Androgynous and Soft: Non-normative Languages of Ania Nowak

Abstract

This article analyses works of Polish choreographer and performer Ania Nowak in perspective of non-normative strategies she develops in her performances. Starting point is the production Offering What We Don’t Have To Those Who Don’t Want It, in which on the one hand she follows Lacan's recognition of the nature of love, but on the other hand she consistently deconstructs it. It is not a coincidence, but a deliberate attack on the heteronormative structures on which psychoanalysis is built. In a broader perspective – an attempt to destabilise the binary categories which are foundation of Western philosophy, as well as the dominant ways of defining identity. I refer as well to other works of Nowak to reinforce the thesis that the artist does not demand greater visibility for sexual minorities, but simply projects lesbian love as another normative. In the other part of the text, I analyse the structure of Nowak’s performances by stressing its formal and minimal character and try to place it on the map of artistic practices of the 21st century.