kiss to tell

performance
2026

concept and performance: Daniel Kotowski
Polish Sign Language interpretation within the performance: Weronika Szymańska-Gątarek
choreographic consultation: Alicja Czyczel
costume: Paweł Włodarski
production: Maria Kilińska

This work reflects on the kiss as a gesture capable of telling a story. Can a kiss speak? Can it be both narrative and movement of the mouth, both word and lips? Can a kiss function as a message carrying history, tension, hierarchy, consent and violence?
A kiss is a suspended moment between absorption and release, between enchantment and threat. It is an act through which one may experience both intimacy and annihilation. Within this apparently simple gesture, mechanisms of power, desire and domination are revealed, alongside tenderness and coexistence.
“kiss to tell” focuses on the relationship between corporeality and storytelling, tracing the ways in which the body becomes a narrator. It approaches the kiss not as a romantic symbol, but as a space in which opposites converge: brutality and gentleness, wonder and violence, silence and narration.
Here, the kiss ceases to be merely a gesture of love and begins to tell.

Project realised as part of the Nowe Epifanie festival.

photo credit: Marek Zimakowski