Marta Weglinska portfolio
BIOGRAPHY Marta Weglinska (born in 1990 in Poland) graduated of Intermedia and Painting at the Poznan University of Art (2016, 2014). Since 2013, she has been creating exhibitions as a curator and co-founder of the Silverado collective. She has received four scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Winner of the international Darmasiswa RI scholarship in Indonesia. She is founder of Kobalt migrating platform (art and education). She works and lives in Poland and Indonesia. Selected activities: 16th International Triennial of Tapestry, Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz (PL), 2019 Indonesia Contemporary Ceramic Biennale, Jatiwangi (IDN), 2019 Passion pourd down like torriental rain, Pamoja Razem Foundation, Krakow, 2019 Wearing a Cosmos, Green Art Space, Yogyakarta (IDN), 2018 Tendency to Collapse, Zacheta - National Gallery Project Room, Warsaw, 2018 Melted with green, Spectra Art Space, Starak Foundation, Warsaw, 2018 Artist in Residence, Sesama, Yogyakarta (IDN), 2017 Artist in Residence, RedBase Foundation, Yogyakarta (IDN), 2017 You’re a master at capturing my desire and affection, RedBase Foundation, Yogyakarta (IDN), 2017 Eurasia, Zurich University of the Arts, Toni Areal, Gallery, Zurich (CHE), 2017 Playing Field. Audio-visial event, Philharmonic, Szczecin, Poland, 2016 Alt_Cph 15 - Copenhagen’s Alternative Art Fair, Copenhagen (DK), 2015 Supermarket - Stockholm Independent Art Fair, Stockholm (SWE), 2015 International Biennial WRO Test Exposure, Wroclaw, 2015 Musrara Mix Festival, Jerusalem (ISR), 2015
ARTIST STATEMENT image word space action-reaction I create experimental films, art books, sculptures, illustrations, paintings and natural dyed costumes. I work when I travel. That is what determines my interests. I work inspired by context, stories, archives, local culture and tradition. I am interested in the flexible cooperation with the people. This is the starting point for films and texts. I listen and ask. At all times, I act according to the principle of „action and reaction�, constantly deepening my capability of quick response, in reply to the found contexts, and situations. I transform and link data. Thus, my way of work consists in creating a broad network of meanings. Moreover, I am interested in intercultural translation and art as an educational tool - which can connect and activate society.
Passion poured down like torrential rain Pamoja Razem Foundation Krakow, 2019 series of paintings on textiles - natural dyed costumes (batik); illustrations(various techniques), objects, experimental movie, photographies, batik flags The exhibition have a syncretic structure, combining selective motives releated with the perception of nature in Indonesian’s culture. The presented elements created a multi-layered story, showing nature through the prism of traditional dance, ancient literature, local beliefs, craftsmanship and architecture. The collection of flags and dresses dyed with natural pigments was a main part of the exhibition. Each of the tapestry tells a different story, among otheres referring to the 18th-19th century illustrations of the archipelago’s vegetation, the presence of animals in the mythology of the island of Borneo, traditional batik patterns taken from the world of nature, traditional dance The costumes are perceived here not only as a utilitarian art product, but rather - paintings with performative potential.
Flat Earth. Death Trip 2018/2020 series of illustrations, various techniques, A3 The cycle inspired by the danger of travel, including journey into the afterlife and death perceived through the prism of ancient mythology, art and culture of antiquity (Europe and Asia). Illustrations inspired by archeological discoveries and museum collections (including National Museum in Jakarta). Individual works combine slogans - selected flag codes from the „Single Letter Signals� maritime communication system.
Tendency to Collapse Zacheta - National Gallery’s Project Room, Warsaw curator: Magda Kardasz 2018 https://zacheta.art.pl/pl/wystawy/marta-weglinska-upadek-grawitacja A series of illustrations, a site-specific architectural installation, photographs, objects, art books, experimetal film The exhibition develops the issue of a fall perceived through the prism of geological phenomena, motion, gravity, architecture disintegration, and emotions. Elements presented on the exhibition tell stories about the inevitability of fall, changeability of the world and life, loss of balance or unreliability of vision. The idea of the the project is inspired by several motives related with Javanese traditional culture. The sculptures presented on the exhibition refer directly to the ancient Buddhist Hindu temple Ratu Boko in Yogyakarta (Indonesia). In addition, this place is one of the main locations where the movie „Tendency to Collapse” takes place.
