Future Presence

performative lecture, 2020

Grotowski Institute, Laboratory Theatre Space / May 15, 8:30 PM

An artistic and research project that Szostak as choreographer has been working on since March 2020. The artist undertakes actions based on the analysis of virtual reality (VR), whose community gathering collectively replaces the physical proximity of bodies with a virtual body. During the performative lecture Iza Szostak logs into Future Presence with her virtual identity to guide the audience through the world she has designed. The artist reveals her post-human body, different every time. Szostak treats the performance as each time she unveils some stage of research work focused on the virtual body.
During the performative lecture Iza Szostak will log into Future Presence with her virtual identity to guide the audience through the world she has designed. Szostak treats performance as each stage of her work.

Concept and performance: Iza Szostak
Music: Kuba Słomkowski
Costume: Karolina Mełnicka
Technical and content-related support: Sebastian Krysiak, Anastasiia Vorobiova
VR Stream: Anastasiia Vorobiova

Producer: Ciało/Umysł Foundation
Partner: Dream Adoption Society, Powszechny Theater in Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz Institute

The project was created partly within the Art House program of Adam Mickiewicz Institute, as part of Dream Adoption Society residency program and on invitation of the Ciało/Umysł Festival.

Iza Szostak (PL)

Iza Szostak is a choreographer, dancer and performer. She graduated from the Warsaw Ballet School and studied at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Warsaw University. She is a scholarship holder of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Dutch Corrie Hartong Fonds, SPAZIO international project for young choreographers, the Programme of the Alternative Dance Academy, Solo Project of Art Stations Foundation and the Visegrad Fund. She did her internship in Belgium with Jan Fabre/Troubleyn company. Creates choreographic performances including “Coparic Ballet”, “Skaj Is the Limit”, “le journal secret”, “PRIV”, “RE//MIX- Merce Cunningham”, “Body. Child. Object.”, “Europe. Investigation”, “National Affairs”. In her artistic practice she uses the assumptions of new materialism, which allows her to perceive matter as an active and causative force, and to base her choreographic works on a created system of communication between the body and the object. As a building material she uses processed images from the field of visual arts and film, anthropological research, private video archives and her own biography. In her performances she explores hybrid forms: the body appears in them as a costume and a medium – a carrier of emotional states. Choreography is for her an instrument for creating a new order. Since March 2020 she started to work with virtual reality analysis and started to explore the subject of virtual body in the context of choreography and dance as well as new performative forms including VR technologies. She also started to design in 3D. Titles of works in VR: “Future Presence”, “Muscular Bonds”, “Readings#7”. As an educator she collaborated with many cultural institutions including Theater Institute, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Zachęta Gallery, Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Studio Theatre Gallery, BWA Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Art Stations Foundation. For several years she ran regular dance classes for seniors and children. For many years she has worked closely with audiovisual artist Kuba Słomkowski. She is co-creator of Warsaw choreographic collective Centrum w Ruchu and cooperates with Dream Adoption Society – a laboratory using new technologies in its work (VR, AR and AI).