Anka Lesniak | Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk (original) (raw)

Papers by Anka Lesniak

Art and Documentation / Sztuka i Dokumentacja, 2022

The exhibition "Lost Element / Re-construction of the Witch" at the VBKOE was the next chapter of... more The exhibition "Lost Element / Re-construction of the Witch" at the VBKOE was the next chapter of a collective artistic investigation of TFR Archive on the life and damaged or lost artworks by Teresa Feodorowna Ries (1866-1956), an Austrian artist of Jewish origin. The main topic of the exhibition was her damaged sculpture "The Witch" (1895), representing a vigorous young woman while preparing for the Witches’ Sabbath and cutting her toenails with big shears. Ries's sculpture was an extraordinary example of an artwork challenging the old patriarchal order and symbolizing feminine power. The figure seems full of vigour and eroticism and simultaneously a rebel who challenges the clichés of representations of women in art and goes beyond stereotypes. It was vandalized several times and the hand with scissors was also lost.

The exhibition Lost Element/ Re-construction of the Witch asked the question of how we can work with loss, which here is represented by the lost hand of “The Witch.” “The Witch” deprived of the hand with shears refers to the woman deprived of her agency. The sculpture also represents the fate of the artist herself, who was persecuted by the Nazis because of her Jewish origin and had to flee to Switzerland, leaving all her life and artworks behind.

The exhibition in the Association of Austrian Women Artists gallery was also an excellent opportunity to reinterpret and give a new spirit to the works of Teresa F. Ries as an artist of multi-ethnic roots, by contemporary women artists of different origins, who were connected through her story. It's also a tribute to the female artist, who was brave enough to live the life she wanted, even though she had to face constant prejudices towards her gender and origin. She was one of the women who paved the path for the next generations of women artists.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja, 2020

My research method connects my theoretical background on art history studies and my practical exp... more My research method connects my theoretical background on art history studies and my practical experience as a female artist in Polish social, political and artistic realities. I focus on the position of women artists and their artistic activity in the contexts of the changing political situation. I intend to introduce Polish women artists who were active on the art scene from the seventies until today in the field of performance art and to answer the question what the women artists of my generation have in common with their 'artistic grandmothers.' The aim of this article is also to familiarize foreign readers with the specific status of women in the process of the changing of the political situation in Poland that took place before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. I begin from recollection of my video-installation Fading Traces. Women in Polish Art of the Seventies (2010). In my project I have interviewed seven women artists dealing with feminist topics. For all of them, the period of the 1970s was an early stage of their careers. It was also the decade when I was born, and this personal link that created a sort of time loop was significant for me. As it turned out, most of them created performance art pieces, so their testimonies are important for the topic of this article. In my project, the following female artists took part: Natalia LL, Ewa PARTUM, Anna KUTERA, Izabella GUSTOWSKA, Krystyna PIOTROWSKA, Teresa MURAK and Teresa TYSZKIEWICZ. In the period of the new democracy, especially during last two decades, performance art pieces by Polish women artists became more rebellious. Since 2016, the course of Polish politics has become more populistic, conservative and democracy is in danger again, and this also badly affects women’s rights and their position in the society. But at the same time, thanks to democracy and the financial support of the European Union, the grass-root women’s initiatives have appeared and are getting stronger. The collaboration of women from different branches of public life seems to be organised well enough to defend women’s rights and make the country more friendly to women and all discriminated people in the future.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja, 2019

Sztuka i Dokumentacja, 2019

Art & Documentation, 2020

My research method connects my theoretical background on art history studies and my practical exp... more My research method connects my theoretical background on art history studies and my practical experience as a female artist in Polish social, political and artistic realities. I focus on the position of women artists and their artistic activity in the contexts of the changing political situation. I intend to introduce Polish women artists who were active on the art scene from the seventies until today in the field of performance art and to answer the question what the women artists of my generation have in common with their 'artistic grandmothers.'

