Symptoms
Two characters engage in an absurd conversation about the future of art, wondering whether film and photography might already be approaching their end. In this Dadaist parody of silent cinema, Ewa Zarzycka humorously challenges an art form that becomes so absorbed in analysing its own medium that it loses sight of the world beyond it.
Symptoms is a Dadaist play with the conventions of silent cinema and slapstick, in which Mrs X and Mr Y engage in a pseudo-dialogue about the future of art, film and photography. Devoid of conventional sound, the film was accompanied during screenings by actors performing the dialogue live, alongside Zarzycka’s own commentary. Through absurdity, repetition and self-irony, the artist questions art’s obsession with its own medium – instead of offering yet another serious treatise on the limits of cinema, she creates a playful and subversive experiment that continually undermines the very rules on which it is built.
Ewa Zarzycka
Born in 1953 in Szczecin, she lives in Lublin and Kazimierz Dolny. A performance artist working with video, drawing, and installation. A graduate of the State School of Fine Arts in Wroclaw (1978), her practice is rooted in conceptual art and reflects on art itself. She developed a distinctive “spoken performance” format focused on language, blending art and everyday life while questioning the boundaries between them. Her works are held in leading Polish museum and archival collections.
Reżyseria: Ewa Zarzycka
