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The performance consists of choreography and sounds created by shipyard workers, directed by Wollny and Szwajgier. The authors of the compositions use similarities between the structure of the working day and the typical structure of a song. Fragments of free time are distinguished from parts of the work, just as verses can be separated from choruses. The free time (verses) is subtle, soothing and kind of disappears in space — with fragments of conversations, playing ping-pong, and opening beer cans. The refrains (work) are loud, with relentless sounds of metal objects, light and heavy-duty tools, sounds of grinding and welding (and the accompanying almost baroque sparks of light) that fill the entire hall. Through their performance, the men furnish the memory of the shipyard with a bodily dimension, in which sound becomes the carrier of memories.

Wollny, who typically incorporates the local context (both architecture and people) into her compositions, constructs an interesting tension between the labour of the workers that results in a material practical object (for example a ship), and an artistic work whose product is a work of art. In this case, both work and free time become activities that have succumbed equally to capitalist rule.

  • Object type:
    video (documentation)
  • Year:
    2011
  • Duration:
    14 min 5 s
  • inv. no.:
    MNG/NOMUS/13/D
  • Własność:
    Deposit of the City of Gdańsk, part of the Gdańsk Collection of Contemporary Art
Zorka Wollny, Anna Szwajgier, Piosenka przy pracy, 2011. Depozyt Gminy Miasta Gdańska w ramach Gdańskiej Kolekcji Sztuki Współczesnej, fot. © Archiwum MNG
fot. © Archiwum MNG
  • Object type:
    video (documentation)
  • Year:
    2011
  • Duration:
    14 min 5 s
  • inv. no.:
    MNG/NOMUS/13/D
  • Własność:
    Deposit of the City of Gdańsk, part of the Gdańsk Collection of Contemporary Art

The performance consists of choreography and sounds created by shipyard workers, directed by Wollny and Szwajgier. The authors of the compositions use similarities between the structure of the working day and the typical structure of a song. Fragments of free time are distinguished from parts of the work, just as verses can be separated from choruses. The free time (verses) is subtle, soothing and kind of disappears in space — with fragments of conversations, playing ping-pong, and opening beer cans. The refrains (work) are loud, with relentless sounds of metal objects, light and heavy-duty tools, sounds of grinding and welding (and the accompanying almost baroque sparks of light) that fill the entire hall. Through their performance, the men furnish the memory of the shipyard with a bodily dimension, in which sound becomes the carrier of memories.

Wollny, who typically incorporates the local context (both architecture and people) into her compositions, constructs an interesting tension between the labour of the workers that results in a material practical object (for example a ship), and an artistic work whose product is a work of art. In this case, both work and free time become activities that have succumbed equally to capitalist rule.

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