13 January, 3pm
l’étrangère Gallery
44a Charlotte Road
London EC2A 3PD
FREE, but registration required here
Grzegorz Stefański's latest artworks call into question conceptions of masculinity through a re-reading of the male body; interrogating the power of bodily gestures. His most recent work, choke (2017), canvases the movements of two Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters. Whilst each minuscule movement of the male body might be conceived as an expression of power, Stefański's invasive, slow-motion filming of the interaction between these two fighters raises questions as to what is socially permissible in male-on-male contact.
do-over (2016) similarly looks to abstract and displace the male body — where gestures performed by a young musical conductor borderline on violent expressions of power and auto-aggression. The photograph restraint (2016) explores gestures of power, while interrogating the authenticity of images. The image is charged with tension, carrying with it an undercurrent of violence, despite the superficiality of the re-enacted event.
Joseph Constable is Assistant Curator at Serpentine Galleries, London, and an independent writer. He holds an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London, and is the 2015 recipient of the Whitechapel Gallery's NEON Curatorial Award.
Further details about the exhibition can be found here
Grzegorz Stefański in conversation with Joseph Constable
