Summertale

Katarzyna Kozyra &

The idyll is too perfect – a summer garden and a country house occupied by female dwarves with blond braids, who wear traditional costumes. They apply themselves to house- and garden work. One night, three huge mushrooms spring up and a man in red rococo-like clothes climbs out from one of them. From the others emerge a red-haired beauty in heels and a creature in overalls whose gender remains undefined. The guests are treated well and the sexless creature is given some girl’s clothes to wear. But the hospitality soon turns into displeasure when the dwarves hear the man’s singing and see his untidy room. They poison him, but the girl brings him back to life. The red-haired beauty is also observed with suspicion, and when one of the dwarves discovers splashes of urine and shaving equipment on the floor of the bathroom, they are not so sure anymore of her femininity: what woman doesn’t sit down to pee? She and the man are then captured and brutally slaughtered. Order is restored, but the girl is inconsolable. Standing on the balcony, she throws seeds on the ground, and new mushrooms spring up, while the dwarves disappear.

Summertale is the last part of Kozyra’s series In Art Dreams come true, in which some characters appear repeatedly in various genres. Fairytales, costumes and sex changes, with their inherent questions of identity and stereotyping are typical of Kozyra’s works, even if not all of them end up in tragedy. (Elisabeth Wynhoff)

* We can only show an excerpt of this work in the online archive. For the complete version, please contact the artist.

About the video

Title Summertale
Year 2008
Videonale VIDEONALE.13
Length 00:19:59
Format 16:9
Country Poland,
Language No dialog
Courtesy the artist
Specifications color, sound, single-channel video

About the artist

Katarzyna Kozyra
  • 1963 in Warsaw, POL.
    Studied at Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, GER, at The Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, POL, and at the Faculty of German Philology of the University of Warsaw, POL
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