Ana Laura Lozza & Bárbara Hang, Consumation | Performance accompanying the exhibition On the Edge of Chaos

What?

In Consumation, Argentinian artists Ana Laura Lozza and Bárbara Hang transform one of the most ordinary everyday activities – washing our hands – into a collective ritual and an exercise in shared attentiveness.

At the beginning, one of the artists explains the rules to the participants seated in a closed circle. Anyone can stand up at any moment, move to the centre, and take the bar of soap. Once the first person from the audience begins, the artist no longer intervenes. From that point on, every decision belongs to the group: who will take their turn and when, how long the action will last, and ultimately when the task can be considered complete.

A simple rule sets an unpredictable process in motion. Sometimes participants patiently accompany one another, and the action unfolds in an atmosphere of cooperation and shared enjoyment. At other times, impatience takes over and the group feels the need to speed things up – someone may try to break the soap, scratch it with their fingernails, rub it against the floor, or find another way to bring the task to an end. Spontaneous strategies and divisions of roles emerge. Each group creates its own version of the performance.

In this way, Consumation becomes a kind of social laboratory. The artists ask how we organise ourselves as a group, when we decide to act, what we are willing to accept, and what prompts us to resist. They are also interested in the temporality of matter – the gradual transformation of an object that cannot be fully subjected to the human desire for efficiency. Accompanying, sustaining, participating – these three gestures form the basis of the performance.

The event accompanies the exhibition On the Edge of Chaos, presented at the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź.

Who?

Ana Laura Lozza and Bárbara Hang are an artistic duo working across choreography and dance, dramaturgy, education, curating, and writing. Since 2010, they have been developing Acá No Hay Delivery, a platform for exchange, research, and collective practice. At the heart of their work is a seemingly simple question: how do we do things together? They are interested in the body in relation to other people, but also to the more-than-human world, matter, and everything that is fragile, uncertain, and unpredictable.

Their work has been presented at venues including the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Lichthof Theater in Hamburg, Radialsystem in Berlin, and Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. In 2022, the artists received a Goethe-Institut residency fellowship at Villa Kamogawa in Kyoto. Consumation has previously been presented internationally with the support of NPN-Guestspielförderung, the Goethe-Institut, and Museo Reina Sofía.

Ana Laura Lozza graduated from the Dance, Choreography and Context programme at HZT Berlin University of the Arts and completed Performance Studies at the University of Hamburg. Bárbara Hang holds a master’s degree in Performing Arts Practice and Visual Culture from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, in collaboration with Museo Reina Sofía.

For Whom?

For ages 13 and over, due to the nature of the event and the need to remain focused for approximately one hour.

Consumation is intended for anyone interested in performance and contemporary art, but requires no previous knowledge or experience of performance art. On the contrary, its meaning emerges through the participation of the people who make up each group. You can choose to take your place in the centre, but you can also remain seated, observe, and accompany the actions of others.

This event is for anyone curious about what happens when a group is given a very simple task but no instructions on how to carry it out together.

Why is it worth it?

Consumation offers an intriguing reversal of the usual relationship between artist and audience. We are not here simply to watch a finished work. How the event ultimately unfolds depends on the people who form the circle – on their patience, initiative, and ways of working together, but also on frustration, differences of opinion, and the desire to take control.

This is precisely why the performance complements the exhibition On the Edge of Chaos so well. Questions of coexistence, solidarity, crisis, and our ability to respond to a changing reality, explored throughout the exhibition, are brought here to the micro-scale of a single group and a single object. Lozza and Hang offer no ready-made answers. Instead, they create a situation in which, for an hour, we can observe a community as it takes shape – and, at the same time, recognise ourselves within it.

Partners:

Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation, Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź

Availability

The performance will be in English, with consecutive interpretation into Polish.

The Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź is accessible to people with mobility disabilities. The entrances from Piotrkowska Street and Milionowa Street are step-free and located at ground level. The buildings have lifts providing access to spaces including the education room, as well as accessible toilets.

Free parking is available at the museum, with access from Milionowa Street. Please note that part of the route from the car park to the building has an uneven, stony surface.

Photos

Ana Laura Lozza & Bárbara Hang „Consumation”, press mat.