Wesele (Noches / The Wedding), Part II of Pologne-en-Québec
Video by Kinga Michalska and Sarah Chouinard-Poirier
25min, loop, Canada 2025
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Synopsis:
The Pologne-en-Québec theatre committee presents a makeshift adaptation of the Polish grand classic from a neo-romantic repertoire: “Wesele” by Stanisław Wyspiański (1901). The play stages a marriage between a peasant woman and a bourgeois man interrupted by visitors from another world. The author depicts the phenomenon of the peasantry craze: “chłopomania” - an intoxicating obsession with the village culture that he observed among his writer and artist friends. They were engaging in cross-class marriages with hopes to reconnect with “the authentic Polishness” they lost. They also believed that the “real people” from the country were more connected to Spirits and therefore had access to the supernatural powers necessary to carry out a revolution that the intellectuals were craving for but couldn’t conduct themselves.
In this video, the artists wink at themselves and their leftist communities for falling into a similar reverse acculturation phenomenon. The piece spins in circles of strange encounters where the obscure contours of the commune’s political aspirations are also being put to test. Opening the gates to hell, Wesele unleashes a catarctic cry-laughter that drags the viewer through a spiral of mistranslations and clowny cultural mutations under which the necessity of community - despite its flaws - remains critical.
CREDITS
With: Alegria Gobeil, Frédérique Chassé, Johnny Forever Nawracaj, Lari Jalbert, Mai Bach-Ngoc Nguyen, Marcela Szwarc, Mycelium, naveed L. salek nejad
DOP: Kinga Michalska
Camera 2: Baco Lepage-Acosta
Editing: Kinga Michalska
Additional editing: Jadis Dumas, Lucas Villegas, Paul Chotel
Puppets: Marcela Szwarc, Lari Jalbert
Set design: Lari Jalbert
Music: Gambletron
Sound design: Paloma Daris
Sound on set: Camille Gravel
Mix: Emilie Blaise
Colors: Marianne Lévesque
Production assistants: B. Brookbank, AM Trépanier, Frédérique Laliberté
Post-production: Centre Prim
Produced with financial support of: Axeneo7, CALQ, CAC, CAM, Centre Prim
Photo documentation: vert soleil green sun, installation view, AXENEO7, 2025, Photo credit: Kinga Michalska![]()
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Video by Kinga Michalska and Sarah Chouinard-Poirier
25min, loop, Canada 2025
Synopsis:
The Pologne-en-Québec theatre committee presents a makeshift adaptation of the Polish grand classic from a neo-romantic repertoire: “Wesele” by Stanisław Wyspiański (1901). The play stages a marriage between a peasant woman and a bourgeois man interrupted by visitors from another world. The author depicts the phenomenon of the peasantry craze: “chłopomania” - an intoxicating obsession with the village culture that he observed among his writer and artist friends. They were engaging in cross-class marriages with hopes to reconnect with “the authentic Polishness” they lost. They also believed that the “real people” from the country were more connected to Spirits and therefore had access to the supernatural powers necessary to carry out a revolution that the intellectuals were craving for but couldn’t conduct themselves.
In this video, the artists wink at themselves and their leftist communities for falling into a similar reverse acculturation phenomenon. The piece spins in circles of strange encounters where the obscure contours of the commune’s political aspirations are also being put to test. Opening the gates to hell, Wesele unleashes a catarctic cry-laughter that drags the viewer through a spiral of mistranslations and clowny cultural mutations under which the necessity of community - despite its flaws - remains critical.
CREDITS
With: Alegria Gobeil, Frédérique Chassé, Johnny Forever Nawracaj, Lari Jalbert, Mai Bach-Ngoc Nguyen, Marcela Szwarc, Mycelium, naveed L. salek nejad
DOP: Kinga Michalska
Camera 2: Baco Lepage-Acosta
Editing: Kinga Michalska
Additional editing: Jadis Dumas, Lucas Villegas, Paul Chotel
Puppets: Marcela Szwarc, Lari Jalbert
Set design: Lari Jalbert
Music: Gambletron
Sound design: Paloma Daris
Sound on set: Camille Gravel
Mix: Emilie Blaise
Colors: Marianne Lévesque
Production assistants: B. Brookbank, AM Trépanier, Frédérique Laliberté
Post-production: Centre Prim
Produced with financial support of: Axeneo7, CALQ, CAC, CAM, Centre Prim
Photo documentation: vert soleil green sun, installation view, AXENEO7, 2025, Photo credit: Kinga Michalska
