Gra słów i spojrzeń: „PokaZ”

The article presents a poetological analysis of PokaZ (ShoW), a performance directed by Justyna Wielgus that refers to the practices of freak show. Piniewska discusses the compositional strategies used in PokaZ to subversively crip the oppressive form of a freak show. Adopting the perspective of critical disability studies, she reflects on the popular cultural images of disability (a victim, a hero, an eternal child, and a medical specimen) and discourses thereof (the discourse of pity and the medical discourse) addressed in the performance. Her analysis centres on the ways of talking about and looking at disability that shape artistic communication with an audience.