The aim of this article is also to familiarize foreign readers with the specific status of women in the process of the changing of the political situation in Poland that took place before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. I begin from recollection of my video-installation Fading Traces. Women in Polish Art of the Seventies (2010).

In my project I have interviewed seven women artists dealing with feminist topics. For all of them, the period of the 1970s was an early stage of their careers. It was also the decade when I was born, and this personal link that created a sort of time loop was significant for me. As it turned out, most of them created performance art pieces, so their testimonies are important for the topic of this article. In my project, the following female artists took part: Natalia LL, Ewa PARTUM, Anna KUTERA, Izabella GUSTOWSKA, Krystyna PIOTROWSKA,
Teresa MURAK and Teresa TYSZKIEWICZ.

In the period of the new democracy, especially during last two decades, performance art pieces by Polish women artists became more rebellious. Since 2016, the course of Polish politics has become more populistic, conservative and democracy is in danger again, and this also badly affects women’s rights and their position in the society. But at the same time, thanks to democracy and the financial support of the European Union, the grass-root women’s initiatives have appeared and are getting stronger. The collaboration of women from different branches of public life seems to be organised well enough to defend women’s rights and make the country more friendly to women and all discriminated people in the future.

... la déclaration de participation avait été rejetée, sont venus enveloppés dans des bandages no... more ... la déclaration de participation avait été rejetée, sont venus enveloppés dans des bandages noirs, sous l'es-corte de Jarostaw Godfrejow et Lukasz Jogalla, vêtus ... B. Stoklosa, dans A. Wojciechowski (dir.), Polskie zycie artystyczne w latach 1945-1960, Warszawa, 1992, p. 66. ...

Art and Documentation, 2019

The article concerns the relation between the working methods used by artists and scientist... more The article concerns the relation between the working methods used by artists and scientists researchers. Despite the current development of the projects breaking the boundaries of disciplines, the division into arts and science, still exists. Art in this approach is situated beyond science and based on intuition and imagination, where the criteria such as proof, truth or falseness, do not decide about the quality of the artwork. However, both artists and scientists use terms such as 'experiment' and 'experience.' Even if these terms are understood in both cases slightly differently and the purpose of scientific and artistic experiments is different, one of the basic elements of scientific research and the creative process in art, is experimentation and experience. These terms in both cases are understood as a test whether a specific idea works when put into practice and as knowledge that has been gained by previous experiments/experiences.

I present the similarities and differences between the work of the artist and researcher using the example of my own art projects based on research. I mention the projects such as Body Printing,Top Models, True Colours, Eugenia is Getting Married, Lost Element. Among the elements of my projects are panel discussions with participation of researchers from various fields of knowledge. Working methods can be similar for researchers/scientists and artists, but the goal is different. The artwork may affect the imagination of the recipient in a different way from scholarly argumentation. I also mention the project Neurophysiology of the artist in performancerun by FUNom. Violka Kuś, the initiator of the project, invited performance artists, including me, and the scientists/researchers who monitored and recorded the physiology of artists' neurological system during the live performance. This project evokes the question of how the art projects inspired by science, which undoubtedly contribute to expanding the field of art, may also inspire the development of science. The research and experiments carried out by scientists are of a specific, often utilitarian purpose, especially in medicine or biotechnology. In artistic activities inspired by science, more important is a metaphorical and critical approach. The collected material is organized in the artistic form, that becomes a kind of message affecting the society in a different way from scientific studies. However, the work of artists and scientists does not exclude each other, on the contrary, it can be complementary in the projects that go beyond the scope of particular disciplines. The course of collaboration between the researchers of various fields and artists has unpredictable results. It is a kind of performance art piece, where something always comes out differently than planned, where there are many variables, but it is this configuration that can bring innovative outcomes.

