7 p.m.

performance accompanying the exhibition Witkacy. Seismograph of the Acceleration Age

 

Hanne Lippard explores the voice as a medium which embodies a text and gives words a physical presence. The artist appropriates situations from everyday life and content taken from the surrounding audiosphere. Penetrating the matter of language, she touches upon issues of contemporary consumption, body politics, identity and the ontology of art.

The performance 'Look for words' will consist of both texts continuously developed by the artist as well as the results of her current work, in which Hanne Lippard revisits primary words – her name, the function of the exhale 'ah' and the spelling of 'ha' (laughter), but articulated differently in different languages. The new performance work was inspired by the work of Gertrude Stein, who advocated the liberation of language from hierarchical thinking, authoritarian organization, prescriptive grammar, chronological narrative. Words, free from the compulsion of representation, became as tangible and palpable in her works as touch and sound. Stein wrote her texts with a focus on structure and composition, in which elements were freely combined as well as divided, and names and identities were fluidly subject to change.
 

Gertrude Stein was a contemporary of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Marcel Duchamp. She is the author of the famous phrase 'Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose' from her 1913 poem 'Sacred Emily'. Marcel Duchamp named his female alter ego, which he used from 1920 onwards, Rrose Sélavy. Witkacy signed himself as Marceli Duchański under one of his texts, signalling an ironic reference to Duchamp. Regardless of philosophical and artistic differences, these artists were united by their belonging to a particular transitional period experienced by European societies. Hanne Lippard, in a performance created as part of the programme accompanying the exhibition 'Witkacy. Seismograph of the Acceleration Age', demonstrates the extraordinary topicality of the performative and literary strategies of that time.

 

 

Hanne Lippard (NO/DE), born in 1984 in Milton Keynes, GB, lives and works in Berlin. Lippard’s practice explores the voice as a medium. Her education in graphic design informs how language can be visually powerful; her texts are visual, rhythmic, and performative rather than purely informative, and her work is conveyed through a variety of disciplines, which include short films, sound pieces, installations and performance. Her most recent performances and exhibitions include The Myths and Realities of Achieving Financial Independence at CCA, Berlin (2022) Le language est une peau, FRAC Lorraine, Metz (2021) Contact, Mood, Share at MHKA, Antwerp, (2021) X, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou (2020) RIBOCA2, Riga (2020) ART 4 ALL, Hamburger Bahnhof, (2020) Our present, Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Siegen (2020) Parades for FIAC, Palais de la Découverte (2019), Art Night London (2019) Goethe in the Skyways, Minneapolis, (2019), n.b.k. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, (2019) Nam June Paik Award 2018, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster (2018), Ulyd, Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger and FriArt, Friboug (2018)

 

Performance created as part of the programme accompanying the exhibition presented at the National Museum in Warsaw until October 9, 2022. 
 

Curators: Zofia Machnicka, Paweł Polit.

Concept and production of the performative programme: Alicja Latkowska

Graphic design: Paula Peplińska
Photo: Diana Pfammatter

Light design: Konrad Kajak