Sophia Ioannou Gjerding

Field: Visual arts City: Wrocław

During her study visit in Wrocław, Sophia Ioannou Gjerding will investigate the subject of the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace – the event organised in Wrocław back in 1948 in addition to the Recovered Territories Exhibition, as a proof of of international support to reconstruction of Poland, which had been under the influence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Organizers invited some 4000 delegates from 46 countries to Wrocław – writers, artists and scientists. Guests invited by the communist authorities included such personages as Pablo Picasso, Bertolt Brecht, Irene Joliot-Cure, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Anna Seghers, Jorge Amado, Zofia Nałkowska and Michaił Szołochow. Gjerding will gather archive materials about the congres, but also meet with the local cultural institutions and organisatons.

Gjerding’s study visit to Wrocław is supported by the Danish Cultural Institute in Warsaw and organised in cooperation with the Aarhus Billedkunstcenter.

In her practice, Sophia Ioannou Gjerding, a graduate of the Jutland Art Academy, strive to understand contemporary cultural image production and how recent imaging technology creates new visual perspectives and spatial dimensions. Gjerding is interested in the narratives that we inherent and adapt. In her works she draws images from their specific context and into new animated compositions, soundscapes, and installations as part of a continuous examination of and reflection on our contemporary image world.