PORTFOLIO ANNA PICHURA|2018
FLOTSAM GAME starting point for a Flotsam Project submitted for VARP residency 2018
The manual is meant to be distributed in a form of tiny booklets that contain instructions for players guiding them from the point of leaving their current location through challenges and pleasures of urban survival. The manual mimics the reality and routines of people due to various reasons having to tackle with the lack of shelter and livelihood. The manual is a base for the Flotsam Project - the proposal submitted for VARP residency.
The term ‘flotsam’ originally refers to various debris freely floating on the surface of water after a ship wreck, it basically denotes some thing floating and figuratively refers to “people or things that have been rejected or discarded as worthless” (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/flotsam). The concept of Flotsam Game and the Flotsam Game manual have been developed by Anna Pichura and Triin Marts and was originally rendered in English. The project was conceived during the stay of the artists in Kassel, Germany in the summer of 2017 where they were a guest students at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Anna Pichura was later an intern at aneducation, documenta14. Project is a reflection on certain trends more or less conspicuously implied by the works presented at the event. The Flotsam Game manual is meant to be distributed in a form of tiny booklets that contain instructions for players guiding them from the point of leaving their current location through challenges and pleasures of urban survival. The manual mimics the reality and routines of people due to various reasons having to tackle with the lack of shelter and livelihood. In a nutshell, the player must cut contacts with his/her relatives except few people he/she can really trust, can not leave the current city and must continue the game for as long as possible. It is important to keep the “invisibility” - not only to avoid video surveillance and not to catch attention, but also stick to the regimen of visibility imposed on the space the player dwells in. Conceptualisation of that aspect of experience in terms of a game is a useful tool in bringing attention to the phenomenon and increasing it’s understanding which can easily be deepened by emotional involvement so often associated with games and gaming in general. Flotsam is a game everyone can play and most of us play it already not even knowing about that.
D.O.M.
The video relates to the history and presence of a family home in Świętokrzyskie, Poland. Balancing between documentation and fiction, the work recalls the public and private history of the place and its inhabitants while it arranges motifs of a ludic religious cult, the changes of seasons, and the home as a place where organisms other than humans lead their quiet life.
The title D.O.M. is a pun on the polish word ‘dom’ meaning ‘home’ and on the acronym of two latin sentences - D(eo) O(ptimo) M(aximo) - “to God, most good, most great” oraz D(omus) O(mnium) M(ortuorum) - “home of the dead”.
The author of the concept, camera operator and editor is Anna Pichura. This video has been nominated to junges dokfest: A38Production-Grant Kassel-Halle, Kassel/DE and had its world premiere during 34. Kasseler Dokfest 2017.
HAPPINESS OF A CREATURE
The video refers to the idea of mental health, questioning it, and suggesting that it’s not possible to treat the category as something certain and unchangeable. It also asks about living conditions that let creatures keep so called “mental health”.
The material showing machines destroying an old factory has been recorded in Krakow, Poland in 2016, by Anna Pichura and Mateusz Hajdo. The author of the concept and editing is Anna Pichura. Subtitles are based on quotations from different texts: K. Menninger “The Human Mind”, M. Jahoda “Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health”, W. Tatarkiewicz “O szczęściu”.
MODULAR ALLOTMENT OF THE FUTURE
MDP (Modular Allotment Garden) is an art project developed by a team of artists (Anna Pichura and Jolanta Nowaczyk) and architects (Borys Lewandowski, Błażej Kraus, Magda Zaworska) for 7. ArtBoom Festival 2015 in Krakow. It invokes traditional forms of Polish allotment gardens in use in the polish cities since the end of XIX century. It’s also alluding to the contemporary problems of the inner city gardens being superseded by quickly developing estates.
The Modular Allotment of the Future is a slightly ironic and utopian vision: placed on the Vistula River (the space that is the most difficult to build up) moored to the shore and visible to everyone, the hydroponic raft with an allotment garden is the fulfilment of many persons’ dream of their own piece of a village in the city centre and, at the same time, a monument to all existing and liquidated municipal allotment gardens. As in the case of traditional allotment gardens, it consist of a lawn, a part with decorative plants, beds of edible plants and a minimalist house of white, slightly transparent film.
YELLOW LINE
„The Yellow Line is a potentially endless, foreign and unfamiliar object which exits the fixed divisions of public space(s). Through people’s activities and weather conditions the line undergoes changes and a slow eventual destruction.”
Ephemeric action by Anna Pichura and Jolanta Nowaczyk in San Sperate, Sardinia, Italy during a workshop for young international artists titled „The Wall of Europe� (June 2013). The line, few hundred meters long was made of yellow powdery pigment.
UNTITLED
“Early in the morning when the beach was empty I decided to conduct an absurd performance and form the sand in a shape similar to small waves on the Sielpia Lake. It meant to erase all signs of human presence on usually crowded beach. The whole process took few hours but finally the surface of the beach was perfectly harmonious and peaceful.” (Sielpia Końskie, Poland, 2013)
Anna Pichura is a PhD student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (Poland) and a teaching assistant at the Pedagogical University of Krakow. Her PhD project discusses public and socially engaged art. She mainly works with video, text and installations.
Residency Motivation/Artists Statement As a PhD student of The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and a teaching assistant at Pedagogical University of Krakow I focus on socially and politically engaged art. I research the potential of contemporary art to mediate social and political conflicts, especially on local level of one city. In my previous projects I addressed the topic of gentrification and lack of solidarity in local communities facing negative effects of the process (ex. MDP - Modular Allotment of the Future, ArtBook Festival, Krakow, 2015). The proposal I submit for Visual and Sound Residency is a next step in the development of my artistic practice. Like my previous projects it is focused on social issues, but this time it contains elements of participatory project, artistic research, sound installation and delegated performance. The outcome would be a sound installation and documentation of the artistic research. I often use my experience of traveling and living abroad to work on art projects (ex. Yellow Line, workshop: The wall of Europe, San Sperate, Sardinia, Italy, 2013). The text of the Flotsam Game will be displayed in April 2018 during a group show in Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art (Plac Szczepański 3a, 31-011 Krakow, Poland). Bunkier Sztuki is renown public institution focused on contemporary art from Poland and abroad (see more on http://bunkier.art.pl). Since the text gained interest of my professors and curators I hope for future development of the project. Budapest is a perfect location to do so, because of its scale as well as its latest history. I want to work in a place where I’m a migrant myself, even if the position I’m in is quite privileged. I find the length of the residency optimal for the amount of work necessary to realise the project. I believe FKSE can provide good institutional frame for my research.
Contact: Anna Pichura annapichura@gmail.com +48 512 810 188