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Leszek Golec (born in 1959 ) and Tatiana Czekalska (born 1966) are an artistic duo and a couple in personal life. They have been working on joint artistic projects since 1996. The life philosophy and world view of both artists shapes the overarching message of their work. The artists consistently draw attention to the violence and injustice in relations between humans and animals, promote veganism, and encourage people to see the agency of animals and other non-human beings. In their artistic projects, they emphasise the creative potential of animals, inviting them to work on the projects. In a series of photographs entitled Wearing Wihte Vege Fur Petformance for Photography from 2009, one of the artists' cats plays a leading role – the characteristic white cat takes part in photo shoots carried out in places, which are normally not dedicated to animals, such as churches (the Bernardine Church in Radom), symbolic Golgothas (the Three Crosses Mountain in Szydłowiec), memorial sites (the Kościuszko Mound in Kraków), and open-air locations such as the Holy Queen Hedwig Gorge in Sandomierz. The appearance of a cat and artists documenting its activity brings to mind the art of performance – an artistic practice, in which an active being – usually human, in this case a cat, becomes the key element of the piece. The concept of the project by Golec and Czekalska involves going beyond stereotypical ways of perceiving animals. The cat not only performs a performance, or a petformance, entering into the realm of artistic creation reserved for humans, all while using the places associated with cult, religiousness and mysticism, from which animals – generally believed to be creatures devoid of spirituality – are usually excluded.

Magdalena Lewoc