14 –Ìý27 September 2015
É«¿Ø´«Ã½
Installation in the collection displays, admission free
Ticketed evening performances on Monday 21 September, 19.00 & 20.30; Wednesday 23 September, 19.00 & 20.30; and Friday 25 September, 22.00
Adults: £8
Concessions available
For public information call +44 (0)20 7887 8888, visit tate.org.uk, followÌý@TateÌý
For two weeks this September, a gallery in É«¿Ø´«Ã½â€™s collection displays will be transformed into a ‘domestic interior’ - a theatre setting which functions as an installation, part of a new commission by artist Paulina Olowska. Combining visual arts, theatre and performance, Olowska’s project is the latest in É«¿Ø´«Ã½â€™s ongoing performance series BMW TateÌýLive.
Decorated with wallpaper, hand-painted murals and furnished with wardrobes, tables and chairs, a semblance of domestic space is conjured within É«¿Ø´«Ã½â€™s Poetry & Dream display. These furnishings will sit alongside paintings by artists such as Henri Matisse, Dora Carrington,Pablo Picasso and André Derain. During the day the installation will function as part of the free displays, while in the evening it will become the stage for a new theatre play devisedÌýbyÌýOlowska.Ìý
Based on The Mother An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue by avant-garde Polish artist and playwright StanisÅ‚aw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Olowska’s performance will portray the dysfunctional relationship between Janina Eely, a matron, and Leon Eely, her good-looking and clean-shaven son. Two professional actors will play the role of the mother and the son, while Olowska’s friends and collaborators take on characters including the maid, the prostitute, the aristocratic party boy and the suspiciousÌýindividual. The story takes place in a bourgeois setting in which hallucinations, schizophrenia, alcoholism, madness and drug addiction turn into surrealistÌýmayhem.Ìý
Working across painting, performance, installation and also curating, Paulina Olowska’s work often focuses on forgotten figures of feminism, minor histories and popular aesthetics, quoting fashion photography, agitprop posters, graffiti, periodicals and signage. She has recently shown solo projects and exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunsthalle Basel; Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; and she is the Aachen Art Prize recipient for 2014. Olowska and the artist Bonnie Camplin presentedÌýUsher WeÌýat É«¿Ø´«Ã½ in 2008, and her film Welcome to the Exhibition 2005 was screened in the Tanks as part of the symposium Performance Year Zero: A Living History ¾±²ÔÌý2012.
The BMW Tate Live programme explores the diverse ways in which artists approach live performance in the 21st century, whether in the gallery or online. Throughout the programme artists collaborate across dance, film and other art forms. Now in its fourth year, BMW Tate Live is a major partnership between BMW and Tate, curated by Catherine Wood, Senior Curator, International Art (Performance), É«¿Ø´«Ã½ and Capucine Perrot, Assistant Curator, TateÌýModern.
BMW Tate Live: Paulina Olowska is curated by Catherine Wood and Juliette Rizzi, Assistant Curator, É«¿Ø´«Ã½ and produced by Judith Bowdler, Production Co-ordinator, É«¿Ø´«Ã½. Performances of The Mother An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue will take place at É«¿Ø´«Ã½ on 21, 23 and 25 SeptemberÌý2015.
For press information contact Rachael.Young@tate.org.uk or Cecily.Carbone@tate.org.uk Ìý
or call +44(0)20 7887 8731/4939. For high-resolution images visitÌýtate.org.uk/press