Art and Documentation, 2019

In the activities of artistic groups in Poland, over the decades after World War II... more In the activities of artistic groups in Poland, over the decades after World War II, major changes can be noticed. The basic differences are in the areas of avant-garde - postmodernism. For avant-garde groups, the main goal of association was to change the world through art and a new vision of art. However, there is no postulate of far-reaching transformations in art in postmodernist groups - their common feature is action and performativity. Even if the group was involved in, for example, painting, the feeling of being together provoked group members to live action. In the avant-garde, the ideological element was strongly emphasized, the artists wrote manifestos, published magazines, and theory was of great importance to them, as is the case with the Film Form Workshop, which aimed to develop a new model for cinema and analyse the medium of film.

From the eighties, elements of the neodada, which are particularly visible in the strategy of the Łódź Kaliska group, come to the foreground. Łódź Kaliska also engaged in theoretical activity, but its manifestoes are devoid of the seriousness of the avant-garde texts. In formations in postmodernist tendencies, one can observe an increase in the importance of social ties in group formation. Artists and artists no longer want to change the world through art, so they do not have to create collectives in which the common good is preferred to private sympathies. Groups are usually created by women and men of similar age, usually at the beginning of their careers. The driving force of creativity is a similar life situation and willingness to be together. As a result of joint meetings and experiences, the need to defi ne a more formal activity and name the grouping is clarifi ed. Hence, the names of these groups say nothing about the artistic orientation of members. The lack of clear programmatic assumptions, and at the same time the contestation and ironic approach to the existing reality, releases the need to do something together, which manifests itself in artistic actions. The action becomes a factor connecting the group, an opportunity to do something together, to manifest group identity, especially in the case of collectives, which do not include performers. At the time of the break-up of this type of group, individual artists give up their activity in performance art. The shift in the areas of interest of artistic groups is also important. The avant-garde, especially the pre-war one, proposing holistic social changes through art, focused on formal issues, on developing a new language of art. The postulate of shaping a new man by a new art, social art, however, remained a postulate only on paper. Paradoxically, it was only postmodern artistic groups, who no longer believed in the idea of the avant-garde, that realized the postulate of incorporating art into life. They did this using a participatory strategy - through spontaneous actions, in which often random recipients were involved.

Although in recent decades, the basic meaning in the creation of artistic groups has been a social factor, mutual sympathies and similar sensitivity, and not programs and artistic postulates, we can still talk about the phenomenon of the artistic group. The factor that triggers its creativity and constitutes a group identity is action. Joint actions as a manifestation of being together, contribute to identifying artists as a group and perceiving it as a separate phenomenon on the artistic scene.

Art and Documentation, 2019

The article is based on artistic research and concerns the case of Russian woman sculptor Teresa... more The article is based on artistic research and concerns the case of Russian woman sculptor Teresa Feodorowna Ries (1866-1956), who gained the position of a prominent artist at the time of Austro-Hungarian Empire and the First Austrian Republic. In 1938 her studio was 'Aryanised' and she had to flee to Switzerland.

There are three intertwining threads in the article. The first one refers to some facts from Ries's life, that seem to be significant for the conducted research. The second concerns the fate of her sculptures during and after the Second World War, with a particular focus on The Witch (Die Hexe), which, according to the surviving documents and the opinions of art restorers, has been damaged on more than one occasion, and under varying circumstances. There are also considered possible causes of this damage, which in the opinion of the author are related to the rebellious meaning of this sculpture, both in its title and in its form of artistic expression. The last thread is an explanation of the author's interest as a contemporary Polish woman artist in Teresa Ries and her Witch.

The Witch by Teresa Ries is the contradiction of a consistent image through and through. Firstly, because although we see the influence of different artistic styles in the form of this sculpture and the traces of diverse cultural traditions in its allegorical layer. Secondly, because the sculpture today is damaged and some of its parts are missing. Thus The Witch, a witness of history, of political and social changes, is an accusation against the HIStory, institutions, politics towards women (artists), and antisemitism, that support patriarchal order. However, The Witch as a representation of the character of the witch in culture has an inspiring potential for political and social changes and the emancipation of minorities.

