For his exhibition “Slash & Burn II”, Marcin Dudek stitched over 250 used jackets into a jacket able to warm as many bodies. Having traveled from Western Europe as hand-me-downs to the poor nations of the East, these jackets represent a neglected material, throwaways given to a social class who cannot advocate for themselves. Having experienced the effects of belonging to one of these neglected populations, Dudek cannot help but see the parallels in today’s suburban youths, who miss the
opportunities presented to those in the city limits. Removed from the gallery, in Paris this large installation lies draped over a wooden
architectural skeleton, wrapped around projections of a council estate similar to the one he grew up in and those that circle the periphery of Paris. Here, the jacket’s sleeves are on the ground as if the body inside is defeated as Dudek prepares his
performance "The Group".

100 meters away from this object, on the busy Place Beaubourg, Marcin Dudek turns his own black bomber jacket inside out, turning it to a blazing orange. This was the ritual of football fans across Eastern Europe to signify a shift towards chaos in the crowd. Crouching down into a slavic squat, he lights two smoke grenades, which seem to propel him forward. Starting from this low position, the position of an individual, Dudek then stands up with his arms in victory, painting the air vents with orange before striding into the building, filling the room with fumes before emerging on the other side towards the jacket. Spectators follow him from the street, through the room and out to the fenced in courtyard as if entering a stadium. Within minutes the audience is packed body to body as the large jacket begins to breathe smoke and light. As the artist leaves behind the status of an individual to become a member of the group, the shelter of the bodies around him gives a new sense of confidence and anonymity.

A mirage of smoke grenades turns the air orange in a sign of distress. Dudek removes his belt, attaches another grenade to it and begins swinging it around as if warding off the crowd which is tightly wrapped around him. This handmade tool, often used as a weapon in the stadium, becomes a means to create territory. As the grenade encircles the artist, it enforces a personal space, but also creates a visible trace of the violent gesture, the smoke circling out towards the spectators, forcing them back as they watch what appears as an almost shamanistic performance.

For a split second there is calm amongst the group. Then there is an outburst of sporadic action. The artist runs around the building structure in a frenzy, pushing the crowd back and forth, rushing at them with blazing smoke only to have them drawn magnetically back towards him. Calm becomes chaos and confusion. The feeling of safety and spiritually evaporates as Dudek moves the crowd as if it were a singular body and not an audience of individuals. The artist and weaponised grenade fly around, violently marking canvases the size of prefab concrete slabs on both sides of the courtyard. Dudek then grabs the jacket’s monumental sleeves, using them to control the crowd who gets caught up and dragged by their wingspan. As he rushes forward, the people scatter, torn between the desire to witness and take part and the necessity to flee to safer ground. The arms are gathered and handcuffed. Switching roles from aggressor to regulator, Dudek wrestles with the jacket as if mastering control over the crowd of bodies that it represents. As the smoke dissipates, the performance comes to an end, and Dudek turns his jacket back to black, becoming just another member of the crowd as smoky chaos returns to a calm night sky.