Foto Pracownia Wschodnia has the pleasure of inviting you to a photography exhibition by Iwona Suszycka entitled Histerium [Hysteria].

From the author:

The presented material under the joint name Histerium, is the result of many years of reflection on the position and role of women in modern society. It was born out of the need to explore and understand the impact of personality predispositions and external factors on the functioning of today's woman.

The name of the project was borrowed from a widely known psychosomatic indisposition, commonly known as "Hysteria". The reference to this ill-fated, mist-shrouded phenomenon and humorous definitions of the disease seems to quite accurately reflect the relationship of women with the present world.

In modern medicine, hysteria is classified as a neurotic and dissociative disorder, characterised among other things by heightened emotionality, aberration, or personality change. It is increasingly called dissociation or conversion. From the dawn of time, hysteria was considered a troublesome female ailment, referred to as the "wandering womb, madness of the womb", which was undeniably and unequivocally supposed to prevent the sufferer from normal functioning. The negatively charged expression "you hysteric" remains an unchanging insult in our society.

The presented material opens to discussion these negative connotations of the variability of the female psyche. The author puts forward the hypothesis that it is precisely this psychodynamics that enables women to face the challenges of the modern world.

The sensitivity of female nature often collaborates ideally with the expectations placed on the modern woman, which is combining the roles of mothers, wives, keepers of the home hearth and pawns on the chessboards of the modern job market. The latter, in particular, feeds very easily on the predispositions of a hysterical disposition, where the "theatricality" of hysteria described by Hippocrates enables women to assume roles and positions previously reserved for the opposite sex.

Hysterical episodes are often accompanied by an outburst of unlimited physical strength, somewhat reminiscent of a state of hypermania. Combined with the currently polished knowledge of the rules of social savoir-vivre and the complex nature and mindfulness built into femininity, it can become a powerful tool in the hands of a woman.

So dear ladies. Perhaps hysteria actually….. serves us ??

Iwona Suszycka

A photographer focusing her artistic activity mainly around psychological portraiture, she often uses performative practices for narration. She usually works alone with herself. In her works, she frequently addresses topics in the field of human psychology and social issues. The medium of photography and working with images are her paintbrush, and she paints – emotions.

Her distinctive style is often called Freudian photography.

Fascinated by experimental techniques and alternative photography from her earliest years. Blurring, movement and broadly understood "aesthetics of error" are her visual language, in which she undeniably feels best.

MSc. Eng. in Computer Science by education. She works daily as an IT specialist. Graduate in Computer Science at George Washington University in the USA, and the Higher School of Information Technology and Management under the Auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences – WIT.

Graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Photography, and currently a 2nd-year student of SF ZPAF at the Association of Polish Art Photographers in Warsaw.

Her works have repeatedly won recognition in international and local photography competitions, and have also been presented in Nice, Chicago, Tokyo, as well as at the FAF 2021 photography festival in Bielsko-Biała, and as part of the Review of Old and Alternative Photography "Fotoperyferie 2022", organised by the Bureau of Art Exhibitions in Kielce.