Unsolicited Works | 01.09.2017
CURATOR: Katarzyna Sobczak – Wroblewska
PARTICIPANTS: Cristina Ferreira, Zuza Golińska, Ana Barata Martins, Gregor Rozanski
The exhibition presented at Stroboskop is the result of a two-week residency for young Polish and Portuguese artists, which took place in Warsaw from the 16th until the 30th of August, 2017. Unsolicited Works is a thematic residency that proposes a specific topic to its participants. This years’ program focused on the city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, which is a strategic place to challenge the idea of national authenticity and its everyday representations. Four artists were invited to undertake research on the most interesting places in the city and to create new works on this basis.
Curatorial Statement:
A residency is a process in time
Unsolicited Works is a project dedicated to locals and foreigners. The idea about concentrating them in one location was the strategy to enable both to observe the city from each other’s perspectives. While being together in one studio, participants could engage in dialogue and gain knowledge from each individual’s practices. Common space, in this case the studio at Jazdów in Warsaw, served as an important mean to enable exchange of thoughts. From the very structure of the residency, which included mapping the city and later researching on the selected spots, artists could learn about the surroundings, and about others work and research methods. In the exhibition presented at Stroboskop, the participants show the results of two weeks in residence. These constitute a basis for future projects.
Cristina Ferreira’s work is focused on migration and displacement, specially on the distinction between visible and invisible immigration, which is increasing in Warsaw. The audio layer of the work brings the viewer to the market, where sounds link themselves and create cacophony. through the medium of language, Ferreira wishes to share with the visitors, the alienating experience of being a foreigner in Poland. In her work, markets were used as the research’s starting point - a place where foreigners can feel even.
Zuza Golińska has decided to use the main theme in a more metaphorical way. Her statement, presented in Stroboskop, can be understood in different ways. On one hand, the promise of the future or a joke. On the other hand, the beginning of a new project, which will start from the artwork and lead to a new one. Golińska’s work relates to the so called ‘artists novels’, which invite visual artists to work with the language of literature. e idea is that the stories included in the future novel will relate to specific and personal locations in Warsaw. Wouldn’t we all want to write a book?
The project by Ana Barata Martins explores the imagery of bricks, questioning it as a symbol of national heritage. Starting from the Old Town of Warsaw, Martins developed her research on representations of bricks in art and contemporary culture. Following the process, her work concluded in a series of instructions, inspired by Youtube videos, where people destroy monuments and heritage objects. At the exhibition, we see a collage of images gathered during the residency time, accompanied by video and text: how to destroy a pre-war brick.
Gregor Różański as initial location for his research chose Warsaw’s industrial part, Wrzeciono. Located on the left side of Vistula river, the area is strongly connected with the development of communistic ideas during the 20th century and its steelworks industry. While working with the history of the place, Różański decided to use a poem, written by one of the steelworkers and engrave it on a steel hip-flask. The object presented in Stroboskop may be seen as a kitschy souvenir of Wrzeciono but refers to deeper social problems of the neighborhood.
Kasia Sobczak - Wróblewska
(PL)
Wystawa prezentowana w Stroboskopie to efekt dwutygodniowej rezydencji artystycznej, która odbywa się w Warszawie od 16 do 30 sierpnia 2017 i dedykowana jest młodym, polskim i portugalskim artystom. Unsolicited Works to rezydencja tematyczna, która proponuje określony temat swoim uczestnikom. Tegoroczny program skupił się na mieście Warszawa, stolicy będącej strategicznym miejscem do kwestionowania idei autentyczności narodowej i jej codziennych reprezentacji. Czwórka artystów została zaproszona do podjęcia badań o najbardziej interesujących dla nich miejscach miasta i stworzenia na tej podstawie nowych prac.