DEEPER

The deliberate objectification, exploitation, violation and shaming of female bodies have served for a long time – even before the arrival of the internet and possibly as long as patriarchy has existed to intimidate women and girls and to oppress and control them, their sexuality, sexual rights and sexual development. Over generations, women and girls have been experiencing sexual violence and power abuse, which impacts their relationship with their own bodies, sexuality and social life. These continuities – also with the recent development and rapid spreading of easily accessible AI technologies – affect women of different ages, which can be the basis of transgenerational solidarization. How different are the sense of fragility and the sexual alienation among teenage girls today from those of previous generations? What does it take to process and to possibly overcome these effects? 

For her newest theatre project DEEPER (planned for June 2025), Gosia Wdowik explores  the issue of gender-based digital violence and non-consensual deep fake pornography, in conversation with teenagers. While adolescents are probably the most vulnerable group exposed to deep fake technologies today, they are also often the first to find the language and know-how that is needed to resist and subvert harmful new technological trends first. Today, there are many teenage activists campaigning for regulations against this form of abuse so they can protect themselves against this form of digital violence that leaks into their social lives, education and careers. 

Based on conversations with teenage girls about their views on deep fake technologies and sexuality, Gosia Wdowik is developing a theatre performance to open up a space for dialogue between different generations of women, for shared reflection, emotional processing and solidarization. What does it mean for teenagers to grow up in this time and to get to know themselves in a mediatized environment that frames their bodies and sexuality as a threatening risk, connected with feelings of fear, shame, humiliation and loss of control? What relationship do teenage girls have with their image today? How do they approach intimacy? And is there space for female empowerment and pleasure?

 

What does it mean to publicly expose a person’s face with a naked body – even if it may not be her own – or in an involuntary sexual act? How does it feel to meet your doppelgänger in a pornographic scenario – or rather a strange hybrid between yourself and another body? And what about the other woman whose body is made to wear your face? Is she in this of her own free will? What psychological and social effects does such an experience produce? And how do we learn to deal with the unwanted imaginations that these kinds of scenarios evoke?  

With the help of professional actresses, Gosia Wdowik wants to present stories of teenagers on stage. Independent theatre practice allows for women-led experimentation and care when it comes to staging women’s experiences. Here, carrying somebody else’s image or lending one’s voice to someone else’s story may become conscious acts not only of heightened awareness but also of solidarity.  

Theatre is the old illusion machine. It always played with the idea of truth on stage andxperimented with the creation of illusion. Once you see an illusion, you can't stop seeing it. This sensation belongs to our nervous system. Even if we are aware of it, this illusion does not disappear because it is a basic, fundamental truth. The person whose image or voice is used to produce a deep fake becomes the only one that knows that this is not true. 

The artistic research for her new project is driven by questions such as: what can theatre do in this time, in a digital present hyper-mediatization and deep fakes that are going off the rails? What can be rendered visible or palpable in the theatre while the contours of reality are becoming unnoticeable on the screens of our daily lives? What is the agency of the actual body in this? And what new forces can a theatrical encounter unleash for the struggle against the resurgent misogyny and hatred today?