Ratu Boko Temple in Yogyakarta (Indonesia), courtesy of the Tropen Museum in Amsterdam
Tendency to collapse 2017/2018, audio-video, 00:24:21 https://vimeo.com/282297010 password: candrakirana A metaphorical tale about uncertainty, changeability and dynamics. Coincidences and accidents. Scale and model. Gravity, arrows, ruins – collapse. The protagonists, chased by fate, run away to the forest. Nature gives them shelter. In order to blend in with the greenery, they change their bodies, faces, hands. In the end, they cannot recognize themselves. The film is inspired by Javanese culture, including traditional dance, local martial arts – pencak silat and story of Prince Panji and Princess Candra Kirana, popular in Southeast Asia.
You’re a master at capturing my desire and affection RedBase Foundation, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Artist in Residence Program, 2017 The series consists: 6 large-format batikas, photographs - batiks flags placed in Indonesian landscapes, archival photograpies. The project „You’re a master at capturing my desire and affection” addresses timeless and universal union between two supreme deities, the female and the male. The idea is inspired by different aspects of Indonesian culture: symbolic understanding of nature, mythology and believes (worship of The Merapi Volcano and Indian Ocean represented by Goddess of Southern Sea), traditional mask dance and shadow theater, old literature, and ancient architecture (Hindu and Buddhist temples). Textile were prepared according with traditional Indonesian batik technique.
�Wearing a Cosmos, general view of exhibition, Green Art Space, Yogyakarta, 2018
The wolves prowl 2015/2016, audio-video, 00:47:31, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSt0acCMXh0 Wolves Prowl is a story about the universality of categories, concepts, states that define life, with-out regard for time or space of happening events. In the film, there are general concepts, most of which have been elaborated, among others, in ancient. Fate, accident, tragic conflict, catharsis, tragedy - come from ancient times, regardless still they are present in our reality. Thus, it indi-cates the continuity states of emotion or elements constructing life. Besides the categories derived from antiquity, the film concerns universal issues such as time, space, gravity, good, evil, danger, love, fate, coincidence or the body. Who are the eponymous wolves? The predators are living in the cluster embody the most power-ful categories that govern reality. “Wolves prowl” - ideas which circulate through-between times, and „attack” any reality. “Wolves” are versatile, powerful, timeless terms. “Wolves” include time, space, past, knowledge, intuition, good, evil, love, gravity, danger, fate, chance. “Wolves” are also 3 main characters - Julie (a metaphoric body double of Julie) - cocky, perverse, direct personality, and Ataran – timeless, endowed with particuticular intuition.
The Smuggler - part I&II 2014/2016; audio-video, 00:49:27 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISc8o0hwR_0 The film „The Smuggler” is the conclusion of a long-term project Blissful Dreams Dyed, which consists of 9 trips with 9 people, to one place - on the border area of a certain city. All routes, the events, conversations and stories that took place during trips, became the base for the screenplay of „The Smuggler”. The actual work on the film had a flexible, open structure. Some parties assumes the form of interviews, or monologues, while others oscillate between consciously created role and a performance. The project’s participants have received a lot of flexibility in creating theirs own character of expression in the film. Thus, this way of working assumed the possibility of numerous changes in the script. Therefore also work on The Smuggler was focused on the principle: action-reaction. The film refers to tracking the convergence of networks created within the framework of un unexplained conspiracy. The action of The Smuggler develops around words spoken by one of the nine travelers: „Blood is almost chlorophyll”.
Art Books Exotics. Notes taken (collected) from the travel, 2013 Between dry and moistness, 2013/2014 Entourage of the mind and body, 2014/2015 Balkan Song, 2012/2015 The Wolves Provl (the film book), 2015/2016 The process of writing is an integral part of my artistic practice. I feel the atmosphere of visited places equally intense as emotions, or moods. I write only when the situation in which I participate, can become a universal metaphor, or a miniature-model of many mechanisms or principles. The novel is truth and fiction. Pretty soon boundaries are melting. The novel is a whole, just like any other work. It requires its own structure, internal logic, even though the story may be surreal. To maintain consistency of a novel, real events are merged by fictitious connectors. This is the point where everything exactly begins. Everything what I saw, heard, felt is mixing with fiction.
CONTACT Marta Weglinska martaweglinska.carbonmade.com kobalt-migrating-platform.carbonmade.com thebluecarbon.carbonmade.com kolektyw-silverado.tumblr.com weglinska.marta@gmail.com tel. +48 500 411 572