Soon_

The wall-mounted Billy Bass fish sings "I Will Survive," despite being literally stuck to the wall. Around it, smaller fish are gathered on poles resembling primitive fishing rods.

 

Is "I Will Survive" hope or perhaps disappointment in the times we find ourselves in? Is it a song sung with closed eyes? A song of the privileged? Not coincidentally, it is fish who are the heroines of this scene—not only due to cultural wordplay like "big fish" or the denial of voice and feelings to fish. It's also a real issue of drought, diminishing water resources, and their privatization.

 

The fact that the biggest fish both has a voice and lacks physical maneuverability is a manifestation of political traps; often in political language, the only way out is closing one's eyes and the eternal compromise, which seems no longer sufficient. Yet still, Billy is the name of a good uncle.

 

Weronika Zalewska - artist, poet; co-founder of the Miastozdziczenie project, associated with the Bureau of Post-artistic Practices. She works primarily with text, sound, and video; engages in activities at the intersection of art and activism. Weronika is mainly interested in human-nonhuman relations and the spaces of interspecies interaction and coexistence. In her works, the material often serves as the narrator. This summer, her works can be seen, among others, at BWA Design in Wrocław, Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, and Promocyjna Gallery.