“I talk to my intestines. I press a microphone to my stomach and listen to what my microbiota ‘says to me.’ I try to understand how we can get along. And yet, I don’t necessarily believe that someone is answering me. I waver between anthropomorphizing bacteria and fearing that this is completely pointless. Although, when I speak to what’s in my intestines, I’m not addressing an abstraction – not a god, a soul, or a feeling. I’m talking to a very specific group of living beings, each of which has its own character, preferences, and needs, each significantly influencing my functioning. It’s worth negotiating with them. The only problem is that there are no known human ways to communicate effectively.”
Wojtek Ziemilski (PL)
The starting point for Wojtek Ziemilski’s latest performance was the illness he has been struggling with for eight years. Persistent, difficult-to-control, incurable. Successive treatments brought no improvement, doctors shrugged their shoulders, and alternative methods failed. Finally, a glimmer of hope appeared: a global pharmaceutical company released a new drug. Not exactly safe – but promising.
But a tear-jerking tale of illness would be too simple. Instead, Ziemilski examines the absurdity of his condition, tests the limits of his imagination, and laughs at romanticizing it. It’s unclear when the process the audience experiences is a serious confrontation with his frailty and when it becomes a parody.
Wojtek Ziemilski (he, him) is a theatre director and visual artist. He is interested in the relation between the real and art – which has also led him to the PhD he is currently writing about documentary performance, at London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He is also a fan of curating the spectator’s experience – what could the event be, for them? He has made a fair number of theatre performances (“Small Narration” about his family history and “One Gesture” about sign languages were probably the ones that received the most attention), shown them across the world and won a few awards.
Occasionally, he makes work within a visual arts context – installations, videos, online events. He enjoys this freedom – he is usually surprised by the places he ends up in. He teaches at Warsaw’s National Academy of Dramatic Art, Prague’s DAMU and several other places, and regularly directs workshops.
Infos
| DATE | CONTENU |
|---|---|
| 2025/04/181900 |
18.04.2025 19:00 La Balsamine, Brussels Réservations |
In English, surtitled in French.
Credits :
Text and performance: Wojtek Ziemilski
Research, dramaturgical collaboration: Jowita Mazurkiewicz
Research, devising: Sean Palmer
Sound: Jacek Mazurkiewicz
Curator: Tomasz Plata
Production: Teatr Komuna Warszawa
Scientific advice: prof. dr hab. n. med. Piotr Albrecht, dr Nicolas Gold
Acknowledgements: Sodja Lotker, Lea Kukovičič, Janek Turkowski, Dorota Głażewska-Ziemilska, Paweł Ziemilski, Marcin Kosakowski, Michał Libera, Asa Horvitz, the doctors of the National Medical Institute of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration.
Co-presented with La Balsamine.
Co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture.
With the support of the Polish Institute – Brussels.
