Grzegorz STEFAŃSKI

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Grzegorz STEFAŃSKI

Participating Project	International Creator Residency Program
Activity Based	London
City / Place stayed	Tokyo
Period	2023.1 - 2023.3

Purpose of the residency

I am actively researching how care and violence are simultaneously present in intimate relationships such as love, friendship, partnership or family structures. While looking for simple but powerful gestures that contain ambiguity of violence and intimacy I followed my intuition from 2016 and turned to research martial arts as a social practice where both violence and care meet. While exploring philosophical and strategic concepts of Japanese martial arts I came across the principle of aiki (合気) - the principle of matching your opponent, joining physically and mentally with him for the express purpose of avoiding a direct clash of force in order to defeat him. This mimicry also occurs involuntarily between lovers and is a spirit hunting strategy among some indigenous tribes. The purpose of my residency in Tokyo will be to investigate the martial art aiki principle both theoretically and in practice.

Plan during the residency

• I will seek a cross-disciplinary exchange with Tokyo Arts and Space and sports researchers from among the many at the University of Tokyo to unpack the politics of embodiment of aiki principle.
• I also want to establish collaboration with a Tokyo-based choreographer within the first month of my residency.
• Operating both practically and academically my research will evolve towards processual, artist-led activities such as movement workshops and discussion group in the second month of my stay at TOKAS.
• Last month of my residency will be used for the production of the new moving image work.

Activities during the residency

Strongly influenced by performance, my practice is located at the nexus of choreography, psychology and film. In Tokyo, I investigated the subject of care-violence dynamics in relationships and the idea of home, and I made a new film which takes the form of an endless loop, reflecting the pattern of dynamics replayed in a relationship between protagonists. This is the first film in a trilogy, which will be produced in the UK and Poland in the future.

Outcome of the residency

I consider the residency to be very successful for me on many levels. Firstly, I managed to produce a new short film work that introduces new elements such as sound and narration. Secondly, I established a lot of professional contacts with both creative team members and art professionals, which I am sure will bring future opportunities to create and showcase my works. Thirdly, my stay in Tokyo made me rethink the way I make works and how to go about my art career; being in close contact with Japanese culture and society forced me to rethink the values I have been exposed to in Europe and discover that my artistic language and style bear some similarities to Asian aesthetics.

Creator Information