The "28 Days" project was specifically designed for the exhibition inaugurated on 6 March 2009 at 6.00 pm at the Łaźnia Centre for Modern Art in Gdańsk. The exhibition was attended by Ada Braun, Iwona Demko, Katarzyna Korzeniecka, Anka Leśniak, Małgorzata Stankiewicz, Magdalena Samborska, Karolina Stępniowska, Ewa Potocka (efka_s), Anna Tomaszuk, Jowita Żychniewic. Each of the artists was given 28 50cm/50cm squares to
portray their 28 days on.

For women, the month is shorter. We live within a cycle of 28, not 30 days. Menstruation and the related hormonal changes and emotions are often believed to be the very essence of femininity. Not so long ago specific illnesses and psychological states were thought to be characteristic for women only, and caused by feminine physiology. In our culture, the crucial factor considered when evaluating a woman is the ability to procreate, i.e. having a healthy, useful body - a proper cycle.
Femininity defined by menstruation is a kind of paradox. On the one hand, it is something socially positive and acceptable. It proves the social usefulness of women - the ability to bear children. On the other hand, it is a factor which causes emotional instability which results in not taking women seriously.
Menstruation outlines the boundaries of women's utility, results in treating them instrumentally. Why does menstruation or the lack of it influence so much the definition of attractiveness and social utility of women? Are we totally subject to our own hormones and emotions by the fact of "being a woman" alone? Are we able to find ourselves safe in the framework of this cultural stereotype, of the inflexible hormonal and emotional corset? How far away are we from the ideal of a woman, if we do not fit into the biological model? Are women after menopause less womanly? What about people who have changed their sex? Does the cycle alone determine the sexual identity? What about the mind, conscience, culture, and cultural self-control?
The 28 Days Project is an experiment, or a question addressed to women artists to what extent they are operating within the menstrual and emotional framework in their acts of creation. Each of the artists was asked to make an intimate diary, expressing their womanhood in the corset of 28 days of the cycle. Their works provide us with the answer as to how much truth there is in the menstrual theory for perception of women.
The question, asked in the seemingly innocent form of a square of 50x50 cm size, turned out to be far too provocative to some of the initially invited artists. Two refused to participate, giving as the reason the anti-feministic profile of the project. They were shocked by the attempt to close womanhood in the emotionally rigid corset. What kind of picture have we received from the works of the artists who accepted the invitation? A picture of a slave chained in her own emotionality?
The biological filter put on the lives of ten women gave a non self-evident picture full of varieties. Some of the invited artists broke out of the box and showed that with the presently available contraceptives you may freely regulate your cycle and make your own decision on motherhood. Others tried to note their emotions down meticulously. The 28 Days Project, against its initial assumption, showed contemporary woman as a free agent, making her choices dictated by biology, moon phases, intellectual abilities, necessities of life - and also aware of the social clichés and models of life, following them, being able to move swiftly between them, playing with the oppressiveness of popular opinion.
Agnieszka Kulazińska