Unseen Performances

Growing up in post-communist Poland, surrounded by women, made me aware of the emotional weight carried across generations and the ways it continues to live within me.

Growing up in post-communist Poland, surrounded by women, made me aware of the emotional weight carried across generations and the ways it continues to live within me. I was raised within a culture where resilience, self-sacrifice, and emotional restraint were deeply valued—qualities shaped by generations of endurance and a broader culture of survival in the aftermath of war. Expressing emotions openly was often discouraged, and vulnerability could be perceived as a sign of weakness.

The figure of Matka Polka (the Polish Mother)—a cultural archetype that embodied these values through devotion to family, endurance, and selflessness—shaped my understanding of femininity from an early age. This idealized figure was expected to navigate domestic responsibilities and societal challenges with strength and composure, often containing her emotions rather than expressing them openly. Witnessing the weight carried by women who embodied this ideal left me with a lingering unease toward societal expectations and inspired my ongoing interest in the tension between duty and desire, strength and vulnerability.

In my work, I explore these tensions through carefully constructed tableaux, staging intimate spaces and photographing my protagonists in moments that evoke psychological dissonance.