Infiltration

2019

Site-specific installation

ERGO Hestia Pavilion of Art, Warsaw

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Across from the Ergo Hestia Pavilion of Art stands a monumental, abandoned building—a protagonist of many Warsaw urban legends. Once a mansion block inhabited by Soviet diplomats, it is now rumored to be a secret headquarters for Russian spies. Though officially empty since the fall of Communism, it remains guarded by armed security. Those who have managed to break inside report signs that the building was still inhabited years after 1989.

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"Infiltration" plays with the concept of espionage. I transformed the exhibition space into a surveillance headquarters for observing the mysterious building. I collected articles, videos, photographs, and maps; installed binoculars at the window; and created a Cyrillic ouija board to communicate with a Soviet ghost who might answer the many questions asked by Varsovians.

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My detective and mediumistic efforts were supported by 1990s hypnosis guru Anatoly Mikhailovich Kashpirovsky. The performative séance* and the voyeuristic act of watching “the other side” served as a pretext to explore the entangled complexities of Polish–Russian relations—marked by fear, projection, and misunderstanding, despite deep cultural proximity. It also became a mirror for our troubled Polish self-image, so often defined in opposition to the East.

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*The performance remains undocumented, as spirits prefer not to be filmed or photographed.