Wiktoria: fragments of bones, pieces of stones | Cloakroom 2025/2026 exibition

Wiktoria’s exhibition i fragmenty kości, i odłamki skał [fragments of bones, pieces of stones] at the Cricoteka is another layer of the artist’s multi-dimensional project the principal idea of which is to rebuild the lost relationship between man and nature through physical contact with the primordial. The artist presents her search through sculpture installations, performative objects, videos, and photographic collages. They all are a play on the tension between the sculpture and the body of a member of the audience. The contrast is reinforced through somatic discourse with the Gdybym była kamieniem, nosiłabym siebie [If I were a stone, I would carry myself] performance carried out by Jagna Nawrocka and Bartosz Jakubowski, which is an integral part of Wiktoria’s Imprint-Sculptures project and whose next presentation will accompany the opening of the exhibition at the Cricoteka.

The imprint-sculptures were inspired by ecosexual practices. The artist activates them during sensoric, collective meetings attended both by the members of the audience and the other artists invited by Wiktoria. During these meetings, the objects become tools for getting physically close to nature through communing and touching, which facilitates the strengthening of emotional and spiritual bonds between the participants. Considering the permanent state of exception the contemporary world is in, Wiktoria directs an ex voto healing ritual where she almost goes beyond the boundaries of tissues. At the same time, similarly to Tadeusz Kantor’s practices, the artist’s stone harnesses are not only costumes, but bioobjects that form a superstructure over the body. They a pretext for observing oneself and others and they give rise to questions about the boundaries of body and identity. When skin and stone touch, a new human/stone form is created.

The performative story told by Nawrocka and Jakubowski enlivens the matter that builds Wiktoria’s objects. Through somatic methods of healing, the artists look deep into history and turn to archeology. Thanks to acts of touch and sound, they bend time and blur the differences between the eponymous bone and rock. This way, the create a ritual choreography that is a homage to nature. The performers use a stone key to open a portal to a utopian reality based on many types of tenderness. And just like Kantor did at the last stage of his artistic work, Wiktoria creates a performance similar to the Theater of Love and Death where future can be now.

exhibition:

artist: Wiktoria

curators: Natalia Barczyńska, Kamil Kuitkowski

performance:

concept: Wiktoria, Bartosz Jakubowski, Jagna Nawrocka

performance, choreography, playwriting, make-up, script and soundscape: Bartosz Jakubowski, Jagna Nawrocka

sculptures: Wiktoria