On the first day of spring in Eastern Europe, a celebration takes place to bid farewell to the cold of winter and to welcome the first, tentative steps of spring. Hailing from the pre-Christian era, communities gathered in villages to create a feminine figure representing Morana. Morana (Marzanna) is a slavic, pagan goddess representing rebirth, dreams and the afterlife. During the ritualistic drowning of this deity, a straw effigy is created in her image and adorned with handicraft materials: a simple hat, empty eggshells, beads and pearls strung around her neck.

In Alicja Wysocka’s installation Lamentations, she draws inspiration from pagan, slavic rituals accompanying the drowning of the effigy of Morana. This ritual is still performed nowadays in some parts of Poland, and Czech Republic. The title of the video Lamentations refers to expressions of grief. Laments constitute some of the oldest forms of writing and examples exist across human cultures. This celebration of spring and lament of winter, also brings to the fore the trauma and violence of drowning slavic religious representations and slavic people who resisted forced christianisation. The ritualistic drowning of Morana emerged most likely after the christianisation of Poland. The drowning ritual may appear then as a kind of slavic trauma reenactment.

The installation comprises the video work, as well as a new series of ceramics by Alicja Wysocka. This new series of objects are reminiscent of votive shapes, such as fish, crosses and sinuous cups. Glazed by hand, Wysocka’s ceramics speak to the various expressions of handicraft which accompany pagan, slavic rituals. The video shows constellations of women bathing together in a bathtub performing acts of devotional and religious cleansing. Surrounded by a mise-en-scène of ornate ceramics and props, the protagonists engage in mutual acts of care which may be read as sexual, humorous, religious or friendly. Moments of joy are interspersed with imagery that may be read as more ominous; a cross of mud drawn across a spine, a face disappearing under the surface of the water.

The film reflects on slavic water spirits, water symbolism, and meanings across different religions and rituals. By healing the trauma of Morana, Wysocka is attempting to heal her personal post-christian trauma of being baptised as a newborn, in creating this peculiar cleaning ritual and handmade utensils, as a form of art therapy. In the exhibition space there is also a water dispenser with mineral water from Stuttgart, from which visitors may try the healing properties of water for themselves.