Gods of Love
direction: Maria Magdalena Kozłowska, Magda Kupryjanowicz, Oskar Malinowski
Duration: 80 minut
Trigger warnings: nagość, głośna muzyka
GODS OF LOVE is a study of romantic ecstasy, a celebration of sensual love. A poetic love story.
Two performers – Maria Magdalena Kozłowska and Oskar Malinowski – and playwright Magda Kupryjanowicz evoke on stage a state that accompanies desire, passion, and pleasure. They explore the intensity of this experience, the emotional fever. They translate it into gestures, glances, singing, and choreography. They arrange contemporary love rituals out of small actions observed in everyday life. They reference the myth of Eros and Psyche, as well as other representations of love deities from mythologies and religious practices.
At the same time, they look at the act of love through the lenses of contemporary humanities, including bell hooks, Catherine Malabou, and Terrence Real, concerning contemporary relationships, the cult of individualism, and emotional self-sufficiency.
GODS OF LOVE excerpt
I just got back from the stationery store, where I bought some paper to write a handwritten letter. My first handwritten letter in a very long time. I chose cream-colored, textured paper with a delicate embossed pattern. I hope you like it.
You! You! You!
Your face emerging from the darkness.
Ancient, sacred.
Heavy, painful.
I am writing to you, something won’t let me stop.
You come too early, too late, always at the wrong time, to consume everything, to overwhelm everything.
Your gift of heat, your gift of red.
Your hands on me, your eyes in me.
The body shrinks, the body grows.
Fiery, heated.
Trembling.
I walk down the street and think of you.
People seem to notice it.
They feel that I am walking with a sacred mission, a sacred calling.
They approach to touch me.
I shout: “Yes!” One big “yes!”
Letters from lovers shouted from the rooftops.
Giving the streets secret names.
The gods of love invite us to a show.
Eros is among us.
Zespół
idea, performance Maria Magdalena Kozłowska, Magda Kupryjanowicz, Oskar Malinowski
music: Maria Magdalena Kozłowska
text: Magda Kupryjanowicz
choreography: Oskar Malinowski
video: Danylo Heorhiiev
costumes: Jan Tomza-Osiecki
lights: Elżbieta Szurpicka
Premiere
October 18 2024
Bios
Magda Kupryjanowicz Magda Kupryjanowicz is a Polish theatre director, performer, and artist, known for her precise, often conceptually-driven work, collaborating with other artists like Maria Magdalena Kozlowska, and being involved in acclaimed productions recognized with awards like the Gdynia Drama Award and Divine Comedy Festival awards, focusing on contemporary European discourse. She operates with “surgical precision,” exploring themes in productions such as “Rok, w którym nie było lata” (The Year Without a Summer) and “TEACH ME NOT!”.
Maria Magdalena Kozłowska a Polish-Dutch singer, performer, writer, and theatre maker known for her interdisciplinary work exploring the human voice, music, and social critique through performance, video, and visual arts, often exhibited at major European institutions like the Venice Biennale and MoMA Warsaw. A graduate of the University of Warsaw and the Amsterdam Academy of Theatre and Dance (DAS Theatre), she creates performances that merge classical music, opera, philosophy, and contemporary issues, focusing on liminal figures, the body, and the power of the voice in both nature and public spaces. .
Oskar Malinowski – an actor, dancer, performer and choreographer. A graduate of the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts Dance Theatre Department in Bytom. He currently cooperates with Komuna/Warszawa (Cezary idzie na wojny/Cezary Goes to Wars, dir. Cezary Tomaszewski, 2017; Rodos, chor. Wojciech Grudziński, 2019); Nowy Teatr in Warsaw (Języki Przyszłości/Future Tongues, dir. chor. Ania Nowak, 2018); Zachętą National Gallery of Art in Warsaw (Topologia pożądania/Topolgy of Desire, chor. Agnieszka Kryst, 2019) and Fredro Theatre in Gniezn (Historia przemocy/History of Violence, dir. Ewelina Marciniak, 2019). He als develops auteur projects coś/ktoś (something/someone, 2013); KINGWAY (2015). Together with Katarzyna Gorczyca he co-creates an artistic collective Gorczyca/Malinowski, which so far has premiered two performances: #DBRMPP (2016) and Para nr 1 (Pair no. 1, 2018). As a choreographer he co-created also Duchologia polska,directed by Jakub Skrzywanek in Drama Theatre in Wałbrzych/Zagłębie Theatre in Sosnowiec (2018).
As an actor, dancer and performer, he participated in numerous productions, such as: Leni Riefenstahl. Epizody niepamięci/Leni Riefenstahl. Episodes of Oblivion, dir. by Ewelina Marciniak in Silesian Theatre in Katowice (2016); we are not superheroes, dir. by Kamil Wawrzuta/Ruchomy Kolektyw in Ochota Theatre in Warsaw (2016); Wyzwolenie, dir. by Radosław Rychcik in Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Cracow (2017); Wymarsz/Marching Out by Zuza Golińska and Iza Szostak at the Studio Theatre in Warsaw (2017); Zatoka suma/Wels Catfish Bay, dir. by Agata Dyczko at the Ochota Theatre in Warsaw (2017); Arcytrudno dojechać na Bródno/Its Hard to Get to Bródno, dir. by Cezary Tomaszewski at the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw (2018).
He has been awarded scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for artistic achievements.
[source: taniecpolska.pl]
Cooperation
The performance was produced as part of a pilot programme by the Polish Performing Arts Network. This is an initiative of the Gdańsk City Culture Institute, Komuna Warszawa Theatre and Zamek Culture Centre in Poznań.
Co-financing
The event is co-financed by the City of Warsaw as part of the project Komuna Warszawa – Social Institution of Culture.
Dofinansowano ze środków Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego pochodzących z Funduszu Promocji Kultury – państwowego funduszu celowego.
