Marta Węglińska portfolio
BIOGRAPHY Marta Węglińska (born in 1990 in Poland) completed Intermedia Course (MA, 2016) and Painting Course (BA, 2014) at the University of Arts in Poznan (Poland). She is a 3 time-winner of a Scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2015, 2010, 2008) and a laureate of a Prize from the the same Ministry (2014). Since 2013 she has been running and co-curating Silverado Gallery. She is a laureate of Darmasiswa Scholarship in Indonesia (one year stay) 2016/2017. Selected exhibitions: Artist in Residence, Sesama, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2017 Artist in Residence, RedBase Foundation, Yogyakarta, 2017 You’re a master at capturing my desire and affection, RedBase Foundation, Yogyakarta, 2017 Eurasia, Zurich University of the Arts, Toni Areal, Gallery, 2017 Playing Field. Audio-visial event, Philharmonic (Stettin, Poland, 2016) Chorus part of Alt_Cph 15 - Copenhagen’s Alternative Art Fair (Copenhagen, Denmark, 2015) Modern Art Desserts part of Supermarket - Stockholm Independent Art Fair (Stockholm, Sweden, 2015) Real Time-Controller vol. II, Miejsce Projektów Zachęty (Warsaw, Poland, 2014) MIOPIA, Malta Festival, Squere of the Liberty (Poznan, Poland, 2016) Biennale WRO, Test Exposure, New University Library (Wroclaw, Poland, 2015) Musrara Mix Festival (Jerusalem, Israel, 2015)
ARTIST STATEMENT image word space action-reaction I create experimental films, art books, sculptures, installations, paintings and photographs. Moreover, I co-create exhibitions as a curator and co-founder of the Silverado Gallery. 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 connecte and activate society.
”You’re a master at capturing my desire and affection” RedBase Foundation, Yogyakarta, Indonezja, Artist in Residence Program, 2017 The exhibition 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.
”You’re a master at capturing...”, the flag made in batik technique; below: textile with drawing made from wax - before dyeing
”You’re a master at capturing...”, the flag made in batik technique; on the left: textile with drawing made from wax - before dyeing
”You’re a master at capturing...”, general view of exhibition, RedBase Foundation, Yogyakarta, 2017
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 wolves prowl (the film frame)
The wolves prowl (the film frames)
The wolves prowl (the film frame)
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”.
The Smuggler (the film frame)
The Smuggler (the film frames)
The Smuggler (the film frame)
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.
Entourage of the mind and body
Balkan Song
Exotics. Notes collected (taken) from the travel 2013 Exotics.Notes collected... – it is about 31 days per 8 hours spent in the former studio of typesetting. The text is composing letter by letter of the lead blocks - fonts. Exotics is a collection of texts, which took the form of descriptions of „the frames torn out from the journey.” A structure of the book emphasize a fragmentariness, as well as showing only selected topics from a dozen trips to various locations. Included herein texts refer to the impossibility of being in one permanent location. At the same time the book stresses the importance of the change, that occurs in traveler. Thus it happen during the confrontation with various situations and attitudes of encountered people.
The stencil of title page - the text composed letter by letter of the lead blocks - fonts.
Exhibition Exotics. Notes collected (taken) from the travel Arbiters’ tower, Athletics Stadium “Olimpia” (Poznan, 2013)
Holy houses and silent texts 2013 Holy houses and silent texts is a project which consists of 21 prints (monotype, linocut, frottage; on paper), 11 marble slabs (10 white ones, 1 black) and texts (monotype). In 2013, the entire work was presented in the Archeological Museum in Poznan together with 3 photographs, sketches, and specially selected vase from the collection of the museum. The entire exposition was linked to the function of the building of the museum, and focused especially on the creative process in analogy to the attitude of a researcher, archeologist. The series of prints Holy houses deals with the cocept of home, understood as a symbolic axis of the world. In this specific case the architecture is described by a number of adjectives that anthropomorphize it and help appreciate the visual aspect of the buildings. Silent Texts are an interactive installation. There is a series of texts written in negative, on white marble slabs (to highlight the meaning of monotype). In order to read the texts, one has to place the white slab close to the black one, which serves as a screen to reflect the text and show it in positive.
Holy houses and silent texts The documantation of the exhibition, Archeological Museum, Poznan, 2013
Marble slab
Holy houses and silent texts The documantation of the exhibition, Archeological Museum, Poznan, 2013
COLLECTIVE ACTIVITIES - SILVERADO
PLAYING FIELD Philharmonics in Szczecin, 2016 Curator: Silverado Artists: Piotr Bosacki, Artur Cincio, Łukasz Jastrubczak, Patryk Lichota, Grischa Lichtenberger, Basia Szczepanik, Ania Witkowska, Rafał Zapała & Silverado “Playing Field” was an interdisciplinary event – a fusion of visual arts and music. We aimed to make use of the performative potential of the architecture of Philharmonic and to engage the viewers/ participants. In order to do so we invited various visual artists and musicians to propose their own projects and then collectively created a multidimensional and pervading „whole”. We focused on experimental activities in a building, which usually serves as a quite conventional music hall. Playing field was based and strictly connected to the architecture and characteristics of the building itself. What interested us was a very special architecture and its performative potential. The architecture was an active „member”, an element of the event. Our mission was to create a coherent environment which during one night would modify the look of the Philharmonics.
