Julita Wójcik, Waitresses. Installation, 2002
Julita Wójcik
Waitresses. Installation

In her actions, Julita Wójcik (*1971, Poland) is often seen wearing seemingly traditional clothing. Her attire reminds us of a farmer’s wife or farm labourer, but her colourful head scarf and patterned apron also fulfil the cliché of a woman painter and thus contrast with the mundane, everyday character of her actions. Her performances are coloured by small actions, such as peeling potatoes in a gallery room or lecturing about abstract art notions to cows in the field, while her sculptures and wall pieces depicting communist era prefab buildings are also the product of a supposedly feminine activity: crocheting. Blurring the borders between what is agricultural/rural, artistic/idealistic and everyday/mundane, Wójcik offers an often humorous view of the human condition.

A waitress is positioned next to a table. While she seems to be attending to customers, she is really not doing anything. After a while, the camera angle shifts and it becomes apparent that the woman’s apron is part of the tablecloth and that, if she were to walk away, she would pull everything on the table with her. This action was first performed in the restaurant Quchnia artystyczna (Artistic Kitchen) in the Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski (CCA Ujazdowski Castle) in Warsaw as part of the exhibition The Young Are Realists, Really (2002).

Performance: 2002, Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski (CCA Ujazdowski Castle), Warsaw

Courtesy Julita Wójcik

Document media
Video, colour, sound, 10:21 min

Issue date
2002

Tags
housework/carework, labour, precarity