Room of Projected Horizons

Room of Projected Horizons is the first institutional solo exhibition of Bożna Wydrowska, a performer, dancer, visual artist and initiator of the "Ball at Bożena's" series of events. It consists of a video installation created together with a dozen or so members of the Kiki House of Sarmata. In the black-and-white video, Bożna looks at the ballroom culture from a personal perspective, as well as from the perspective of the people who are its co-creators in Poland.

The artist strips away typical ballroom aesthetics, presenting performers without makeup or costumes in vulnerable states. Despite differing backgrounds and identities, participants share passion for ballroom culture and experiences of marginalization in heteronormative society. The work explores themes including embodiment, desire, disability, solitude, transformation, and self-love through intimate conversations.

The Ballroom is shown as a tool for self-therapy, self-discovery, change and growing up. The exhibition frames dance as both refuge and resistance against established social hierarchies. Drawing on theorist Judith Butler's concept of gender performativity, the work highlights how gender operates as a culturally constructed performance. Ballroom culture exposes and challenges these conventions.

Room of Projected Horizons heralds the beginning of a new era: the crisis of cultural gender and the arrival of new, fluid identities.