2006. Paweł Leszkowicz. EMPIRE OF THE SENSES

BERGAMOT GROUP

EMPIRE OF THE SENSES

Paweł Leszkowicz

2006

Poznań, Poland

Bergamot artists specialize in performance art, creating films and photographs based on their performances. The film Biophilia (2007), projected onto a wall, depicts Volha's naked and attractive female body, with a giant pumpkin resting on top. This is accompanied by an overwhelming sound, an intensified purr of a cat.
The woman is shown fragmentarily, from breast to pubic mound, with the pumpkin resting on her breathing belly. The woman seems crushed by its weight, yet at the same time, there is a sensual connection and a color affinity between her body and the pumpkin. After all, the identification between femininity and nature is a recurring cultural theme. The film is interesting for its potential for sensual associations. Above all, the weight of the pumpkin lying on the body evokes the sense of touch. The image activates haptic sensations. Intense breathing and purring draw the gaze into the body and intensify the eroticism of the performance.

The titular concept of "biophilia" was coined in the 1960s by psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. Biophilia denotes a love of life and various biological living systems, emphasizing, for example, the positive connections between humans and the natural world. The Greek "philia" is the opposite of phobia. Fromm contrasts biophilia, as a cult of life, with necrophilia, or the cult of death and the obsession with human destructiveness. Biophilia has a therapeutic meaning. The beauty and sensuality of the Bergamot group's performance corresponds to Fromm's affirmative sense. Similarly, the concept of the exhibition "Image of the Senses" is closer to philias than phobias, seeking pleasure, fulfillment, and intellectual-sensual creativity through art. After all, it presents the work of artists engaged in the pedagogy of creativity.