In the times of global confinement and collapse, Rafał Pierzynski's work takes a whole new dimension. Based in Zürich, non-binary performer and collage artist explores touching as a primordial modality of being in the world, a vector that transcends the separation between the body and the mind. It is essential to love, care, and the deconstruction of the naturality of our representations of our bodies. For Pierzyński, touching is even fundamental to our survival.
~ La Fête Du Slip 2020
Rafał Pierzyński
Rafał Pierzyński *1991, non-binary performer and choreographer from Poland, working and living in Zürich.
Their work embodies the spaces in between and highlights interrelations to inspire sustainable, post-anthropocentric, inclusive orientations. Pierzyński reimagines ecology based on an expanded idea of touching and being in touch.
Touching is the main topic of their research and projects.
Their artistic practice is an affirmation of more care-ful ways of living with each other and the environment. It shines a light on the abilities of the body and mind to connect, presenting them as powerful technologies for healing, growth, and reparation.
Their works take shape of queer performances and collages in the context of DIVAS - a collaboration, they started with Aga Pedziwiatr in 2016, as well as their independent artistic practice.
Pierzynski studied (BA)Stage Dance and (BA)Movement Studies and Performance (Dance Pedagogy) at the Institute of Dance Arts in Linz (with the written work titled "Spaces in between dancing bodies".
There they also gained their MA through practical research and a thesis titled "Embodied Communication - attending to the modes of touch".
They have shared their practice as workshops, during SDC residency in Madrid and Casablanca, S.T.R.E.T.C.H. Festival in Berlin and at the university in Linz, amongst others. They have gained experience working for Cie. Off Verticality and Rose Breuss; Virgilio Sieni Company; Daniel Hellmann; Elena Giannotti, Alexandra Pirici and most recently Ewa Dziarnowska, Ania Nowak, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins and Isabel Lewis.
In 2017/2018 they've been residents at Esther Eppstein’s Message Salon in Zurich (http://messagesalon.ch/), where at their temporary studio they focused on performing with DIVAS, making collage work. There they also released a zine called Touching.
Pierzyński were residents of the Solo Project Plus 2019 program now at Stary Browar Nowy Taniec - a performative program of the Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk, run in Stary Browar, Poznań, Poland where with Agata Grabowska, they created their performance 'Losing the Form in Darkness'.
In collaboration with Backslash Festival 2019, Gessnerallee Zürich they've produced 'Touching (is electric)' - an interactive treatment-performance.
In April 2020 Pierzyński were the artist in residency at KULTURFOLGER Zürich where they've created a text and a video.
In September 2020 for the invitation of dis-order/Estrangement Sessions exhibition conceived they conceived “Touching: in time“ presented there in the frame of Zürich Art Weekend 2020.
In May 2021 they produced their newest work Touching: The Alterity Within in coproduction with Tanzhaus Zürich and Stadt Kultur Zürich.
They received DanceWEB scholarship in 2020 which got postponed to summer 2021 due to the CORONA pandemic.