Art & Documentation no. 19, 2018

A REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN IN GDANSK.THE POTENTIAL OF THE RADICAL ATTITUDE OF STANISŁAWA PRZYBYSZEWSKA... more A REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN IN GDANSK.THE POTENTIAL OF THE RADICAL ATTITUDE OF STANISŁAWA PRZYBYSZEWSKA FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES IN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS

The starting point of the article is the figure of Stanisława Przybyszewska, the daughter of the painter, Aniela Pająkówna and Stanisław Przybyszewski. Like her father, a writer, an erudite, but also morphine addicted - she spent the last 10 years of her life in Gdańsk living in deepening poverty. She died at the age of only 34, exhausted by extreme living conditions, the efforts to get recognition and drug addiction. In Gdańsk, she also wrote her most well known play The Danton Case. This work was re-enacted in theatre and film adaptations, and this happened at times of political uncertainty and social change in Poland. In 2016, I made an installation on an abandoned building in the vicinity of Przybyszewska’s former apartment, under the title I reserve complete possession of my life! This sentence is a quote from the writer's letter to Helena Barlinska - her mother's sister. Przybyszewska - a great admirer of the French Revolution and Robespierre, made a radical revolution in her life, completely renouncing comfort in the name of creative freedom. Although Przybyszewska did not devote much attention to her condition as a female writer, her words today potentially carry emancipation. The sentence used in the title of my work and composed onto the blinded windows of an abandoned tenement house was associated by passers-by with the ongoing debate and protests in Poland against anti-abortion law. I placed Przybyszewska among women who are "disconnected" in history, erased, overlooked and forgotten, but not because their biographies do not matter today, but instead because they show what is repressed in society, the unwanted. These are controversial biographies that do not fit into the usual patterns of femininity. The installation inspired by the figure of Przybyszewska belongs to my cycle Invisible inVisible, in which I created a series of works that restore the "visibility" of such women. As an artistic medium, I chose an abandoned building because I saw in it an analogy with the 'unwanted biography' of women disconnected in history. An abandoned building evokes negative emotions, arouses reluctance, we turn our eyes away from it and finally it becomes 'invisible'. But through its mystery, it can also fascinate. A place that has lost its former function and has not yet gained a new one, becomes a work of art. In this way, I made a symbolic revitalization of the place and introduced into the public space traces of women who had the courage to oppose their insertion into traditional female roles that would have limited their freedom.

Books by Anka Lesniak

The book presents my project entitled Invisible inVisible, which consists of a series of site-spe... more The book presents my project entitled Invisible inVisible, which consists of a series of site-specific artworks (installations) that I have presented in public spaces, in the urban landscape or on abandoned buildings. I have also referred to my previous artistic activities, which influenced the shape of this project. The starting point for a series of artworks presented within the frame of this project, are women who are related to the history of a particular city, district or region. The basis of the project is the stories of these women, who have become forgotten or erased from collective memory. However, they are important from the perspective of contemporary discourses, including ethnic diversity, gender, feminism or exclusion.

Invisible inVisible is a complex project which not only consists of site-specific artworks in public spaces but also includes performances, panel discussions, video artworks, exhibitions, a website and photographic and video documentation. Installations located in abandoned places (site-specific artworks) form the main medium of my artistic expression.These works are closely connected to the architecture, specifically with the use of abandoned houses or other things that have ceased to fulfil their former functions but for which a new use has not yet been found. Such places seem to be mysterious, sometimes dangerous, but for many passers-by they become 'transparent' or simply irritate them with their incompatibility with other elements of the environment in a sense of aesthetics.

The Invisible inVisible project is a result of several years of artistic research conducted from a feminist perspective, resulting from my position in culture and social discourses as a woman artist. Initially, my research concerned the gallery space and then developed to work in the public space into which I 'inscribed' the traces of female narratives.

