performative action in collaboration with Diana Lelonek
duration of letter of motivation - 07:28 min

"When the Municipal Gallery Arsenał in Poznań (Poland) solicited application for a new deputy director, Anna Jochymek and Diana Lelonek applied as a duo to share the position. The created video was offered as supporting material to explain their motivation for applying for the directorship. Adopting the form of a provocative proposal for reform and posted online, it hurls frank words one after the other at the viewer.

Its title, Dyrektoressy, is a word coined by Jochymek and Lelonek. In Polish, a male director would be a dyrektor. A female directors would be dyrektorki. These artists felt this usage was too old school, and after discussion, settled on adding "ss, producing the form that suggests 'princess', for a charming, youthful alternative title.

The new generation of artists who have grown up in Poland since democratization keep their distance from both academic authority and art world debates affected by global marketing strategies. As they see it, there will soon be nothing special about art museums, the academy or criticism. The only channels left for presenting their works are public."

Okamura, Keiko. "Dyrektoressy" in Her Own Way. Female Artists and the Moving Image in Art in Poland: From 1970s to the Present. Translated by Ruth S. McCreery. Tokyo: Photographic Art Museum, 2019.

Dyrektoressy, photo ID, 2019