delighting
Performance by Daniel Kotowski

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
free entry

Event interpreted into Polish Sign Language

In his new performance delighting, premiering at Pickle Bar, Daniel Kotowski deconstructs the seeming innocence of aesthetic delight so as to uncover the violence dripping from legitimised culture, as it softly romanticises and delegitimises ‘other’ – bodies, languages, worldings. Delight and violence are not a coincidental pairing, they deeply embedded into the ‘western’ culture through a colonial gaze that simultaneously disavows the vulnerability of the one watching. Kotowski acknowledges performance as a space of shared dis/comfort and vulnerability and refutes the margins constructed by the very stage – or rather – appropriates them, twists them, shifts them, (de)lighting what’s peripheral to them, exposing the seeming centers as facades.

text: Weronika Zalewska
performance: Daniel Kotowski
costume design: Paweł Włodarski
choreographic consultation: Alicja Czyczel
co-production: Festival Theaterformen

event accompanying the exhibition
  • 08.06 – 29.09.2024
    Tears of Joy
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
Upcoming events
all
  • 20.05 (Tue) 18:00
    Thinking like plants. Workshop on Mandrake creation
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta / workshop room (entrance through the main hall)Zachęta / workshop room (entrance through the main hall)
  • 21.05 (Wed) 18:00
    Screening of the film 'Velvet Buzzsaw'
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 23.05 (Fri) 18:00
    When the algorithm is your boss
    Meeting with the Zentrale courier group
    Zachęta | cinema room (entrance from Burschego street)cinema room
  • 24.05 (Sat) 16:00
    Heart. Sun
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta Project RoomZPR
  • 24.05 (Sat) 16:30
    Heart. Sun
    (Workshop in Polish)
    Zachęta Project RoomZPR
  • 25.05 (Sun) 12:15
    Sunday guided tour
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 26.05 – 28.05.2025
    The art of education. We learn from you. Gdańsk
    (in Polish)
    GdańskGdańsk
  • 28.05 (Wed) 17:00
    „Agnieszka…. Morawińska, co ty tutaj robisz?”
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 30.05 (Fri) 12:15
    Looking/Seeing. Guided tours for adults 60+
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 30.05 (Fri) 17:30
    Close
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 31.05 (Sat) 16:00
    екскурсія українською мовою
    Недільна екскурсія українською мовою
    Захента — Національна галерея мистецтв.Захента — Національна галерея мистецтв.
  • 01.06 (Sun) 11:00
    Poly’biorhythms
    Soundwalk and field recording trip with Felicity Mangan
    Plac na Rozdrożu (entrance to Ujazdowski Park)Plac na Rozdrożu (entrance to Ujazdowski Park)