Art and Documentation / Sztuka i Dokumentacja, 2022

The exhibition "Lost Element / Re-construction of the Witch" at the VBKOE was the next chapter of... more The exhibition "Lost Element / Re-construction of the Witch" at the VBKOE was the next chapter of a collective artistic investigation of TFR Archive on the life and damaged or lost artworks by Teresa Feodorowna Ries (1866-1956), an Austrian artist of Jewish origin. The main topic of the exhibition was her damaged sculpture "The Witch" (1895), representing a vigorous young woman while preparing for the Witches’ Sabbath and cutting her toenails with big shears. Ries's sculpture was an extraordinary example of an artwork challenging the old patriarchal order and symbolizing feminine power. The figure seems full of vigour and eroticism and simultaneously a rebel who challenges the clichés of representations of women in art and goes beyond stereotypes. It was vandalized several times and the hand with scissors was also lost.

The exhibition Lost Element/ Re-construction of the Witch asked the question of how we can work with loss, which here is represented by the lost hand of “The Witch.” “The Witch” deprived of the hand with shears refers to the woman deprived of her agency. The sculpture also represents the fate of the artist herself, who was persecuted by the Nazis because of her Jewish origin and had to flee to Switzerland, leaving all her life and artworks behind.

The exhibition in the Association of Austrian Women Artists gallery was also an excellent opportunity to reinterpret and give a new spirit to the works of Teresa F. Ries as an artist of multi-ethnic roots, by contemporary women artists of different origins, who were connected through her story. It's also a tribute to the female artist, who was brave enough to live the life she wanted, even though she had to face constant prejudices towards her gender and origin. She was one of the women who paved the path for the next generations of women artists.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja, 2020

My research method connects my theoretical background on art history studies and my practical exp... more My research method connects my theoretical background on art history studies and my practical experience as a female artist in Polish social, political and artistic realities. I focus on the position of women artists and their artistic activity in the contexts of the changing political situation. I intend to introduce Polish women artists who were active on the art scene from the seventies until today in the field of performance art and to answer the question what the women artists of my generation have in common with their 'artistic grandmothers.' The aim of this article is also to familiarize foreign readers with the specific status of women in the process of the changing of the political situation in Poland that took place before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. I begin from recollection of my video-installation Fading Traces. Women in Polish Art of the Seventies (2010). In my project I have interviewed seven women artists dealing with feminist topics. For all of them, the period of the 1970s was an early stage of their careers. It was also the decade when I was born, and this personal link that created a sort of time loop was significant for me. As it turned out, most of them created performance art pieces, so their testimonies are important for the topic of this article. In my project, the following female artists took part: Natalia LL, Ewa PARTUM, Anna KUTERA, Izabella GUSTOWSKA, Krystyna PIOTROWSKA, Teresa MURAK and Teresa TYSZKIEWICZ. In the period of the new democracy, especially during last two decades, performance art pieces by Polish women artists became more rebellious. Since 2016, the course of Polish politics has become more populistic, conservative and democracy is in danger again, and this also badly affects women’s rights and their position in the society. But at the same time, thanks to democracy and the financial support of the European Union, the grass-root women’s initiatives have appeared and are getting stronger. The collaboration of women from different branches of public life seems to be organised well enough to defend women’s rights and make the country more friendly to women and all discriminated people in the future.

Sztuka i Dokumentacja, 2019

Sztuka i Dokumentacja, 2019

Art & Documentation, 2020

My research method connects my theoretical background on art history studies and my practical exp... more My research method connects my theoretical background on art history studies and my practical experience as a female artist in Polish social, political and artistic realities. I focus on the position of women artists and their artistic activity in the contexts of the changing political situation. I intend to introduce Polish women artists who were active on the art scene from the seventies until today in the field of performance art and to answer the question what the women artists of my generation have in common with their 'artistic grandmothers.'

