A performance dedicated to Ewa Zarzycka, a renowned Polish performance artist, presented during the “Scanning Ewa” festival at Pawilon Czterech Kopuł in Wrocław. The backdrop for the action was the exhibition “Open Collection”, which featured documentation of several of Ewa Zarzycka’s historical performances. Among them was one of her most iconic pieces from the 1990s, in which she, while putting on heeled shoes, spoke about “shoes for maintaining a high artistic position.” In 2022, during the Aktomar performance festival in Kraków, Dariusz Fodczuk first referenced this performance. He publicly gifted Ewa Zarzycka a pair of red high heels, explaining that when he once asked her about the shoes used in her famous performance, she had said that she no longer had them and did not remember what had happened to them. Zarzycka publicly distanced herself from these red heels, giving the impression that she was not particularly pleased with the gift. However, by 2024, at the “Olbrzymki” exhibition at BWA Wrocław, the red high heels were displayed alongside other artifacts, becoming part of Zarzycka’s grand artistic repertoire. This experience became the impulse for the performance presented at Pawilon Czterech Kopuł. In front of the audience, Dariusz Fodczuk changed into a white painter’s suit, then, with swift movements, mounted a white shelf on the wall, placed a paint roller and a can of paint on it, and began painting the wall above the shelf. While painting, he shared stories about Ewa Zarzycka, including the anecdote about the red high heels, reflecting on the significant impact she had on his life and artistic practice. He also spoke about her remarkable self-distance, citing as an example the nickname “Zarzyga”, which she has used since high school—derived from her surname, it happens to be a Polish slang term meaning “to vomit on something.” Afterward, on the shelf where the paint can had been moments before, he arranged a collection of specially modified shoes, referring to them as “a collection of shoes for maintaining a high artistic position.” While recounting vivid stories from Ewa Zarzycka’s life, Fodczuk seamlessly blended reality with fiction, introducing several false narratives in the presence of the artist herself, her friends, and an audience of curators and fellow artists. In subsequent conversations, he explained that, as a tribute to Ewa Zarzycka, he deliberately employed the very same strategy that she often uses in her own artistic practice—confabulation. Share on THE CONCEALED CONTENTS
Scaning Ewa, The Four Domes Pavilion, Wroclaw, 2024
Context and genesis of the action
Performance process
During this monologue, as he moved the roller over the wall, a perfectly even inscription “ZARZYGA” emerged from beneath the paint. Confabulation as a tribute
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