who treats culture, as well as the clash of old and new dance as an inclusive and eclectic means of values functioning in society. They observe expression. everyday life, creating a study of changes of Ukrainian identity, the complicated past and Their works feature many references to uncertain future. 6 techno and rave cultures, antiquity or the 7 DEDICATED TO THE YOUTH OF LGBTQ rights, homophobia and other THE WORLD II taboo issues in predominantly conservative 2019, UKR, video, 08:50 min, music: Georgia. He is a co-founder of Georgia’s Stanislav Tolkachev, space: Forma. Courtesy two largest LGBTQ rights organizations: of the artists. Identoba and Equality Movement, member of the White Noise Movement and promoter The Kiev raves of the CXEMA group are of Horoom Nights at BASSIANI. reactions to the ambivalent atmosphere after the Ukrainian revolution of 2013-2014, DANCE OR DIE which led young Ukrainians to euphoria 2019, GEO, video, 20:34 min. Courtesy of followed by disappointment and need for the artists. escapism, further influenced by the night- mare of the War in Donbass. In the film The film was made by the founders of Dedicated To The Youth Of The World II, BASSIANI in Tbilisi, where the revolution the camera observes them discreetly when began in May 2018, during which collec- they dance, and after the party follows tive dance became a community-building them into the morning after. The historic instrument. Under the guise of anti-drug film studio of Oleksander Dovzhenko – a actions, the police raided BASSIANI and pioneer of Ukrainian cinema – is turned into arrested one of the club’s owners, a member a dance floor, filled with a synchronized of the opposition party Girchi. The next day crowd, lights and Stanislav Tolkachev’s a rave protest lasting several days began, arrhythmical, synthetic sounds. The camera co-organized by the civic movement for the zooms in and out on the romantic exaltation reform of drug policies in Georgia – White and modern alienation.