Anna Orlowska

Anna Orłowska (*1986 in Opole) lives and works in Warsaw. Orłowska started her artistic education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and continued her studies at the National Film School in Łódź in Poland. At the same time she studied at the Institute for Creative Photography in Opava, Czech Republic.

A dance archive shows great efforts to document, write down and preserve movement - even if it remains motionless in the document. Movement seems "trapped" in the archive, on paper, in artefacts and other media, but remains the highest value and point of reference. Movement, especially light and ascending movement, is an expression of progress, beauty and power - as in dance so in life. Anna Orłowska's view of an archive of dance also reflects the omnipresent social demand for conformity and constant mobility - a demand that banishes stillness, stasis and immobility as a shameful weakness.

At best, the body posed in the photograph still creates the illusion of movement. When we erase the human being, two elements are usually left undisturbed in the photograph: the fabric of the costume, which floats in a vacuum of human intention, and the (also textile) background or space (stage, studio, plein air). In the absence of bodies, we become aware of the weight and solidity of silence in dark, empty scenes. Steps, curtains and walls come to the fore. Masks hang in a void. Costumes become as heavy as the robes of marble sculptures. Empty stages, rehearsal rooms, academy corridors. Counters, props, scenographic elements. This solidified matter - an ensemble cast accompanying the dancer's body fixed by the photographer - has become the material from which the artist assembles her images and objects

21st May 2021 – 20th February 2022*
Anna Orłowska / Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln
Ein Teil des Teils
(Part of the part)
German Dance Archive
*within the exhibition „INSZENIERUNG | INSPIRATION. Tanz und Fotografie“
(Staging | Inspiration. Dance and Photography)

Anna Orłowska is an invited AMA artist in the Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln.

More information about the artist here: www.annaorlowska.com

Starting Point