Zuzanna Dyrda
I'm Just a Pawn...

“The reproducible power of printmaking is at the center of my research explorations, although I use this medium in an unconventional way.” ZUZANNA DYRDA

Zuzanna Dyrda is an artist, researcher with a PhD in Printmaking and professor at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, Poland.

Between the months of October and November 2021, Zuzanna will produce her project I’m Just a Pawn…, which combines printmaking techniques with performance and its documentation in photography and video. Her project involves working in our workshop to create a large-scale woodcut and linocut chessboard, which will eventually be used as the space for a series of performances.

ABOUT THE PROJECT (by Zuzanna Dyrda)

Within the project I’m Just a Pawn…, I want to continue my research focused on the combination of engraving and performance.

This piece refers directly to the game of chess as a metaphor for life. The definition of a pawn is: a chess piece of the smallest size and value. A pawn moves one square forward along its row if there are no obstacles (or two on the first move), or one square diagonally forward when it eats another piece. Each player starts with eight pawns on the second row and can promote a pawn to become any other piece (usually a queen) if it reaches the end of the opponent’s board.

I want to create a large scale relief matrix in the shape of a checkerboard, this area will then be inked and used as a space for a series of performances in which I will perform various exercises/movements/dances. The use of space will ultimately result in the appearance of ephemeral prints on my skin. The entire process of the performative part will be documented in video and photography and the motherboard will be printed in a conventional way on fabric or paper. The project also explores the idea of ​​”body memory” or so-called muscle memory.