Seeding
Karolina Gembara and Rafał Milach recontextualise the black smoke flare used in public protest by igniting it in a small museum space. Seeding, their short video performance, shows a woman holding a flare as black smoke fills the room, plunging it into darkness. The action references Poland’s ‘Black Protests’, pro-choice demonstrations organised by women in which participants wore black. In 2018, at a protest in Warsaw, women lit black smoke flares, creating an image that defined the demonstrations in the media and sparked debate about the radicalisation of the women’s movement. The smoke flare became one of the activists’ most potent media ‘weapons’.
In the enclosed museum space, the action takes on another meaning, raising questions about the value of public and political acts in closed settings. Can they still influence and have an impact, or do they merely create an aesthetic experience? This short video performance not only echoes its protest origins but also resonates with other video works in the exhibition. And as the smoke smothers the light, Seeding induces a spatial experience in Maastricht.