I sew up the ears of wolves
I sew up the eyes of wolves
I sew up the jaws of wolves
2019 -2020
According to folk sympathetic magic, in order to protect their animal herds from wolves, women would sit in a corner of the room and sew up the halves of their dresses. In doing so, they would repeat three phrases: 'I sew up the ears of the wolves so that they cannot hear the sheep, I sew up the eyes of the wolves so that they cannot see the sheep, I sew up the eyes of the wolves so that they do not devour the sheep'. These were their protective spells, which I interpreted in my own way.
In the early stages of the project, I used the vision of sewing a person into clothing as a response to my own anxieties about family history. In the village where my great-grandparents came from stands the now decaying palace of the Count Kicki. Over the years, I have visited its doorstep and roamed around and observed its progressive decay. Kicki's palace has become a symbol of unsolved mysteries about my roots. For years I dreamt of its cellars, grand ballrooms and demonic creatures running around. The building has been boarded up since last summer and cannot be entered. It has been closed probably forever. In 2019, I performed
a ritual in it to shut up the spirits following me by precisely sewing the person who accompanied me at that moment into the fabric. I captured the effect of this performative action in black and white medium format photographs. The nature of the photographs is reminiscent of 19th and 20th century photographs of ghosts taken during spiritualistic séances. I made the prints of these on scraps of the wooden planks that my great-grandparents' house was made of.
The spell came back to me in 2020 during the pandemic. Sitting in confinement,
I decided to record a video performance in which I sew myself up all in my clothes. This vision seemed to me to be something very meaningful in the light of all the events of 2020 that we have experienced.
In the video presented, I sew myself into the red fabric. Repeating the old spell of sympathetic magic, I very carefully sew up my legs, head and arms. The image is synonymous with stagnation, collective procrastination and pervasive boredom, which has taken on a new meaning over time. It is the need to hide from constant information, unfortunate accidents and abstract danger. Wolf magic thus became my protective spell.
