23 February 2023: Performance by Vala T. Foltyn, Blessed be the witch_es
We are delighted to invite you to the performance, Blessed be the witch_es by Vala T. Foltyn with Lateral Roma at Fondazione Giuliani.
Blessed be the witch_es is a performance act by Copenhagen-based artist Vala T. Foltyn in collaboration with curator Ginevra Ludovici. Organized by Lateral Roma and hosted at Fondazione Giuliani, the piece is a queer ritual that functions as an experiential portal for the community of the ghosts, witches, and vampires who have accompanied the artist’s practice for many years.
As a queer witch, Foltyn choreographs rituals as reenactments of difficult pasts in the search for queer futures. On this occasion, she is hosting a safer environment for the dead and inviting those alive to walk between the realms, opening and speaking with a specific archive located in a century-old villa in Kraków, Poland.
The archive of the villa consists of visual and ghostly matter, and traces back to the beginning of the 20th century, including the history of resistance of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army)[1] women officers from the Second World War, such as Helena Siuchnińska and Maria Bułaga Truszkowska, who left her cooking book in the premises of the house. The villa was also a place of work and study for the philosopher and esoteric thinker, Wincenty Lutosławski. It was also frequently visited by Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II and moved to Vatican City.
As a former home of Foltyn before she relocated to Denmark, the space offered a refuge for the city’s queer community. Run by Lamella collective, the villa became a think-tank for queer and feminist artists and activists until an eviction notice on the 22nd of May, 2018, shut down its activities. This exact date marked another important moment in Foltyn’s life: her dear friend and collaborator, the writer and producer Aneta Żukowska, passed away. And similarly on the 22nd of May – which is the day devoted to Saint Rita da Cascia, Saint of the Impossible Causes, according to Catholic religion – the recipe book of Maria Bułaga Truszkowska, a former inhabitant of the house, was published in 1960.
The mapping of political and poetic narratives, personal and public, becomes a witching gesture as developed in the artist’s practice of magic, performance and textiles. Also, Foltyn’s choice to work with textiles is again connected to the personal history of the house, since a former owner, Witold Truszkowski, ran a textile store in the city of Kraków in the 1930s. Truszkowski’s craftsmanship was highly regarded by the neighbours, who came to believe he possessed spiritual powers.
Departing from the microhistories of the villa, Foltyn develops a methodology to reclaim certain narratives that were forgotten, silenced or dominated by national regimes of power.
The villa’s archive is relocated again to unfold its intimate stories, scents and sounds of resistance on the site of Fondazione Giuliani in Rome.
[1] The Armia Krajowa (Home Army) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II.
The Performance takes place on February 23, at 7 PM at Fondazione Giuliani, via Gustavo Bianchi 1, Rome
Conceived and performed by: Vala T. Foltyn
Sound composition: Maja Chiara Faber
Textile mentoring: Max Steen
Curation: Ginevra Ludovici
Developed at Art Hub Copenhagen
Photo by: Jelena Pajić
Supported by: The Danish Institute in Rome
Hosted at: Fondazione Giuliani
Vala T. Foltyn is a performance and installation artist, and founder of Lamella the house of queer arts in Poland. She graduated from Shahar Dor’s Artness – Home and School for Movement (Israel) and Performers House (Denmark). She earned her Master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Artistic Research at Malmö Art Academy. For several years she researched Anna Halprin’s legacy, which was presented at Copenhagen Contemporary| Danshallerne in 2020. She recently performed and exhibited her work at Musik Installationen Festival in Nuremberg, Tallinn Art Hall, Bergen Assembly, and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. In 2022, she was artist in residence at the Art Hub Copenhagen and currently is a resident at the Danish Institute in Rome.
23 February 2023: Performance by Vala T. Foltyn, Blessed be the witch_es
We are delighted to invite you to the performance, Blessed be the witch_es by Vala T. Foltyn with Lateral Roma at Fondazione Giuliani.
Blessed be the witch_es is a performance act by Copenhagen-based artist Vala T. Foltyn in collaboration with curator Ginevra Ludovici. Organized by Lateral Roma and hosted at Fondazione Giuliani, the piece is a queer ritual that functions as an experiential portal for the community of the ghosts, witches, and vampires who have accompanied the artist’s practice for many years.
As a queer witch, Foltyn choreographs rituals as reenactments of difficult pasts in the search for queer futures. On this occasion, she is hosting a safer environment for the dead and inviting those alive to walk between the realms, opening and speaking with a specific archive located in a century-old villa in Kraków, Poland.
The archive of the villa consists of visual and ghostly matter, and traces back to the beginning of the 20th century, including the history of resistance of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army)[1] women officers from the Second World War, such as Helena Siuchnińska and Maria Bułaga Truszkowska, who left her cooking book in the premises of the house. The villa was also a place of work and study for the philosopher and esoteric thinker, Wincenty Lutosławski. It was also frequently visited by Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II and moved to Vatican City.
As a former home of Foltyn before she relocated to Denmark, the space offered a refuge for the city’s queer community. Run by Lamella collective, the villa became a think-tank for queer and feminist artists and activists until an eviction notice on the 22nd of May, 2018, shut down its activities. This exact date marked another important moment in Foltyn’s life: her dear friend and collaborator, the writer and producer Aneta Żukowska, passed away. And similarly on the 22nd of May – which is the day devoted to Saint Rita da Cascia, Saint of the Impossible Causes, according to Catholic religion – the recipe book of Maria Bułaga Truszkowska, a former inhabitant of the house, was published in 1960.
The mapping of political and poetic narratives, personal and public, becomes a witching gesture as developed in the artist’s practice of magic, performance and textiles. Also, Foltyn’s choice to work with textiles is again connected to the personal history of the house, since a former owner, Witold Truszkowski, ran a textile store in the city of Kraków in the 1930s. Truszkowski’s craftsmanship was highly regarded by the neighbours, who came to believe he possessed spiritual powers.
Departing from the microhistories of the villa, Foltyn develops a methodology to reclaim certain narratives that were forgotten, silenced or dominated by national regimes of power.
The villa’s archive is relocated again to unfold its intimate stories, scents and sounds of resistance on the site of Fondazione Giuliani in Rome.
[1] The Armia Krajowa (Home Army) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II.
The Performance takes place on February 23, at 7 PM at Fondazione Giuliani, via Gustavo Bianchi 1, Rome
Conceived and performed by: Vala T. Foltyn
Sound composition: Maja Chiara Faber
Textile mentoring: Max Steen
Curation: Ginevra Ludovici
Developed at Art Hub Copenhagen
Photo by: Jelena Pajić
Supported by: The Danish Institute in Rome
Hosted at: Fondazione Giuliani
Vala T. Foltyn is a performance and installation artist, and founder of Lamella the house of queer arts in Poland. She graduated from Shahar Dor’s Artness – Home and School for Movement (Israel) and Performers House (Denmark). She earned her Master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Artistic Research at Malmö Art Academy. For several years she researched Anna Halprin’s legacy, which was presented at Copenhagen Contemporary| Danshallerne in 2020. She recently performed and exhibited her work at Musik Installationen Festival in Nuremberg, Tallinn Art Hall, Bergen Assembly, and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. In 2022, she was artist in residence at the Art Hub Copenhagen and currently is a resident at the Danish Institute in Rome.