Blood relations / video

Work has been cerated in Residencia Corazón in La Plata, Argentina

The first “thing” I saw at the Corazón residence in La Plata was Chlorophytum, the same plant that grows in my flat, or many houses and offices in Poland. It also grows on Argentinian windowsills and pavements, in pots or also without them. Eve though it seems that this plant has always grown there, in fact it comes from a different area of the world – south Africa. It is a plant immigrant of sorts, which sends its rootstock with seedlings in search of new territories. The Spanish name of this plant is lazos de amor, or the liaison of love, or bad mother – mala madre.
Both names call the issue of relation – this is also where the name of my work comes from – Blood relations. During my journey to the country of imigrants, I look closely at the roots – the real and the metaforic ones. I pour blood to a chalice, immerse the roots in menstrual blood, together with this I immerse the history of my ancestors, perhaps they are bleeding. Regular roots are hidden beneath the ground, but in this case they are hanging in the air. I place my naked body underneath the roots, gradually immersing in blood following roots and rootstock, and the blood dripping of them marks my body – legs, arms, head, neck and stomach. A hemoglobin molecule is surprisingly alike a chlorophyll molecule, the only difference being one atom inside – in one case it’s iron in the other magnesium. Despite seemingly resembling each other, the two substances are different, even though metaphorically they could have common source. Practically, however menstrual blood tunes out to be a superb manure for plants 7. The connection blood-flowers-heroism is signified in the lyrics of a well-known military song. In its final we sing “The red poppies on Monte Cassino slopes, drank Polish blood instead of dew”. In the final part of the video, I turn to my side, a woman lying down on the floor, blood marks on her body, could resemble a mythological figure or a martyr. At the end, I disappear, where the body have been, there are chalices, the essence of me, water and blood inside them, opposites and witnesses of the presence.