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FAMILY
Interview mit der Künstlerin Marta Deskur / Maria Morzuch
Maria Morzuch: How long has the "Family" been created already?
Marta
Desku: I started quite a long time ago. My work in the field of art
has always reflected the reality that surrounds me. The "Family" project
began after the project with the children. Earlier my son used to
go to a kindergarden. Now, he is already in school, and I live with
a brother. There are new people at home now. All these have changed
the context of my home. The family tree has expanded. My branch sprang
up parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, and others;
it is similar on my husbands side, though the form is somewhat different.
My parents are people who still remain unknown. I got to know my brothers,
though. I do not know whether we are of the same parentage: I suspect
that there must have been other relationships. I am trying not to
become confused by reality. For instance, it turned out that Pico
and Klara are my great-grandparents.
Everyone finds his or her place. Origin, inheriting certain features, knowledge where you come from. Some fathers remain unknown, and similarily a handful of children. Sometimes there is no mother ... Genealogy is a chain of events, a line with no beginning or end. When one starts working on own parentage, new, previously unknown facts are discovered.
MM: Let me ask about the person whose name has entered the titles of your earlier works. Has Monia maintained her significance?
MD: Oh, yes, she has. And to a great extend. She is documentated to have gone out of the 'family' and made her progress into a world beyond. Monia begins to be a heroine; a symbol. She stands for certain problems that limit us, as a nation, as a civic society: us, that is humans as such.
MM: How did the interplay between your beeing in the "Family" and your position of the author of the photographs - outside the image - influence the design of the exhibition?
MD: The first part is the "Childhood", that is a return to the past and memories. In two earlier films, "This is Klara, and this is me, Pico" I am showing the processes of boy's maturing, of his relationship with his younger sister, his thoughts ... Later, three more sisters appear on the photographs. There is also a film with boys, "A short Catastrophic History", documentating brothers playing, or rather a fight situation between them. Children: what are they like, what is going on with them, what do they enjoy, what influences them, and to what extend? My own memories are not that important: they merge with what is now.
MM: You actually have three sisters, haven't you?
MD: I have. The relationships between the sisters are quite interesting, they may be horrible, tragic, full of tension, love and strong bonds ... and this is what the works are all about. I have also made a film inspired by the feelings and situations which came to pass not a long time ago. "Routine Scenes" are also a part of the "Family" project. There is also the drastic aspect to the family: up turns the symbol of violence; it is a gun, and though it is only a toy, it is in the man's hand ... a married couple, man and wife, the man's look at the wife ... The dramatic aspect of the family is a feeling of claustrophobia, of being enclosed.
MM: Does everyone accept the roles you assign to them for the sessions?
MD:
That is right. No one rebels, and it is so. I think that they share
a sense of co-creation, for a great deal depends on them. The creaking
of the floorboards and of the door being open, some talks the chatter
of a turned-on TV. All these add to the sense of the home sweet home.
Our lives revolve around the sound. Most members of the "Family" are
people with specific sensitivity and awareness of music: they create
it. There is the library in the last room, being the incentive for
preserving the timeless values, transformations of thinking over the
ages, progresses of notions, and coinage of new ones ...
MM: That is why, following your plans you made six months ago, the central place in "The Last Supper" has been taken by Monia. Creation of the "Family" from a scratch, establishment of this little genetics from naught, allowed also for revisiting certain themes. And she is surrounded by twelve men.
MD: There is no bread; there is no wine on the table either ... This work is a collage of thirteen different pictures, Each of them is here 'seperately.' The interpretation may differ, following culture changes. At the moment the church in Poland has a specific position, while the slowness of change, the stance, and viewpoints provoke and vex.
MM: The answer to the Polish reality is also the feminist theme ...
MD: Yes, I must admit that though I detest labels. I make associations with history, with the past, with what is used to be. I test whether anything has changed at all. It turns out that yes, it has - though transformation of certain stereotypes took a long time. "Washing The Feet" i s a very beautiful scene.
MM: One of your sisters is Mary Magdalene, isn't she?
MD: Yes, she was a source of my inspiration.
MM: Your aiming at perfection continues all the time ...
MD: The informal relationship, which everything hinges on, is important. Negations of certain truths. Naturally exagerated in the "Family".
MM: Has none of them falling in love in the meantime?
MD: Daddy has. He has a lover. I have entered this into the family tree as well.
MM: That is great! No tree so far has grown through concubinage.
MD: They have no graphic representation yet. Children of the father, daughters with Granny ... I like the situation one of my brothers is in. He has no wife, there is no contact - yet he has a daughter. He cares for her. At the exhibition there is a photograph showing her or rather showing just the legs of the girl and her Mummy. Love - it may develop between siblings. This is characteristic for this family. Queer ...
MM: And you yourself never show in the photographs of the "Family". Is this your privilege?
MD: I do not have to. My son is enough. My true tissue.
MM: You construct the whole situation also in respect to the reality of your 'heroes'. Discover certain community 'within the project' is a dream. The simulated 'family' is based on full and unconditional acceptance.
MD: I base it on facts, on things that are. Later I assemble, select, cut and severe from 'the context'. 'A new genetics is created at the same time - it is based on the principles of selection based on the similarity of features, and sometimes on the acceptable incident. Acceptance, on the other hand, is based on complete independence: 'everyone does whatever he likes' ...