The aim of this article is also to familiarize foreign readers with the specific status of women in the process of the changing of the political situation in Poland that took place before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. I begin from recollection of my video-installation Fading Traces. Women in Polish Art of the Seventies (2010).

In my project I have interviewed seven women artists dealing with feminist topics. For all of them, the period of the 1970s was an early stage of their careers. It was also the decade when I was born, and this personal link that created a sort of time loop was significant for me. As it turned out, most of them created performance art pieces, so their testimonies are important for the topic of this article. In my project, the following female artists took part: Natalia LL, Ewa PARTUM, Anna KUTERA, Izabella GUSTOWSKA, Krystyna PIOTROWSKA,
Teresa MURAK and Teresa TYSZKIEWICZ.

In the period of the new democracy, especially during last two decades, performance art pieces by Polish women artists became more rebellious. Since 2016, the course of Polish politics has become more populistic, conservative and democracy is in danger again, and this also badly affects women’s rights and their position in the society. But at the same time, thanks to democracy and the financial support of the European Union, the grass-root women’s initiatives have appeared and are getting stronger. The collaboration of women from different branches of public life seems to be organised well enough to defend women’s rights and make the country more friendly to women and all discriminated people in the future.

... la déclaration de participation avait été rejetée, sont venus enveloppés dans des bandages no... more ... la déclaration de participation avait été rejetée, sont venus enveloppés dans des bandages noirs, sous l'es-corte de Jarostaw Godfrejow et Lukasz Jogalla, vêtus ... B. Stoklosa, dans A. Wojciechowski (dir.), Polskie zycie artystyczne w latach 1945-1960, Warszawa, 1992, p. 66. ...

Art and Documentation, 2019

The article concerns the relation between the working methods used by artists and scientist... more The article concerns the relation between the working methods used by artists and scientists researchers. Despite the current development of the projects breaking the boundaries of disciplines, the division into arts and science, still exists. Art in this approach is situated beyond science and based on intuition and imagination, where the criteria such as proof, truth or falseness, do not decide about the quality of the artwork. However, both artists and scientists use terms such as 'experiment' and 'experience.' Even if these terms are understood in both cases slightly differently and the purpose of scientific and artistic experiments is different, one of the basic elements of scientific research and the creative process in art, is experimentation and experience. These terms in both cases are understood as a test whether a specific idea works when put into practice and as knowledge that has been gained by previous experiments/experiences.

I present the similarities and differences between the work of the artist and researcher using the example of my own art projects based on research. I mention the projects such as Body Printing,Top Models, True Colours, Eugenia is Getting Married, Lost Element. Among the elements of my projects are panel discussions with participation of researchers from various fields of knowledge. Working methods can be similar for researchers/scientists and artists, but the goal is different. The artwork may affect the imagination of the recipient in a different way from scholarly argumentation. I also mention the project Neurophysiology of the artist in performancerun by FUNom. Violka Kuś, the initiator of the project, invited performance artists, including me, and the scientists/researchers who monitored and recorded the physiology of artists' neurological system during the live performance. This project evokes the question of how the art projects inspired by science, which undoubtedly contribute to expanding the field of art, may also inspire the development of science. The research and experiments carried out by scientists are of a specific, often utilitarian purpose, especially in medicine or biotechnology. In artistic activities inspired by science, more important is a metaphorical and critical approach. The collected material is organized in the artistic form, that becomes a kind of message affecting the society in a different way from scientific studies. However, the work of artists and scientists does not exclude each other, on the contrary, it can be complementary in the projects that go beyond the scope of particular disciplines. The course of collaboration between the researchers of various fields and artists has unpredictable results. It is a kind of performance art piece, where something always comes out differently than planned, where there are many variables, but it is this configuration that can bring innovative outcomes.

