#tusiadabrowska

[tusiadabrowska]

Diamond. Video. Wawa. 02.2016

My video for Diamond by the Krakow-based Dubstop is finally out. 

Filmed in Feb 2016 in Warszawa, the video would not be possible without the help of Filip Dowjat (color), Rafał Klimczak (camera), Kaśka Osińska (costumes), Wiktor Podgorski (animation) and Marcin Gagola (production). Performers include: me, Marcin Gągola, Tomek Januchta, Ula Januchta, Aleksandra Szczodry and Anna Wronka.

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TUSIA DABROWSKA works at the intersection of storytelling, performance and media. Recent work has been seen at, among others, EdgeCut (2020), Soft Surplus (2019), Circle1 (Berlin, 2019), mhProject (2019), BRIC (2018); with Maria Hupfield— The Gibney Dance Theater (2017), Museum of Art and Design (2017); Frequency Fridays at the Fuse Factory (Columbus, OH, 2017), Open Source Gallery (2017), The PrintScreen Festival (Tel Aviv, 2016), The Great Wall of Oakland (Oakland, CA, 2016), and TAFNY (2015). Her writing/translation has appeared in the Nth Position (poetry), the Forward (translation), Aish (personal essay), Vida, and The Vassar Review (translation). Tusia’s translation of Piotr Pazinski’s prize-winning memoir, The Boarding House, was published in late 2018 by the Dalkey Archive Press. Her work has been supported by the Puffin Foundation (2014) and Asylum Arts (2018). Tusia was the artist in residence at Signal Culture (2017), BRICWorkspace (2017-2018), mhProject Space (2019), and KonventZero (2019). She holds degrees from the New School, Trinity College Dublin, and NYU. Tusia shares her time between Warsaw and Brooklyn.

Resume | Instagram

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I tell stories that interrogate processes of transformation engaging with technology and creating site-responsive immersions. My work is devised, collaborative, hybrid. I construct dream-like experiences.

I conceive sound-text in terms of interactivity, spatial experience, and voice modulation. I am drawn to AR, but I predominately work in performance. Recent works question self-fulfillment (Inside/immersive performance), show parallel socio-economic realities (SpaDisco/immersive performance), tell a story of a relationship between a sentient neural network and a woman (New Women/immersive performance), and imagine what present day Poland would look like if it had a large Jewish population (My Imaginary Friends/ AR app). The work is based on prompts created in collaboration with a writer, experimenting with narrative form and spatial narration.

My aesthetic mixes pop culture and experimental media aesthetics drawing inspiration from the New York feminist video art scene that emerged in the late 70s and early 80s, and the Polish Jewish women avant grade artists whose assemblages came into prominence in the 80s and 90s Poland. I embrace failure.

In every space I select for myself in work and life, I am reminded how resistance is not linear. I also consider what it means to challenge oneself under capitalism and embrace the exuberance of process.

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The Yeah.

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jumping yellow

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Previous work by Maria and Tusia

Video documentation from three performances of Electric Prop and Hum Freestyle with Maria Hupfield. 

Electric Prop and Hum Freestyle is a multi-media collaborative performance piece by Maria Hupfield and Tusia Dabrowska with sound design by Wiktor Podgorski. During this performance, the pair surveys the land, identifies boundaries, and outlines a non-colonizing relationship to territory. Then, they turn to literal self-reflection to negotiate desire and aging. It is through solidarity between indigenous and non-indigenous as Anishinaabek First Nation and American immigrant that the artists see a path to overcome commodification of self and all of our relations. 

They use this moment to create a space for Otherized identities and finally to build a community always with an eye toward liberation. Throughout the performance, the artists activate a selection of handmade items made of wooden beams and industrial felt modified with sound making components. Using scored and un-scored movement accompanied by live experimental electronic music with layered vocalizations and spoken word Hupfield and Dabrowska aim to fully activate the space. This focused exploration continues to expand the artists’ interest in the intersections of media and performance to create an immersive environment, and to act out and imagine land, language, gender, and commodity towards the possibility of liberation. 

This video includes selected documentation from 3 performances by Maria Hupfield and Tusia Dabrowska, including:

11.30.2017 MAD Museum

12.06.2017 The Gibney Dance Theater

07.03.2018 The Bric Media House

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From an upcoming project, ASPIRATIONAL AEROBICS: Preview of an upcoming video and live art collaboration with Amanda Mehl.

Keep reading...

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2.7.18 #BRIC. With my monkey (@wiktor_podgorski) and the mesmerizing Maria Hupfield and Clara Schuhmacher (backing voc). #madmuseum on the projection behind us.