Since 1997, Alicja Żebrowska and Jacek Lichoń have been involved in their version of Actionism called Inflitracja / Infiltration, implemented within the framework of the Infiltron project. In 2013, the artist founded the Alicja Żebrowska Film Foundation, which supports and broadens her multimedia activities. She lives and works in Kraków.
In 1978-81 Żebrowska studied at the Institute of Artistic Education at the Marie Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, obtaining a diploma in sculpture in 1981. She complemented her education at the Department of Sculpture of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (1990-92). In the years 1993-95 she was associated with the Zderzak Gallery in Kraków. Between 1996 and 2006 Żebrowska belonged to the Art Fort Association. She works with the Nova Gallery in Kraków, lokal_30 in Warsaw, and Siłownia in Poznań.
Alicja Żebrowska’s early works were anthropomorphic sculptures, such as Światowid / Zbruch Idol (1992) created between 1989 and 1992, as well as art objects and installations made of sandstone and neon (the cycle Obiekty / Objects, the installation Zjawisko Fizyczne / Physical Phenomenon, 1992/1990). She has also worked on projects related to land art (for example Zidentyfikowany obiekt plastyczny / Identified Object of Art, 1992-93 – an installation realised in the Strążyska Valley in the Tatra Mountains, a bright red tube connecting two ledges of rock) or combining land art and body art (Trans-Fero , 1992).
During the artistic experiment Kamienienie - obiekt w czaso-przestrzeni / Stonising – Object in Time-Space in the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko in 1993, the artist lay naked in an archaic stone sarcophagus, which was heated to the temperature of the human body. She was freed when the temperature of the stone dropped below 36 degrees Celsius.
Żebrowska defined this as:
a dialogue between the magical, religious, and scientific consciousness, achieved by bringing the living matter (the body) and the inanimate matter (stone) to the same energy level. The idea was to experience eschatological states through physical sensations in specially arranged conditions.
In the early 90s Żebrowska also began to create video installations, in which she combined visual elements, sounds and smells in an attempt to recreate the mood and feelings associated with different actions – bathing in the sea (Ach, jak przyjemnie / Oh, How Nice, 1993) or in the bath while listening to the radio (Lola – utwór słuchowo-wzrokowo-zapachowy / Lola – an Audio-Visual-Fragrant Track, 1993). The artist spoke about a ‘reconstruction of a particular mental state’.
Around 1993 Żebrowska’s activities became more radical, as she began to use a more controversial language of expression. She was quickly labelled a scandalist. This was also linked to the specific theme of her work – the issue of sexuality, androgyny, taboo body parts and forbidden sexuality, both repulsive and fascinating. Żebrowska paid particular attention to the issues of constructing one’s own identity, transsexuality in a mythical-symbolic sense, as well as in reality.
The motif of linking the birth of evil and female sexuality in culture appeared in the video installation Grzech Pierworodny - Domniemany Projekt Rzeczywistości Wirtualne / Original Sin – a Hypothetical Virtual Reality Project (1993). Żebrowska not only deconstructed the biblical story, but also blurred the boundaries between art and pornography.
The use of the myth of the original sin is an expression of my cultural ties, and not a questioning of Christianity. I wanted to illustrate how societies must always operate within a virtual reality, which all political, social, religious or even scientific ideologies are.
– explains the artist.
The installation Original Sin… is usually displayed in a circular or hexagonal room, in the centre of which there is a translucent, cylindrical structure made of foil. It is filled with the synthetic fragrance of green apple and green light. The loudspeaker on top emits sound from the video. The film itself is shown on the outside of the cylinder on a monitor hanging on the wall, together with the cycle of four photographs called Narodziny Barbie / The Birth of Barbie. Each photo is divided by shelves with green apples and quotes on pieces of paper attached to them. The quotes come from books that influenced the artist. Original texts by Żebrowska, such as mottoes and maxims, are projected onto the walls, the ceiling and the outer surface of the cylinder. The video presents different actions of the intimate parts of a female body: the vagina and the rectum; from children playing with a button, through masturbation and mud treatments to the naturalistic ‘birth’ of a Barbie doll. In its first version, presented only once, at the premiere of the work in the Zderzak Gallery in Kraków in 1993, the film consisted of scenes showing the eating of an apple and vaginal penetration by an artificial penis.
The cycle entitled Załatwianie / Relieve Oneself (Z matką / With My Mother; Z aniołami / With Angels; Z demonem / With a Demon) was created in 1995 by imposing images of the artist defecating on family photographs. The taboo problem associated with sexuality was explored in the film Czy możesz to wziąć do ręki / Can You Take It In Your Hands (1997). The artist recorded it in the street by approaching passers-by, asking them to hold accessories from sex-shops and watching their reactions.
Two of Żebrowska’s works from 1994 discuss the problem of the rejected, the Other, and especially the issue of revealing his or her differences and weaknesses. The first was presented at the Fort Art Festival Picnic for the Homeless.
In the series of photos and videos entitled Przypadki humanitarne / Humanitarian Cases a disabled person was compared with a beautiful, naked woman.
The cycles Onone – Świat Po Świecie / Onone – a World After the World (1995-1999) and Kiedy Inny Staje Się Swoim / When The Other Becomes One's Own (1998-2002) touch on the issue of sexual indifference. The lightboxes, the video and the sound installation (a recording of a regression session), which make up the Onone cycle, refer to the mythical figures of Androgyny and Hermaphrodite. They represent bisexual, fantastic creatures in their next reincarnations (for example Autoholos, Affirmatio, Continuo, Synchron). In the words of Paweł Leszkowicz:
This is a new Paradise, in which the original sin, expulsion and separation never happened and they do not have a reason to exist. A Paradise created by the imagination of an optimistic and controversial visionary who tries to transform the fear of an approaching apocalypse into a promise of eternal happiness.
The protagonist of a series of lightboxes, photographs and video films entitled Kiedy Inny Staje Się Swoim / When The Other Becomes One's Own is the transsexual Sara who was born with a male body, but feels like a woman. Żebrowska takes up the problem of the lack of social acceptance for transsexuals and the building of their identity on the basis of their bodies.
In the film Regresja / Regression (1997-2002), the artist used hypnosis as a tool to make art. It is a summarised record of a few hours of hypnosis and creates a narrative using changing images. It starts with a shot of the interior of a lift symbolising the departure of the physical body and the beginning of a journey to the inner self.