Spec Ops Chameleons/ Tajskie Kwiatuszki 🦎

series of happenings, object, video, installation

Spec Ops Chameleons is a happening project initiated by Barbara Gryka and Filip Kijowski, where artistic tools − visual media, performative gestures, imagination − get entwined with activism and solidary support for the fight for civil and reproductive rights. Under the banner of Chameleons, the artistic duo carried out a series of interventions in several cities in Poland and the Czech Republic. Gryka and Kijowski present the results of their actions in exhibitions in the form of documentation, video recordings and scenographic installations.

The first actions in this project were a direct reaction to the homophobic accents appearing in the Polish presidential campaign in 2020. Back then, the artists performed in Lublin and Świdnik; the latter having been tagged as “LGBT-free zone” by the homophobic local authorities.

During their intervention, the two artists performed in self-made chameleon costumes, as these animals are known for their ability to adapt to their surroundings and fit into different contexts. “We are the special operations chameleons − they declared. − We appear wherever love, help and empathy are needed. Our performative actions are aimed at bringing joy to even the worst situations. We believe in dialogue that leads to understanding and convinces people to have faith in a better world based on equality. We have been born during the pandemic, we hatched from eggs as a Polish man coming back from Great Britain after Brexit, and a Polish woman from the small village of Końskowola, a municipality ‘free from LGBT ideology’”.

The performances of the Chameleons took place in public space. Their key elements consisted in encounters with people who were attracted by the vividly coloured costumes; the artistic duo would then initiate conversations about equality, as well as the rights of women and minorities. In Świdnik, they performed in the streets. In Lublin, they arranged a meeting space in a mud-filled pool, making reference to Robert Smithson’s idea. “We wanted to create the place described by Smithson − they wrote − which required several steps: digging a shallow hole in the ground, filling it with water, and waiting for mud to form, leaving it to dry, and repeating the process multiple times. We realized the extremely plastic, ephemeral and impermanent nature of mud. It became a metaphor for something that can absorb all the negative thinking, that can stifle hate. We would like the place we created to become an excuse for dialogue and meetings with local inhabitants.”

The next action by the Chameleons took the form of a performative trip of the artists from Poland to the Czech Republic. The first stop was in Liberec. This city, similar to other localities on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic, is a popular destination for Polish women who make use of the so-called abortion tourism.

The project was conceived in the context of social crisis, with violent protests exploding in Polish streets in autumn 2020, after the conservative government started to limit women’s access to pregnancy termination, even though Polish regulations in this area had already been one of the most restrictive in Europe. This policy is completely different from the situation in the neighbouring Czech Republic, where abortion law remains liberal.

On their journey, the artists were accompanied by Kinga D. − a doll symbolizing women who leave Poland to execute their right to decide about their own bodies and seek the possibility to have an abortion. Chameleons walking down the streets of Liberec and then Prague, pushing a hospital wheelchair with their “patient” in it, attracted the attention of passers-by. The artistic duo initiated conversations with them, inviting them to have fun together, while at the same time informing about the situation in Poland and gathering voices of support for women fighting for full civil and reproductive rights.

Project outcomes include a film bordering between a documentary, a journey log, and a psychedelic vision, presented at exhibitions together with the fictitious, symbolic protagonist − the figure of Kinga D., who participated in the artistic actions.

Artists: Barbara Gryka, Filip Kijowski

Text: Stach Szabłowski
Translation by Zofia Piętek
Fotograf Festival: No One Belongs Here More Than You, National Gallery Prague (CZ) 2022
Curated by Markéta Mansfieldová (CZ), Elisabeth Pichler (DE) and Tereza Rudolf (CZ)
Pictures by Jan Kolský

Pictures by Ignacy Tokarczuk, Waldemar Tatarczuk

You will never walk alone
Gallery Labirynt, Lublin (PL) 2021
Curated by Waldemar Tatarczuk (PL)
Pictures by Wojciech Pacewa

Installation: 500 x 300 x 500cm h: 80cm