Are you lonesome tonight

Video – 2009
HDV, 3.37 min

In Are You Lonesome Tonight, the artist steps into a bustling bar in Kaunas, Lithuania—a place owned by the chief commissioner of police—and bring to life a provocative reinterpretation of Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock (1957). Here, Marcin is questioning: What if Elvis were contemporary? And what if Elvis were a woman?

In a handmade costume that walks the line between a German gymnast’s attire and erotic lingerie, the artist enters the space with a sense of purpose, poised between the daring and the humorous. The performance unfolds as Marcin attempts to engage with the patrons, many of whom are already slightly intoxicated. Some are older men immersed in a game of chess, while others, like a woman who eventually joins the artist on the dance floor, respond more directly—she even begins taking off her clothes. This bar, usually reserved for the routine and the familiar, transforms into a kind of experimental playground.

With each movement and interaction, Marcin attempts to embody a raw, energetic, and uncontained presence. It’s a force that collides with the stillness and reserved atmosphere expected of such a setting. This tension, this clash, creates a charged dynamic where each character must navigate and assert their own way of existing within the moment. In this space, the young and old, the provocative and the traditional, intermingle and subtly wrestle, questioning boundaries, roles, and the freedom to define oneself.