Alex Baczynski-Jenkins: The tremble, the symptom, the swell and the hole together

Chisenhale Gallery presents The tremble, the symptom, the swell and the hole together, a new body of work and the largest commission to date by London and Warsaw-based artist and choreographer Alex Baczynski-Jenkins.

For his new commission at Chisenhale Gallery, Baczynski-Jenkins presents a choreography that unfolds across the duration of the exhibition, examining the relationships between affection, distraction, desire and loss. Performed by Baczynski-Jenkins’ collaborators and presented within a minimal and adaptive set, the choreography incorporates two interwoven temporal formats: fortnightly “Episodes” on Thursday evenings, followed by extended “Fugue” performances every Friday to Sunday, 2-6pm.

The work traces queer affinities across social practices, art forms and timeframes, in which bodies simultaneously experience pleasure and deficit. Here, dance, gesture, sound and spoken word contribute to an embodied vocabulary through which the performers navigate intimate and fragmentary exchanges, reflecting on the edges of subjectivity, corporeality and representation.

During the days that the gallery is closed to the public, Baczynski-Jenkins and his collaborators rehearse and develop the next Episode, transforming the gallery into both a performance space and a live production house.

This commission develops Baczynski-Jenkins’ interest in negotiations of desire and the materiality of gestures, as well as the stagings and affections of queer commons. 

Exhibition opening hours:

Episodes:
The tremble, Thursday, January 19, 7pm
The symptom, Thursday, February 2, 7pm
The swell, Thursday, February 16, 7pm
The hole together, Thursday, March 2, 7pm

Fugues:
Friday–Sunday, 2–6pm

This exhibition is free to attend and there is no booking required.  

Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (born 1987, London) lives and works in Warsaw and London. He has presented works at Swiss Institute Contemporary Art, New York; Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, (all 2016); David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Block Universe, London; Sophiensaele Theatre, Berlin; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Cricoteka, Krakow, (all 2015); and X-Apartments, Homeworks, Beirut (2013). Baczynski-Jenkins was UK Associate Artist at Delfina Foundation, 2015 and 2016. He is the co-founder of artist-run project space Kem in Warsaw.

An afternoon viewing of Alex Baczynski-Jenkins’ exhibition
Saturday, January 28, 2pm
An afternoon viewing of Baczynski-Jenkins’ exhibition with an introduction by Eliel Jones, Exhibitions and Events Assistant at Chisenhale Gallery. Coffee and cakes are generously provided by the East End Women’s Institute.

Alex Baczynski-Jenkins in conversation with Catherine Wood
Thursday, February 9, 7pm
Baczynski-Jenkins is joined in conversation by Catherine Wood, Senior Curator of International Art (Performance) at Tate, to discuss his new work and the “choreographic turn.”

Screening: The Red Shoes (1948)
Thursday, February 23, 7pm
Selected by Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, a screening of The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948) is presented in association with MUBI. To celebrate Baczynski-Jenkins’ exhibition, MUBI are offering Chisenhale audiences a free month at mubi.com/chisenhale. MUBI is an online, curated cinema.

Talk: João Florêncio on Illness, Poetics and the Unremarkably Ordinary
Thursday, March 9, 7pm
Drawing from Alex Baczynski-Jenkins’ new work, João Florêncio, Lecturer in History of Modern and Contemporary Art and Visual Culture at University of Exeter, explores the political and aesthetic value of refusing a “poetics of spectacularity” when engaging with illness.

Lead Supporter: Gaia Art Foundation
With additional support from Arts Council England Grants for the Arts. With thanks to Delfina Foundation and Chisenhale Dance Space.
Chisenhale Gallery’s Commissions Programme 2017–19 is supported by the LUMA Foundation.
Chisenhale Gallery’s Curatorial Trainee Programme 2016–18 is supported by Sirine and Ahmad Abu Ghazaleh.
Chisenhale Gallery’s Talks & Events Programme 2017 is supported by Helen Thorpe.

Chisenhale Gallery
Registered charity number 1026175