CRYING / TRYING | video installation and performance

What?

“CRYING/TRYING” is a project created specifically for the Łódź Multicultural Festival by Daniel Kotowski—one of the most distinctive contemporary Polish artists, working at the intersection of performance, video, and installation. His work stems from his experience as a Deaf person and consistently challenges the notion of deafness as a lack or a disability. In his works, Deaf culture emerges as a distinct perspective shaped by language, communication, identity, and unique ways of producing knowledge. In 2026, Kotowski, together with Bogna Burska, represented Poland at the 61st Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition.

The starting point for this new work is the figure of Stefan Napierski (1899–1940), born Stefan Marek Eiger—a poet, essayist, translator, and literary critic of Jewish descent. His biography is intertwined with Łódź in several ways—he was married to the poet and translator Irena Tuwim, and his mother, Diana Eiger (née Silberstein), came from a well-known family of industrialists in Łódź. An important aspect of Napierski’s life that was long kept silent was his homosexuality—an experience he could not openly and fully embrace under the social conditions of the time.

Kotowski finds in Napierski’s poetry a “romantic excess”—despair, loneliness, unfulfillment, and a sense of being stigmatized. However, he is interested not only in suffering but also in the communicative potential it holds—a cry directed at the world, an attempt to assert one’s presence, and the tension between the need to be oneself and the necessity of hiding one’s own truth.

Crying becomes the central gesture of “CRYING/TRYING.” Kotowski views it as the space between powerlessness and action, between surrendering to reality and attempting to change it. Here, strong emotions cease to be something that must be masked by irony, detachment, or “elegant complaining.” Crying can reveal what usually remains hidden—and that is precisely why it can become the beginning of action.

The location where the work is performed is of particular significance. The performance was created in the disused swimming pool of the Łódź YMCA on Moniuszki Street—a space designed for water that lost its original function once the water was gone. The empty pool thus becomes not only a setting but also part of a narrative about absence, traces, and the possibility of giving new meaning to an existing space.

Who?

Daniel Kotowski—artist and performer. His practice centers on the experiences of Deaf people, language and communication, as well as biopower and biopolitics. In his work, he explores the boundaries of corporeality and the possibilities of expression beyond the dominant order of speech.

• Curator: Agata Siwiak
• Film, editing: Michał Dobrucki
• Video, sound: Kuba Szkudlarek
• Lighting: Jan Grouzer
• Costume: Paweł Włodarski
• Choreographic consultation: Alicja Czyczel
• Voice Acting: Kamil Dominiak
• Queer History Consultations: Marta Zdanowska
• Producer: Marta Olejniczak

For Whom?

“CRYING/TRYING” is aimed at people interested in contemporary art, performance art, the history of Łódź, Deaf culture, and the often-overlooked and long-marginalized life stories of the city’s residents. It is also an invitation for those interested in issues of identity, communication, emotional expression, and the social norms that determine which forms of self-expression we consider appropriate and which we deem “excessive.” The work may particularly resonate with the experiences of people living in the tension between the need for self-expression and the pressure to hide, control, or normalize their own emotions and identities.

Why is it worth it?

“CRYING/TRYING” weaves together, in a very interesting way, several themes important to the Łódź of Many Cultures Festival—the city’s history, Jewish heritage, queer memory, Deaf culture, and the question of whose experiences can become part of a shared narrative. Instead of treating these perspectives as separate stories, Kotowski explores what might happen at their intersection.

The act of restoring the memory of Stefan Napierski is particularly significant. The artist neither reconstructs his biography nor attempts to speak on his behalf. Rather, he is interested in the tension he recognizes in Napierski’s work between the desire to reveal oneself and the necessity of concealing parts of one’s identity. In this way, Napierski’s historical experience intersects with the contemporary practice of the Deaf artist, who himself consistently questions the dominant norms of communication, corporeality, and visibility.

This understanding of multiculturalism—not as a catalog of fixed identities, but as a space where languages, life stories, memories, and experiences intersect—is very much in line with the Festival’s vision. “CRYING/TRYING” also reminds us that a city’s history consists not only of what has been recorded and commemorated, but also of what has remained unspoken over the years.

In this context, crying becomes a political gesture. It does not merely signify helplessness in the face of reality, but allows one to transcend the imposed ways of speaking about oneself. It is the moment when something that has been hidden until now becomes visible—and that is precisely why it can bring about change.

Availability

The event is accessible to both Deaf and hearing people.

The installation and performance take place in the space of the closed YMCA swimming pool at 4a Moniuszki Street. The building is not accessible to people with mobility impairments.

Photos

Daniel Kotowski at the YMCA pool, photo by HaWa