The Mother

Staged on the gallery’s seventh floor, which Olowska will transform into an immersive theatrical set, this presentation is a bold reinterpretation of Polish artist, playwright, and theorist Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s 1924 play The Mother (Matka).

Witkiewicz’s surrealist masterpiece challenged conventions of Polish theater and art, and, in the century since its debut, his play has continued to captivate audiences—the playwright Jerzy Jarocki famously staged the performance at Kraków’s Stary Theatre in 1964 and 1972, and Olowska presented a critically acclaimed adaptation of the work at London’s Tate Modern in 2015.

Large-scale portraits of The Mother, inspired by Olowska’s muse Anja Rubik—the Polish model and activist featured on the cover of Art Vogue Polska in November 2018, with artistic direction by Olowska—will frame the set. Informed by photographs by Kacper Kasprzyk, these paintings radiate energy, capturing the layered contradictions of motherhood: strength and fragility, beauty and decay.

The performances at Pace will be accompanied by a printed pamphlet that sheds light on the legacy of Formism, formerly known as Polish Expressionism; Witkiewicz’s radical ideas; and Olowska’s reinterpretation of this historical material through a feminist lens. This pamphlet, produced by Olowska, will serve as both a guide to and an extension of the show, connecting historical contexts to the contemporary concerns that animate the artist’s practice.

The performance schedule for The Mother: An Unsavory Monologue follows below:

Nora Kryst (as The Witch): February 13–18
Myfanwy MacLeod (as The Artist): February 19–22
Monika Jac Jagaciak (as The Mother): February 25–March 1