Art and Documentation, 2019

In the activities of artistic groups in Poland, over the decades after World War II... more In the activities of artistic groups in Poland, over the decades after World War II, major changes can be noticed. The basic differences are in the areas of avant-garde - postmodernism. For avant-garde groups, the main goal of association was to change the world through art and a new vision of art. However, there is no postulate of far-reaching transformations in art in postmodernist groups - their common feature is action and performativity. Even if the group was involved in, for example, painting, the feeling of being together provoked group members to live action. In the avant-garde, the ideological element was strongly emphasized, the artists wrote manifestos, published magazines, and theory was of great importance to them, as is the case with the Film Form Workshop, which aimed to develop a new model for cinema and analyse the medium of film.

From the eighties, elements of the neodada, which are particularly visible in the strategy of the Łódź Kaliska group, come to the foreground. Łódź Kaliska also engaged in theoretical activity, but its manifestoes are devoid of the seriousness of the avant-garde texts. In formations in postmodernist tendencies, one can observe an increase in the importance of social ties in group formation. Artists and artists no longer want to change the world through art, so they do not have to create collectives in which the common good is preferred to private sympathies. Groups are usually created by women and men of similar age, usually at the beginning of their careers. The driving force of creativity is a similar life situation and willingness to be together. As a result of joint meetings and experiences, the need to defi ne a more formal activity and name the grouping is clarifi ed. Hence, the names of these groups say nothing about the artistic orientation of members. The lack of clear programmatic assumptions, and at the same time the contestation and ironic approach to the existing reality, releases the need to do something together, which manifests itself in artistic actions. The action becomes a factor connecting the group, an opportunity to do something together, to manifest group identity, especially in the case of collectives, which do not include performers. At the time of the break-up of this type of group, individual artists give up their activity in performance art. The shift in the areas of interest of artistic groups is also important. The avant-garde, especially the pre-war one, proposing holistic social changes through art, focused on formal issues, on developing a new language of art. The postulate of shaping a new man by a new art, social art, however, remained a postulate only on paper. Paradoxically, it was only postmodern artistic groups, who no longer believed in the idea of the avant-garde, that realized the postulate of incorporating art into life. They did this using a participatory strategy - through spontaneous actions, in which often random recipients were involved.

Although in recent decades, the basic meaning in the creation of artistic groups has been a social factor, mutual sympathies and similar sensitivity, and not programs and artistic postulates, we can still talk about the phenomenon of the artistic group. The factor that triggers its creativity and constitutes a group identity is action. Joint actions as a manifestation of being together, contribute to identifying artists as a group and perceiving it as a separate phenomenon on the artistic scene.

Art and Documentation, 2019

The article is based on artistic research and concerns the case of Russian woman sculptor Teresa... more The article is based on artistic research and concerns the case of Russian woman sculptor Teresa Feodorowna Ries (1866-1956), who gained the position of a prominent artist at the time of Austro-Hungarian Empire and the First Austrian Republic. In 1938 her studio was 'Aryanised' and she had to flee to Switzerland.

There are three intertwining threads in the article. The first one refers to some facts from Ries's life, that seem to be significant for the conducted research. The second concerns the fate of her sculptures during and after the Second World War, with a particular focus on The Witch (Die Hexe), which, according to the surviving documents and the opinions of art restorers, has been damaged on more than one occasion, and under varying circumstances. There are also considered possible causes of this damage, which in the opinion of the author are related to the rebellious meaning of this sculpture, both in its title and in its form of artistic expression. The last thread is an explanation of the author's interest as a contemporary Polish woman artist in Teresa Ries and her Witch.

The Witch by Teresa Ries is the contradiction of a consistent image through and through. Firstly, because although we see the influence of different artistic styles in the form of this sculpture and the traces of diverse cultural traditions in its allegorical layer. Secondly, because the sculpture today is damaged and some of its parts are missing. Thus The Witch, a witness of history, of political and social changes, is an accusation against the HIStory, institutions, politics towards women (artists), and antisemitism, that support patriarchal order. However, The Witch as a representation of the character of the witch in culture has an inspiring potential for political and social changes and the emancipation of minorities.

