UNSPOKEN LETTER
SESSION 1.
Encountering Paulina Masevnina and Adam Michálek’s Unspoken letter, viewers may be surprised to see out in the open what normally takes place in privacy: a man and woman lit by red lights, revealing submission and dominance.Dressed in harnesses and fishnets, they remain mostly still. With slow movements, they change various positions: this is simply amorous exhibitionism, a loosely choreographed presentation by performers, who create tension between themselves, and mirror this tension to the audience and photographers, who become a part of the performance just by voyeuristically gazing and recording.
Masevnina and Michálek titled Unspoken letter as tribute to Gaspar Noé and his work with choreography, light, atmosphere and an almost druggy experience (Into the Void 2009, Climax 2018). They model the choreography and stage design into a space satisfying their needs of intimacy, detail, and passion. The piece, ever transforming, reveals parts of the artist‘s ex-lovers, current affairs, future marriages (Love, 2015). Through only nonverbal communication the artists leave space for the audience to interpret the piece based on their own experience and the presence they co-create.
SESSION 2.
SESSION 3.
Since 2017, Masevnina and Michálek portray intimacy and physicality, stemming from their expressive voice, brave to open up about unconditional love, burning passion, romantic relationships past, sexual and verbal abuse, rape or domestic violence—all in an uncensored stream of emotion and visuality. Their approach is informed by their training in photography and performance art, reflecting their inner battles with the body and its aesthetics, and an unspoken tabboo of the difference between pornography and erotic art. Through their loud expression, they aim to incorporate the viewer in the artpiece, make him feel the same intensity and raw passion they feel, and by creating their own visual language, transfer their sexual and emotional experience to the works. Unspoken letter no.3 takes us to an iteration of communication, the core concept remains, but the circumstances of current events bring Masevnina and Michálek a feeling of unbelonging, lost connections to body, a loss of sexuality, and present a situation, where the body rejects sensuality and becomes a manifesto in space, rather than an object of desire. This is a new path, guided through expressive painting and vocalized miscommunication into the post erotic era.
VISUAL MANIFESTO
