Monika Dorniak
u-u-u, i have a request for you! | 24.09 - 24.11.2025
from left to right:
“the ease with which [a] may be distorted under the action of [b]”, 2023, Exhibition view, Hošek Contemporary, Berlin. Photo: Mari Vass.
“Pikaia’s Ossature”, 2022, Exhibition view, Künstlerische Tatsachen TRAFO, Jena, Photo: Anna Perepechai. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025.
“Pikaia’s Ossature”, 2022, Exhibition view, Künstlerische Tatsachen, TRAFO, Jena, Photo: Anna Perepechai.
u-u-u, i have a request for you!
Monika Gabriela Dorniak
Curated by Katie Zazenski
Our exhibition is a part of FRINGE Warszawa 2025, and will be open:
25.09 - 12:00 - 20:00 (vernissage 18:00 - 20:00)
26.09 - 12:00 - 18:00
27.09 - 12:00 - 18:00
28.09 - 12:00 - 18:00
“u-u-u, i have a request for you!”, is a solo exhibition by Polish-German artist Monika Gabriela Dorniak @monikadorniak , featuring her ongoing series “The Aesthetics of Knowledge” (since 2019), in which a stone serves as the central element of an ever-evolving sculpture. Inspired by the artist’s agricultural upbringing and field research at former WWII sites near her birthplace, Dorniak’s work explores the lasting impacts of war on forests and their inhabitants, drawing attention to intergenerational memory and interspecies experience.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an artist talk at the Goethe-Institut in Warsaw and at HfK Bremen, as well as a curated selection of books from the Potato Library at Fundacja “Ziemniaki i” @ziemniaki_i to complement the exhibition.
This exhibition will take place within the context of the fourth edition of FRINGE Warszawa @fringe_warszawa and is curated by Katie Zazenski @kathryn.zazenski
Monika Gabriela Dorniak is a German-Polish artist and researcher with an interdisciplinary background in fine arts, choreography, psychology, and design. She often merges media—specifically performance, (textile) sculpture, and multimedia. In her practice-based research, Dorniak explores the structures of the Self through a multifaceted analysis of body, mind, and environment, considering the regressive histor of nature’s domination and social power structures. Her auto-ethnographic research on intergenerational trauma, migration, and belonging is advanced through ongoing collaborations with scientists and communities as part of socially engaged commissions, including Counterpoints Arts in London (2021–2022).
Dorniak has presented her works at international institutions such as Kesselhaus at Kindl Berlin (48 Stunden Neukölln, 2024), Nationalgalerie Vilnius (2023), Drugo Mare in Rijeka (2022), Uferstudios Berlin (2021), Kommunale Galerie Bärenzwinger in Berlin (2019), Tate Exchange at Tate Modern London (2017 & 2018), Arts Catalyst in London (2016), and
Foreign Affairs Festival at Berliner Festspiele (2014). She has also been a guest lecturer at SOAS University of London (2022), Garage Museum in Moscow (2019), Al-Quds Bard College in Palestine (2018), and Chelsea College in London (2017).
Dorniak holds a Master’s Degree in Art and Science (Department of Fine Art) from Central Saint Martins in London (2017). Since 2024, she has been a Ph.D. candidate in the art- and science-based Ph.D. program between HfK Bremen and HDK Valand in Gothenburg.
Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state special-purpose fund.
The project is co-financed by the Capital City of Warsaw and the Old Town Cultural Center.
Dofinansowano ze środków finansowych Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego pochodzących z Funduszu Promocji Kultury - państwowego funduszu celowego.
Projekt współfinansuje m.st. Warszawa i Staromiejski Dom Kultury