Until the mould do us apart

Krystyna&Sabina Collective

duet performance with movements and lights
approx. 10 minutes
2023 

Artist Statement

Until the mould do us apart is a duet with dance, performance and video art. The power of friendship is tested by unfavourable domestic issues. As two Polish ‘incapable’ immigrants, we feel particularly affected by the cost of living crisis in the UK. Several years of renting near Hounslow have been strewn with issues, but also with absurd stories.

Our absentee landlord, who is now living in Australia, seems more interested in booking vacations than responding to us. There’s damp, clogged pipes and a slow, death inducing fungus on the walls, which over time, we’ve given up fighting with; we now treat it like our pet. Our three-year adventure in our flat resulted in many arguments, as well as wonderful reconciliations. Although the history of our friendship goes back before living in the outskirts of London, we would like to share a truncated version of our story - through the lens of the mould on our walls, which was born in autumn 2020 and thrives till today.

Is it possible to sustain a friendship when we are not sure who should top up the gas and electric prepayment meter or who forgot to open the window after cooking, which makes our pet even bigger? That’s a tricky one. Even if we love each other, it might be harder to express it if our wallets are empty or the lighting in the kitchen is not working. Our pet seems uninterested in our emotions.

In the performance, we would like to present various events, both more and less serious, which took place in the flat we rent. We would like to present them in the form of a collage or a map of thoughts and emotions that accompanied us at that time. We will perform this through movement, sometimes speaking, as well as a video that will present fragments of our apartment and its nooks and crannies.

The nature of the performance will be absurd, campy, and perhaps not obvious at times. The creative process and the performance itself on stage will be a kind of joint therapy for us, where we will work through our conflicts and various emotions related to them. Perhaps we can even learn to live with our pet - until the mould do us apart.

Documentation