Be My Guest

Video: 20:37 – 2019
Artist Book:  2017-2019

The work was part of the “Sex, Suicide, Socialism, Spirit and Stereotypes” exhibition organized by Kronika Gallery within the Parallax Project in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Chelsea College of Art in London, Plymouth University and the University of Gothenburg’s Valand Academy.

The project was presented in the book Parallax 2018-2020, Editors: Pawel Mendrek and Martin Newth, in cooperation with Maddie Leach, Sarah Tuck and Laura Rosser

Be My Guest offers the re-framing of my previous project in Poland, Don’t Leave Your Cup, to create an atmosphere to shift the process of narration about nationality and the idea of otherness.

The video is created by talking to eight polish people from different backgrounds. In the video they are responding to popular stereotypes about poles, exploring the boundary between resistance and acceptance. They were asked to speak in polish, knowing that I, the person who is putting them in that vulnerable position, does not necessarily understand the response they are giving and they are there on their own with their perception of self and others.

In the exhibition space, the video was presented to polish public along with the documentation of Don’t Leave Your Cup and the shif that happened in the narration between these two projects.