Your Body Is a Nest
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The seventh work to be presented at the Rotating Gallery is an installation by Hana Umeda — a performer, theatre director and choreographer. "Your Body Is a Nest" is an audiovisual installation which was originally created as part of the "Rapeflower" performance in which the artist examines the condition of a violated body.
- 4—16 September, during POLIN Museum’s opening hours, in the last gallery of the Core Exhibition
- PLEASE NOTE: the work deals with the subject of sexual violence and is recommended for adults
In the immersive space filled with visuals by Martyna Miller and music by Olga Mysłowska, the viewers — who at the same time become the performers — are invited to enter a state of freezing, typical of the experience of sexual violence. Through a somewhat subversive guided meditation, the artist directs attention to different parts of the body. She shares, on a somatic level, both her own experience of the body’s reaction to rape and the imprinted traces of sexual violence passed down through generations in the tradition of Japanese Jiutamai dance. By inviting viewers to enter a state of pretended threat, the work encourages a rehearsal of defensive responses to sexual violence within the safe conditions of a gallery space.
"Are you comfortable?
Try to relax.Close your eyes.
Let me ask you to dance with me
Let me guide you
You can move,
Or dance without moving,
a barely noticeable dance.Take a deep breath,
Feel the air filling up your pelvis.
As you breathe out,
Let your body settle firmly on the ground,
Feel its weight.
Imagine for a minute
That your body is a nest."
Hana Umeda – Her movement practice is driven by 18 years of classical Japanese Jiutamai dance, in which she reached a professional level in 2020 and was symbolically adopted into the Hanasaki-ryu family of Jiutamai and given a new name: Sada Hanasaki. As a performer and choreographer of Japanese and Jewish descent based in Poland, Hana works in a documentary and autobiographical format to comment on socio-political issues by introducing her own experiences. Her creative process is based on in-depth theoretical research, a practice developed during the artist’s PhD studies at the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw. Hana didn’t finish her PhD; instead, she started a second MA at SoDA HZT Berlin, where she further developed research-based performance practice. Between 2021 and 2023, she was a member of "Centrum w Ruchu" [Center in Movement] collective. In 2018, Hana was a fellow of "Młoda Polska" [Young Poland] program of the National Center for Culture, thanks to which she made her debut as a director with "SadaYakko" performance in Komuna Warszawa, in which she commented on the orientalizing gaze. In 2022, Hana won the first edition of the New Situations Scene Artistic Residency at the Współczesny Theatre in Szczecin, during which she realized "Faithless", an onstage ritual of apostasy. Nominated in the IDFA DocLab competition for Immersive NonFiction, IDFA DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, Amsterdam, 2023 for "Close", a VR experience in which she initiated her research on the intergenerational traces of sexual violence. She continued this research in "Rapeflower".
The team:
- Hana Umeda – text, concept
- Martyna Miller – video
- Olga Mysłowska – music
The year 2024 marks POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews’ 10th anniversary. To celebrate this occasion, we want to make the voices of Jewish artists heard by creating a rotating, lively, polyphonic space in the last gallery of the Core Exhibition—a space for Jewish artists to express themselves.
Read more about Rotating Gallery →
Partners:
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage – project: "Rotating Gallery as part of POLIN Museum’s 10th birthday celebration (developing a network of Jewish artists)."