BMW Tate Live: Paulina Olowska: The Mother An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue
Trailblazing Polish artist Paulina Olowska plunges into dream and unreality at new Tate Modern performance
Paulina Olowska artist, Re Stage of " The Mother" Collage 2015, Courtesy the artist, Tate Modern London
The Poetry and Dream display at Tate Modern, where Salvador Dali’s Autumnal Cannibalism rubs shoulders with Dorothea Tanning’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, bristles with eerie figures, uncanny landscapes and disconcerting visual effects. This autumn, the display plunges even deeper into the world of dream and unreality when artist Paulina Olowska takes over the space for two weeks in September. Paintings by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and André Derain are joined by wallpaper, murals and homely furniture as Olowska transforms the pared-back gallery space into a cosy domestic interior.
Paulina Olowska 2015 exhibition
By day, visitors will be able to wander through the Paulina Olowska Tate installation; by night, it will become the set for a live theatre performance inspired by the Polish playwright Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz’s ‘The Mother An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue’. The performance piece will pivot around a fraught mother-son relationship and explore themes of mental illness, alcoholism and drug addiction. The title characters will be played by professional actors, but a cast of Olowska’s associates and friends will take on the smaller roles like the prostitute and the maid.
Paulina Olowska biography
Born in 1976, Olowska grew up in Poland, studied art in Chicago, Gdańsk and Amsterdam and has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Stedelikj, the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Berlin Biennale. The 2014 recipient of the Aachen Art Prize, she has earned praise for her varied artistic practice and her efforts to stretch the definition of what defines art.
'The Mother An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue’, which straddles installation, interior design, live theatre and performance art, promises to continue Olowska's efforts to de-bunk the norms of art.
Paulina Olowska 2015 exhibition
By day, visitors will be able to wander through the Paulina Olowska Tate installation; by night, it will become the set for a live theatre performance inspired by the Polish playwright Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz’s ‘The Mother An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue’. The performance piece will pivot around a fraught mother-son relationship and explore themes of mental illness, alcoholism and drug addiction. The title characters will be played by professional actors, but a cast of Olowska’s associates and friends will take on the smaller roles like the prostitute and the maid.
Paulina Olowska biography
Born in 1976, Olowska grew up in Poland, studied art in Chicago, Gdańsk and Amsterdam and has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Stedelikj, the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Berlin Biennale. The 2014 recipient of the Aachen Art Prize, she has earned praise for her varied artistic practice and her efforts to stretch the definition of what defines art.
'The Mother An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue’, which straddles installation, interior design, live theatre and performance art, promises to continue Olowska's efforts to de-bunk the norms of art.
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| What | BMW Tate Live: Paulina Olowska: The Mother An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue |
| Where | Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Southwark (underground) |
| When |
14 Sep 15 – 27 Sep 15, Ticketed evening performances on Monday 21 and Wednesday 23 September at 19.00 and 20.30, and Friday 25 September at 22.00 |
| Price | £8, concessions available |
| Website | Click here for more details |