Filipka Rutkowska (she/he/they) is a performance artist and art historian. As a gender-liminal artist, she transforms bodies, costumes, and objects into ephemeral personas that challenge conventional notions of identity. Through her performances, she navigates taboos surrounding sexuality and social class, creating a striking theater of absurd infused with queer baroque and abstract humor. Her performances often feature installations that incorporate works on paper, fabric, and non-art objects derived from private rituals, transforming them into repositories of queer knowledge. These works also explore various techniques for overcoming societal barriers and turning challenges into affirmations of life.
Her works have been presented by institutions such as Berlin Art Week, Gothenburg Biennale, Ongoing Art Center in Tokyo, Foksal Gallery Foundation, and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. As a curator, she is developing an ongoing project called Casa Filipka, inspired by the historic Casa Susanna, which has already been presented in Mexico City and Lisbon. As an actress, she has appeared in films by Małgorzata Szumowska, Łukasz Ronduda, and Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, including collaborations with the Miu Miu Women’s Tales Series and CANAL+. In 2023, major film festivals in Poland—New Horizons in Wrocław and Millennium Docs Against Gravity in Warsaw—presented a documentary about her life, directed by Dawid Nickel, which is now part of the video collection at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Since May 2023, she has been writing a column titled "Filipka and the Big City" for Vogue Poland, offering insights into the world from a queer perspective.