Sub rosa is a project investigating feminine roles in society across generations. It is a confession of a young polish woman of assumed roles she carries and limiting laws imposed by her government. Last year Polish minister of education suggested that girls should be taught ‘feminine virtues’ at school. She will use embroidery as a tool to express her feelings.

By a personal journey into regional traditions of polish embroidery, she is looking after traces of labour of her great-grandmother. In her times, it was a tradition that a young woman would prepare her dowry before getting married. It was composed of embroidered fabrics that would later decorate her new house. Embroidery and femininity are strictly connected. For many years it was the only ‘work’ women were allowed to do. Especially in the posture of an embroiderer one can see the qualities imposed on women: head down, eyes fixed on the needlework, silence, obey the pattern. The labour of decorating. The labour that is supposed to buy her love of her husband. Even today, organising a domestic space, caring for it, is left to women. They are creating a set design of one’s everyday life. They are creating the background of one’s very first memories.

By recreating and displaying a composition of her great-grandmother’s house, recorded by the memory of her mother, she is celebrating the labour of women’s minds and hands. But also, she is using this space to examine current tendencies towards feminine roles in the polish society.

Everything that is a record of memory is recreated by a machine. The frame of roses creates a space for confession. The term ‘sub rosa’ comes from Roman times and indicates secrecy, later assumed by the Christian church, where roses were carved on confessionals. The young polish woman will perform the virtues suggested by her government. She will spend one working day on embroidery, confessing her thoughts and feelings. On the monitor we can see her working silently, next to her, words spoken by men of the government.