Art & Documentation no. 19, 2018

A REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN IN GDANSK.THE POTENTIAL OF THE RADICAL ATTITUDE OF STANISŁAWA PRZYBYSZEWSKA... more A REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN IN GDANSK.THE POTENTIAL OF THE RADICAL ATTITUDE OF STANISŁAWA PRZYBYSZEWSKA FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES IN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS

The starting point of the article is the figure of Stanisława Przybyszewska, the daughter of the painter, Aniela Pająkówna and Stanisław Przybyszewski. Like her father, a writer, an erudite, but also morphine addicted - she spent the last 10 years of her life in Gdańsk living in deepening poverty. She died at the age of only 34, exhausted by extreme living conditions, the efforts to get recognition and drug addiction. In Gdańsk, she also wrote her most well known play The Danton Case. This work was re-enacted in theatre and film adaptations, and this happened at times of political uncertainty and social change in Poland. In 2016, I made an installation on an abandoned building in the vicinity of Przybyszewska’s former apartment, under the title I reserve complete possession of my life! This sentence is a quote from the writer's letter to Helena Barlinska - her mother's sister. Przybyszewska - a great admirer of the French Revolution and Robespierre, made a radical revolution in her life, completely renouncing comfort in the name of creative freedom. Although Przybyszewska did not devote much attention to her condition as a female writer, her words today potentially carry emancipation. The sentence used in the title of my work and composed onto the blinded windows of an abandoned tenement house was associated by passers-by with the ongoing debate and protests in Poland against anti-abortion law. I placed Przybyszewska among women who are "disconnected" in history, erased, overlooked and forgotten, but not because their biographies do not matter today, but instead because they show what is repressed in society, the unwanted. These are controversial biographies that do not fit into the usual patterns of femininity. The installation inspired by the figure of Przybyszewska belongs to my cycle Invisible inVisible, in which I created a series of works that restore the "visibility" of such women. As an artistic medium, I chose an abandoned building because I saw in it an analogy with the 'unwanted biography' of women disconnected in history. An abandoned building evokes negative emotions, arouses reluctance, we turn our eyes away from it and finally it becomes 'invisible'. But through its mystery, it can also fascinate. A place that has lost its former function and has not yet gained a new one, becomes a work of art. In this way, I made a symbolic revitalization of the place and introduced into the public space traces of women who had the courage to oppose their insertion into traditional female roles that would have limited their freedom.

The book presents my project entitled Invisible inVisible, which consists of a series of site-spe... more The book presents my project entitled Invisible inVisible, which consists of a series of site-specific artworks (installations) that I have presented in public spaces, in the urban landscape or on abandoned buildings. I have also referred to my previous artistic activities, which influenced the shape of this project. The starting point for a series of artworks presented within the frame of this project, are women who are related to the history of a particular city, district or region. The basis of the project is the stories of these women, who have become forgotten or erased from collective memory. However, they are important from the perspective of contemporary discourses, including ethnic diversity, gender, feminism or exclusion.

Invisible inVisible is a complex project which not only consists of site-specific artworks in public spaces but also includes performances, panel discussions, video artworks, exhibitions, a website and photographic and video documentation. Installations located in abandoned places (site-specific artworks) form the main medium of my artistic expression.These works are closely connected to the architecture, specifically with the use of abandoned houses or other things that have ceased to fulfil their former functions but for which a new use has not yet been found. Such places seem to be mysterious, sometimes dangerous, but for many passers-by they become 'transparent' or simply irritate them with their incompatibility with other elements of the environment in a sense of aesthetics.

The Invisible inVisible project is a result of several years of artistic research conducted from a feminist perspective, resulting from my position in culture and social discourses as a woman artist. Initially, my research concerned the gallery space and then developed to work in the public space into which I 'inscribed' the traces of female narratives.