Teresa Tyszkiewicz's exhibition "Stories That Tell Themselves" at Profile Foundation in Warsaw showcases the Polish artist's process-driven practice spanning video, performance, and relief-like paintings made with pins, nails, metal plates, ropes, and fabrics. Curated by Bożena Czubak, the show highlights Tyszkiewicz's use of the body as a medium—often naked and immersed in organic materials—to explore emotions, intuition, and unconscious desires, as seen in works like the 1980 film "Grain." The artist, who began her career in the late 1970s alongside Polish neo-avantgarde filmmakers but rejected their conceptual tendencies, developed a tactile, laborious approach that invites sensory engagement.
This exhibition matters because it brings renewed attention to Tyszkiewicz's underrecognized oeuvre, which resonates strongly with contemporary feminist discourse. Her work visually exemplifies Hélène Cixous's concept of "écriture féminine"—a form of expression rooted in the body and female experience beyond rational, patriarchal structures. By foregrounding the artist's diverse materiality and her conscious use of femininity, the show challenges canonical art histories and offers a timely reexamination of Polish neo-avantgarde through a feminist lens.