Judith Röder, intrigued by the peculiar visuality on the one hand, and the simplicity of the aesthetics of everyday views of Lower Silesia, decided to capture the "spaces of disappearance" in the eye of a 16 mm camera. The status of the examined places varies, as does their relationship with the local inhabitants, the political calibre of the history that has swept through them, or the phase of disappearance that has affected them. During her residency, the artist will visit Miedzianka, a pre-war town with a brewery, a town hall and a mine, from which almost nothing is left. He will also travel to Gostkowo, whose inhabitants reconstructed the Protestant German cemetery, which was gradually devastated for several decades. Another direction of her artistic search will be the Sokolowsko - spa Prussian pearl, which for many years threatened the deteriorating building of Dr. Brehmer's former sanatorium, later the Grunwald Sanatorium. After years of oblivion, thanks to the cultural activity of the new residents, the former Gorbersdorf is experiencing its second youth.
The landscapes explored by the German woman are places shaped by their inhabitants both geologically (mines, sandpits, quarries) and culturally (architecture, urban planning). The artist tries to immortalize what may soon disappear from the surface of the earth in an experimental, artistic form. The film prepared during the residency will be presented at a special closing screening.
Cooperation project
The visit is organized within the AIR Wro programme by the Culture Zone Wrocław and the Wersja Foundation. It is an organization operating in Wrocław since 2011. It operates primarily in the field of contemporary art, realizing its objectives through both exhibition, but also research and educational projects. Among the activities, those of an interdisciplinary and processual character, oriented more towards deeper reflection and an open course than the production of spectacular effects, predominate. The topics addressed are primarily those concerning cultural identity (city, region) in the context of the so-called Recovered Territories, but also the issues of gender, memory and the intersection of public and private space. This is not the first German project supported by the Foundation and the Wrocław Culture Zone. In 2018, during her one-month residency, the artist, in cooperation with the BWA Wrocław, developed her project "Liquid City".
Competition for NGO
The idea of initiating a program for Wrocław and Lower Silesian NGOs came up in 2015. It was inaugurated with the "Duets" project carried out together with the Homeless Theatre Foundation in Świdnica. For four years in the region, the Foundation for Culture and Education of Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Evangelical-Augsburg Parish in Świdnica and the Foundation h/2 have managed to carry out activities. In Wrocław, support was also given to Irene Ros's residence, which, as part of the first edition of the "Kobietostan" project, accompanied the Jubilo Foundation in working with women detained in female detention centres. In 2019, two activities will be carried out: Judith Röder's visit to Lower Silesia and Anna Kasperski's residence prepared together with OP ENHEIM.
The next edition of the Competition for NGOs from Wrocław and Lower Silesia will take place in September 2019.
