Choreography: Ramona Nagabczyńska
Performance: Magdalena Kowala, Natalia Murawska, Joanna Woźna, Anna Zglenicka
Music: Qba Janicki
Lighting Design: Jędrzej Jęcikowski
Production: Córy Kultury Association
Producer: Agnieszka Czichy
Production collaboration: Centrum w Ruchu, Burdąg Foundation, Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre, Aste
Graphics: Anna Zglenicka

This performance was made possible thanks to financial support from the City of Gdańsk.

"Hate Haus" is a performance that explores the concept of collective functioning. Both capitalist critique and opposition to old patriarchal models of cultural production based on the absolute power of the artist-guru (particularly strongly promoted by Polish theatrical tradition) have led artistic circles to glorify collective work. Its appeal grows stronger the more the hierarchy, around which—often unjustifiably—many adjacent values ​​have grown up, such as violence, absolutism, and a lack of respect for personal boundaries.

However, both the members of the Hertz Haus ensemble and choreographer Ramona Nagabczyńska (who has collectively led the Centrum w Ruchu organization for thirteen years) conclude, based on their own experiences, that collective work solves certain problems, but other problems arise in their place. Co-creating a collective is always experimental, as we lack the ready-made models available to work based on a hierarchical system. Each collective develops its own system of functioning, which must also be adaptable to the constantly changing conditions, goals, and needs of its members. The work undertaken by a collective is always simultaneously work on a specific project and work towards the collective's self-determination.
What is common to building a collective and working on choreography is its processuality. Both the collective and the choreographic process seem to have a life of their own, taking on their own agency, which members and co-creators must listen to and support.
Ramona Nagabczyńska is interested in bringing to light the individual voice of the Hertz Haus collective. Not just the voices of individual members, but the voice of the creation to which they have given life. A voice that is more, or less, than the sum of individual voices. This will not be a performance about collectives per se, but about the collective that is Hertz Haus. To this end, we will draw on the group's experiences in our choreography, for which we will find choreographic equivalents. We will ask ourselves questions that will help us better understand the nature of the creation that Hertz Haus co-creates. Does each voice truly have equal weight? Can collective terror exist? Where are the limits of compromise? What is the relationship between personal responsibility and collective responsibility? What is the motivation for co-creating a collective? The artists chose the title Hate Haus as a self-referential joke, as the name Hertz Haus (hertz, meaning heart) doesn't always reflect the ambivalence of their feelings.

The performance will be followed by a conversation with the artists.

Klub ŻAK
aleja Grunwaldzka 195/197, 80-266 Gdańsk, Polska