13.05.25 – 14.05.25, My Nemesis, masterproef van Manizja Kouhestani i.s.m. Fiene Zasada

MEET THE ARTISTS

Katarzyna Kozyra (1992), a blond and provocative multidisciplinary artist known for her raw and challenging portrayal of marginalized bodies. She believes in giving a voice to the silenced, using her art to amplify those often overlooked. Born in Poland, raised in Amsterdam, and discovering her Jewish roots later in life, she embodies a complex, multifaceted cultural identity that fuels her fearless and electrifying art.

Banasha Suleimankheil (1993), a feminist performance artist in exile. Born in Afghanistan but raised in the Netherlands, she grapples with a profound identity crisis. Her art can be described as self-referential, as it solely exposes her personal experience of female suffering. She confronts the male gaze by presenting her body on her own terms, transforming her vagina into both a weapon and a canvas.

In the major retrospective exhibition “My Nemesis”, Katarzyna Kozyra dives into the relationship with her best friend and life-long enemy Banasha Suleimankheil. She looks back at this turbulent but very meaningful friendship to portray a decade of exchange between two strong-willed women trapped in a female artist’s body. Their lives were a constant competition but also the driving force behind their oeuvre. Who was the most traumatised artist? The most fuckable? The true feminist activist? With a hunger for success bordering on madness they exploited their beauty, sexuality, ethnicity, traumas, and just like Barbara Kruger, turned their bodies into a battleground.

Content warning: verbal violence, sexual violence, bodily abjections and suicide.

Credits

• Van & met: Manizja Kouhestani en Fiene Zasada
• Eindregie: Abigail Gypens
• Scenografie: Emma Onghena
• Muziek: Jan de Tremerie
• Mentoren: Luanda Casella & Frederik Le Roy
• Affiche: Lars Duchateau
• Met dank aan: Martha Balthazar, Bardia Mohammad, Simon de Winne, Jan Steen, Astrid Vansteenkiste , KASK DRAMA, CAMPO Victoria, LaGeste, De Kazematten, kunstencentrum BUDA, Minard, NTGent.