A retrospective of 10 first years of the Artist's career, Body Memory grouped together three photographic and film projects and a rare performance. I Hate My Body When You're Gone is a document of rituals performed to expel someone else's soul from one's body in the form of 3 photographic works and 5 short, looped films. Is a Whole More Than a Sum of Parts is a pondering on the impact of other people's opinions on one's self. That You Have Someone is intensely erotic imagery combined with texts on Love in times of War. The performance, Annoying Flower, focused on both internalizing and letting go others' opinions on one's self.
The exhibition was a huge critical success: "a perfect example of contemporary, self-aware female art" (Ewa Toniak, PhD), "A taboo-breaking exhibition. Pain, loneliness and difficult relationships." (J.W.), "Who is the victim here - the weak woman or the strong man? Is the perpetrator really privileged?" (MP)
"a getting rid of the violence and coming back to life" (Summerhall TV, Edinborough, UK)
"Janich uses herself to talk about female emotions. Human emotions. She is not afraid. (...) Her bruises and blood are real. It took her 7 months to extract bits of shattered mirror from the palm of her hand. (...) Janich compares concentration camp violence to relationship violence in an uneasy way. Yet we want to look and listen." (o.pl Editor)
"Presented in the clinical white walls of the gallery, Janich's bodily wound depictions are painfully vivid. It is difficult to ponder on the unquestionable visual pleasure of looking at works since they, at the same time, make one's stomach hurt." (o.pl); "The performance spoke volumes on self-presentation, accepting one's body and was, to some degree, an intimate portrait of an extrovert seeking for acceptance." (Karolina Sierka)
"The visitor can thus expect sexuality, sadomasochism and violence all inclusive, with detours to pain, perverse pleasure and brutal self-hurt. Not to make it all too easy, Janich offers visitors an added bonus of spiritual and physical love and historical memory with references to WW2. Ones who expected a scandal may feel disappointed just as those who expected easy eroticism."
"We do not know if the experiences the artist provokes for herself do indeed bring her pleasure. She seems like a trapped animal, hypnotized by the headlights. Janich screams of pain and torment in longing for the lost Other half, whose absence makes her body worthy only of decay. The artist tries to make the spectator react: scream, take the knife out of her hand or simply to hug her, which would end the cruel process of self-decay." (Zuzanna Sokolowska, PhD)
"Both Abramovic and Janich show nothing but the truth. A truth both powerful and revolting." (o.pl)
"Identity is compromised and pleasure is seen as an ultimate form of bondage." (Lyle Rexer, PhD, Aperture art critic, New York, NY)
http://news.o.pl/2012/09/08/agnes-janich-body-memory-mcsw-elektrownia-radom/
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http://artelektr.nazwa.pl/index_oldsite.php?(12.10-11.11.2012)-body-memory-agnes-janich,281