Culture projects involving Wrocław and Valletta started a year ago. Thanks to the cooperation of the Culture Zone Wrocław, the European Capital of Culture Valletta 2018, the Arts Council Malta and the local residency programme Blitz, this year we can also invite creators from Wroclaw to go to Malta.
Natalia Pośnik is a student at the Faculty of Architecture of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, whose main passion is photography. During her residency in Valletta, Pośnik wants to redefine and discover the character of the city, mainly by showing the relationship between the architecture there and the characteristic portraits it plans to prepare. The motive that is constantly visible in the work of Natalia is the relationship between place and time, as well as a specific way of looking at the city that Pośnik presents in her photographs.
On the other hand, a Ukrainian-born and Malta-based artist, Letta Shtohryn, will create in Wrocław. The main object of her interest is the change that takes place in ourselves and in our environment when we are forced to leave our place of residence. Observation and examination of the condition in which we find ourselves in this situation provoke the artist to create realizations related to specific spaces and boundaries that separate them. In her work, the artist refers to her own experiences, being forced to leave Ukraine and settle in another European city.
In 2017, Martyna Komorowska was invited for a residency in Valletta and her stay in Malta was divided into two stages. The first one was the implementation of an individual project, while the second consisted of participation in the international Design4DCity workshops (organized by Valletta Design Cluster, Foundation Valletta 2018 and 72 Hours Urban Action). In the first phase, the architect held a consultation with the local community asking about the public space characteristics and set its features. On the basis of the responses received, Komorowska prepared and implemented a mobile installation project which main purpose was to use the conversation as the basic form of interaction between the inhabitants of Birzebbugia. The last week of the residency was intended for participation in Design4DCity architecture workshops, the subject of which was public space in relation to the local community. A work group included over twenty people from various European cities. The result of their work was an intervention in the public space Birzebbugia.
Around the time last year, Moira Agius came to Wrocław to start her research on the status of women in the context of various religions. Thanks to a series of meetings with representatives of the local environment (including NGOs working with women in the field of their exclusion and supporting them in the fight for their rights, religious communities and activists), Agius prepared a material that will become the basis for further research. The artist also prepared and conducted a workshop for students of the Institute of Culture Studies of the University of Wrocław.
