It’s just a few days until the debut of Liliana Piskorska’s video art piece Public Displays of Affection at the Forecast Festival, which vividly illustrates the physical clash between protestors and police. Examining this contact through the medium of film will allow Festival visitors to engage with a topical issue in an innovative way. Piskorska’s mentor Bjørn Melhus remarks that “I can’t wait to see the project finally exhibited. It is exciting to see how her initial thoughts have been transformed into an actual work.”
Piskorska’s piece is pictorially and physically arresting. She examines the relationship between protestors and armed police as a form of choreography, highlighting the often absurdly staged nature of this contact. “This project’s concept is deeply connected with public space and its physical and symbolic demarcations,” explains the artist. “It questions shifting forms of group and individual communication happening within public space.” As she puts the finishing touches on the project, Piskorska hopes to stage an examination of the fusion of private and public. What happens when individual bodies come to represent collective desires? What happens to the body when it becomes a symbol, a stage for a wider historical moment?
Public Displays of Affection provides us with new insight into what happens when private and public meet, an important issue in a world in which the private sphere is ever more frequently encroached upon by the actions of the collective. Melhus praises the artist’s boldness, telling us that from his close collaboration with his mentee, what he will take away is courage.
Photos: Liliana Piskorska