Amplification Of Fluctuations (2021)

Fragility and coherence, construction and deconstruction, boundaries and porosity – these apparent antagonisms are being analysed in Monika Dorniak’s The Amplification Of Fluctuations together with five dancers. In Dorniak’s newly choreographed collective work, the interdisciplinary artist continues to search for solidarity in a pluralised society which is hyper-connected and, at the same time, increasingly separated. The dancers are intuitively de/-constructing the foundations of the human community throughout the performance and depict the anatomy of the ‘singular’ self which is formed by a variety of non-/ human agents.

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Dance performance
Wearable sculptures
Outreach

Uprootedness & Hybridity (2021)

The interdisciplinary seminar series Uprootedness & Hybridity depicts intergenerational trauma through art, poetry, theatre, art history and medical anthropology. The short presentations encompass contributions from specialists with different backgrounds that aim to deliver a multilayered perspective on the complex subject.  

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Seminar series
Lecture performance
Outreach 

Bygone Remnants (2021)

Which imprint do inherited memories have on the development of our identity? And how can we decode memories from our ancestors? The project Bygone Remnants – that are yet to remind us of their presence interweaves auto-biographical experiences with research in science, to extract and liquidify memories that are stored in the bodies cells.

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The Aesthetics Of Knowledge (2019-ongoing)

The Aesthetics Of Knowledge (2019-2020) is a crystal series, grown from ethanol, pigments and body-fluids, such as blood and salvia. The material connection, between non-human elements and essential substances of the body, builds a clinamenic and non-hierarchic network, symbolising the dependancy of human being to the environment. Simultaneously the sculptures uncontrolled growth functions as a metaphor for a self that is in continuous development.

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The Act Of Doing Makes It (Feel Like) Becoming (2019)

The project 'The Act Of Doing Makes It (Feel Like) Becoming' consists of a short film, and a wearable sculpture collection that is enacted within a lecture performance.
The work reflects on the ambiguous paradox of the individual, being both singular and plural. The individual person is not merely a singular body, but formed by a network of social components, in which components are regulated by various factors such as organic swarm behaviour and moral forms of control.

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Lecture performance
Wearable sculptures
Video series

States Of Mind  (2015-2018)

The works of the banner series States Of Mind draw a phenomenological map, and guide a journey through the states of being human in a body that positions itself between natural and artificial charts of the world. Main inspiration for the work is the evolution of a human who has once been a water creature before evolving into the body that we inhabit now. Which traces of being a water creature have remained in our human body? The three banners are being installed next to one another, together they take ca. 6 x 2,2 meter. States Of Mind (2015-2017) is a series of textile banners that were created in London as part of the artists research on biological and sociological developments of the evolutionary history of homo sapiens. Reptile Hand (2016) depicts the paradox of a modern human being who is situated both inside and outside of nature.

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Textile banners

Metacognitive Tool (2016 - ongoing)

The multimedia project Metacognitive Tool combines a wearable sculpture installation, research, solo-performance. It explores the subjects of reclaiming agency, experience of disembodiment and the anthropocentric paradox of humanity's position within nature, and outside of it.     

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Dance performance
Wearable sculptures
Video art

Alienated Self (Entfremdetes Selbst Nr. 1 - 12)  (2016)

This photo series analyses the psychosomatic conditions of a disembodied subject in the era of the Anthropocene. The twelve poses explore the disembodied states and disturbed connections between mind and body. 

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Emological Symphony(2013)

The performative installation Emological Symphony is joining human and technological organs. The hybrid outcome is a bio-musical score, that is coming to life on stage. The performers heart rate, breathing scale, and temperature are being measured through sensors; the data is the parameter for the sound track. The performer is influencing the music, and being influenced by it - an interplay between actor and reactor. The work regards topics such as (over-) usage of technology, politics of privacy in the internet, and the changes of culture in the post-digital.

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Lecture performance
Wearable sculptures

The Human Anatomy Is Adorning Itself (2009-2011)

The series is consisting of a multi-media installation that follows a neuro-philosophical approach. The wearable sculptures, video performance, dia-projection of the inner landscape of a human lung and photographical essay of self portraits, reflect the human anatomy as a universal messenger of a singular multitude. The objects are designed with colors and textures representing the various layers of the 'dermis' as a metaphor for the multitude of 'Selfs' a person embodies. How can we define a singular Self when we take the internal paradoxes into account? Working with a range of media and objects the artist creates a phenomenological and anatomical map sketching the ever-changing construct of consciousness.

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