Aniela Piasecka’s practice spans performance for galleries, film, digital technologies, unconventional spaces and theatres; it also includes community practice, facilitation, and teaching. Central to this practice is a desire for collaboration and for working with others beyond the model of the solo artist, as a means to resist atomisation, as a means to generate ideas, and as a means to create connections.

They view their practice as inherently relational and invested in the notion of a ‘dérive’, an ambulatory or moving state of experiencing disorientation which enables new meaning to be produced. She is particularly interested in phenomenology, theories of subjective experience, in relation to liveness – to excavate sites of sensitivity in the bodies of performers and audience alike. 

As an artist, Aniela is invested in the act of reconsidering both making and presenting performance. Whether by questioning the singular notion of the artist/choreographer, by working in the space ‘between’ genres and practices, or with bodies that exhibit a flagrant tendency towards what might be perceived as ‘deviance’ or ‘dysfunction’. Finding movement as a response to inquiries can allow works to ask questions rather than present an argument – finding sincerity whilst accepting artifice.

Over the last five years research has been developing around: the somatic experiencing and choreography of pain, the role of risk in performance and biopsychosocial research into the ‘functions’ of the body.

They are the lead artist of collaborative project STASIS, founded in 2014 with Isabel Palmstierna, Paloma Proudfoot and Wet Mess. The group’s most recent performance was presented at Glasgow International 2023 at SWG3 and the same year they were nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Award.

They also frequently work in other collaborative constellations, notably with sculptor Paloma Proudfoot (as Proudfoot & Piasecka), and have been a contributing performer to Myriam Lefkowitz’s ‘Walk, Hands, Eyes’, jointly acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland and the collections of Edinburgh University. From 2024 she will support this performance further in the capacity of ‘Practice Holder’.   

Past works have been presented with Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; CAPC Museum of Modern Art, Bordeaux, France; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; CCA, Glasgow, UK; Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art and Dansehallerne, Copenhagen, Denmark; Cubitt Gallery, London, UK; Soy Capitan Gallery, Berlin, Germany.

Recent residencies and exchanges include Centre de Création CCOV Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal x Take Me Somewhere Festival; Beweggrund in Bern, Switzerland; Dance Ireland; Tramway, and Hospitalfield, Scotland. They have received research support from LoveDanceScotland, UNLIMITED, Scottish Contemporary Arts Network, Lisa Ullman Travelling Scholarship Fund as well as funding from Creative Scotland.