Chorus Copenhagen’s Experimental Art Fair, Kopenhaga, 2015 During the Copenhagen’s Experimental Art Fair, Silverado decided to realize a film in collaboration with the local community. The aim was to gather stories related to the Fabrikken (place of Art Fair) and create a film on that basis. Deriving from the history of the Fabrikken, which used to be a shelter for poor and needy and an addiction treatment centre, becoming the socio-cultural centre of the area, we would like to show what’s role is it playing in the local community. We refer both to the tradition of antique Greek chorus, which in the Greek tragedy led the narration of the story and to contemporary practices such as Lars’von Trier Kingdom. In the series, two people suffering from the Down Syndrome that work in the laundry of a giant hospital, take over the role of the chorus. We refer also to the notion of nomadism, which seems to describe well the condition of independent art spaces. In this sense we are nomads, visiting places that constantly enrich our view. Film Chorus, audio-video, 00:29:00 Movie trailer: https://vimeo.com/153545707
Chorus (film frames)
Modern Art Desserts Supermarket - Independent Art Fair, Stockholm, 2015 A minimalistic counter has been set up in the gallery space; its shape makes a connection between the equipment of the gallery and a confectionary. During the five-day event, Silverado was presenting works of famous contemporary artists, shown in the form of confectionary objects. Behind the counter there were the performers - representatives of the Silverado. Their task was to offer „pieces of work-desserts� to guests and to invite them to discussion about art. Every day it was possible to get to know the aesthetic and metaphorical adventages, as well a taste of two different works of art (including the Mondrian, Malevich, Manzoni, Rothko). The aim of this situation-specific project was to collectively reflect on the phenomena of the art fair itself. In this sense, Modern Art Desserts was an open project without a defined end. Film documentation of Modern Art Desserts: https://vimeo.com/153547815
Real-Time Controller vol. 2 Zachęta Project Room, Warsaw, 2014 Curator: Silverado Artists invited to cooperation in the exhibition: Weronica Bet, Dariusz Bajda, Justyna Kisielewska, Zosia Nierodzińska Real-Time Controller vol. 2 is an attempt to move and expand the exhibition - Real-Time Controller vol. 1 presented in January 2014 in Poznan, in the Silverado Gallery - in the attic of the old school. The first exhibibition was integrally connected with the space of Silverado. Thus vol.2 presented in Zachęta Project Room is not simply a virtiual repetition. The confrontation of a different space allowed for verification of the original concept in a new context, and expanding of the topic „repetition”.
Real-Time Controller vol. 1 Silverado Gallery, Poznan, 2014 Artists invited to cooperation in the exhibition: Weronika Bet, Dariusz Bajda, Marek Kucharski, Zosia Nierodzińska A starting point for the exhibition was a story of Dariusz Bajda – porter at a former elementary school, which is now University of Arts location. Dariusz Bajda is very connected to the building – he has been working there (and living at the attic) for about 20 years. His story is a sensitive reflection on post-war conditions in Poland, also shows him as an astonishingly brave individual, who represents values of civil disobedience. Together with invited artists we tried to reply to the characteristic of the place itself and therefore create a complex and a site-specific project. Thus we invited everybody to work on the spot for several days in order to create a coherent exhibition.
WORKSHOPS
Nature, Yogyakarta Workshops prepared as part of Artist in Residence in Sesama, Yogyakarta, 2017 7-days workshops with children in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) were focused on the nature and ecology. The scope of activities included, among others: preparation of ecological paper, execution of artworks (mixed techniques, including collage) inspired by the surrounding. Children were using various elements collected from the nighbourhood (stones, leaves, shells). The aim of the workshop was to stimulate participants’ awareness of the natural environment and ecology, and developing creative skills by learning new techniques and presented work methodology. The workshops were summarized by an exhibition of artworks, prepared together with the participants. Workshop documentation has become part of a book devoted to nature prepared as part of the Artist in Residence program at Sesama.
Nature, Lombok Workshops with children in Tanjung (Lombok, Indonesia) took place in local cultural organizations: Sekolah Alam Anak Negeri, Sanggar Seni & Belajar Dusun Kebun Indah and Sanggar Seni & Belajar Dusun Midang. 2017 Workshops were focused on the subject of nature. The participants were using different leaves and plants (various shapes, structures and sizes) found in their area. The collected elements were used as auxiliary materials in the drawing process. Conducting creative workshops in Lombok - island placed far from largest cultural and business centers of Indonesia, was primarily conditioned by the will to cooperate, exchange and share. Artistic education is practically absent here in the school curriculum, hence all kind of creative activities can be extremely important for the participants of the workshops.
CONTAC T Marta Węglińska http://martaweglinska.blogspot.com/ http://kolektyw-silverado.tumblr.com/ https://issuu.com/martawegliska weglinska.marta@gmail.com tel. +48 500 411 572