During the first week of her residency in Valletta, Pośnik got to know the local creative environment and to introduce her portfolio and concept of work during the artist talk that was held in Blitz on the April 12th. Now it’s the time to sum up her residency with the “How not to fight with the city?” exhibition, which will be launched on the April 26th in Blitz’s gallery.
/
[Valletta, April 4th, 2018]There had been unusually strong waves in Valletta. They had fished a drowning man out of the water, whose kids were crying on the seashore.
The Valletta/Sliema Ferry has not been sailing either, as the sea is the city – you do not fight. Alternatively, you get to the lifeboat, drift a little further away so the waves don’t hit you against the rocks, and then calmly return when the storm has settled. Let us bide our time in the city and wait patiently for a good opportunity to ‘live’. The ubiquitous economic boom, speculative bubble, tourism, and new investments, are hitting us now against the rocks. Tomorrow, the ferries will be sailing again. […]
The human being is constantly burdened with subsequent changes in city life and the need to adapt to a different reality. Adaptation, in this case, does not mean compromise or acceptance of the unwanted, but it gives the possibility of a conscious choice. Opportunism and short-term vision for profit, contribute to he changing the image of Valletta and its surrounds.
New decisions result in a new future. The city’s architecture changes the same as its inhabitants change. It adapts to new functions, often hiding behind the historical facades. The evolution of the city from “liveable” to “alive”, after which there is a longing for change from being simply “alive” to “liveable” again.
This linear dependence system based on the form of a circle is a kind of limitation with which society tries to fight. As a result, it pushes towards new creative solutions which aim to answer the question “How not to fight with the city”?
/
Natalia Pośnik combines her education in architecture with the medium of photography to dissect and discover the character of a city, and to explore the relationship between space and time. Her project, “How not to fight with the city?” attempts to characterise a city which is multi-layered both in history and in the cultures of its inhabitants.
