lesbisk

Music: Szymon LechowiczlinArt: Magdalena KasjaniukSubstantial support: Joanna Podolska, Irmina Gadowska, Krystyna Radziszewska, Dariusz DekiertProduction: Center for Dialogue in Łódź and the Festival of Many Cultures

In Yiddish, there was a word that would call lesbian absent for a long time. As the first word lezbianke in 1984 introducedIrina Klepfisz, an American poet and translator. In her poem “Etleche werter ojf mame loszn” (“A few words in the mother tongue”) there is a “dilezbianke” referred to as “the one who has a roommate”. Among other things, the concept of “roommate” as a camouflage of a lesbian relationship is the impetus for this event to reveal a perspective that many people do not see or do not want to see. Based on historical research and archival materials concerning female artists from the avant-garde group Jung Yidysh in Łódź, Kowańska creates a performance that restores the memory of women creators, their queer relationships and forgotten voices. At the same time, it places the concert narrative of today, facing a landscape in which queer existences are systematically ignored, intimate relationships invisible or annulled. The show combines the form of spoken poetry, electronic music and visual materials inspired by the works of Dina Matus, Ida Brauner and Rahel Lipstein. The artist reveals the experience of exclusion, confronting it with the power of memory and artistic expression. It's a performance-gesture: reclaiming identity, pride and visibility.