Piotr Piasta Portfolio

May Devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary

During the month of May a daily ritual is conducted by women. The video shows fragment from life of inhabitants of Wieniawa - a commune of small villages situated in central Poland.

The image of people singing under the statue of Mary has always accompanied me. It is very characteristic of the Polish May landscape. I also as a small boy participated in devotions to the Virgin Mary together with my mother and grandma. We carried flowers for Mary, decorated the figurine, we sang. Now, from the perspective of years, I look at it in such a way that the May service is such a moment of respite during the day, mainly for women, when after a hard day's work they have a moment of freedom from the strongly patriarchal environment in which they function. It is women who lead these services. They are priestesses. Is this, however, absolute freedom? In my video work, I would like to refer to this.

Duration: 5'30", 2016, two channel HD video
Credits: directed by Piotr Piasta; filmed by Michal Siczek&Piotr Piasta

Exhibition history of the work includes: “Self Service” moving image exhibition organised by The London Group within Waterloo Festival in London, UK, 2019; Experimental Superstars, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2018; PLAY Semana de Videoarte at the Cultural Center of Northeastern University, Corrientes, Argentina, 2018; The Video Art Film Club at Leyden Gallery, London, UK, 2018; KRATOVO Ethnological Film Festival, Kratovo, Macedonia, 2018; Marseille Underground Film and Music Festival, Marseille, France, 2018; IV Festival of Video nodoCCS, Caracas, Venezuela, 2018; Laterale Film Festival, Cosenza, Italy, 2018; 'Rally of Young Researchers of Culture / New themes of art history' at the Institute of Art History, University of Wroclaw, Poland, 2018; Balkan Can Kino, Video Art International Selection VOL.II, Athens, Greece, 2018; 21. International Film Festival ZOOM - ZBLIZENIA in Jelenia Gora, Poland, 2018.