AIR Wro: artist talk with Belarusian artists + presentation of works (2021-05-18)

Idea

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Culture Zone Wrocław invites you to an open-air artist talk with three Belarusian artists: Ulyana Nevzorova, Dmitri Doroshenko and AlesiaMaisei, taking part in the AIR Wro’s residency programme. The meeting organized as part of the Belarusian Spring project is not only to present artists work, but also to facilitate the introduction and exchange of experiences with the Wrocław community. Each resident is living in different city and creates variety works, created in completely different contexts, which we want to present and confront during the meeting.

Open-air artist talk

The meeting will start at 7:00 PM at the Receptions’s neon yard (Ruska 46 street). You will be able to take part in the event both “live” (e-mail registration required: airwro@strefakultury.pl – limited number of places) and online thanks to the broadcast on Facebook on the following websites: AIR Wro, Pracownia Komuny Paryskiej 45 (Komuny Paryskiej 45 Workshop), Recepcja (Reception) and Strefa Kultury Wrocław (Culture Zone Wrocław). Whole meeting will be held in Belarusian with translation into Polish.

Meet Belarusian artists

UlyanaNevzorova, an artist born in 2001, currently lives and works in Minsk. She works with techniques such as illustration, graphics, street art, photography and video. She graduated from art school in 2018 and then the European College of Liberal Arts in Belarus in 2019. Actively participates in the “Belarusian School of Human Rights” program. The current situation in the country had a strong influence on the work of Ulyana. The main themes of her work concern the violation of human rights in Belarus.

Dmitry Doroshenko (Dr Oy), artist born in Pinsk, graduate of the Pinsk Art School and the Belarusian State Academy of Arts in Minsk. He deals with graphics, installations and other forms in public space. He is interested in the concept of interaction of art with the surrounding space and man.

AlesiaMaisei, an audiovisual creator from Grodno. She deals with multimedia art, photography and film, studies cinematography at the Film School in Katowice. Her work consists of series of creative photography which reflect emotional experiences, visions of a sensitive mind and experiments with visual form.

“Belarusian Spring”

A series of artistic residencies realized as part of the Culture Zone Wrocław’s programme – AIR Wro. It is a continuation and extension of the Belarusian Winter project; the spring edition is carried out in cooperation with the Culture Zone Wrocław’s Neighbouring program – in their Komuny Paryskiej 45 Workshop working space.

Safety during the meeting

The event will be organized with the required safety and precautionary rules. Please bring personal protective equipment (e.g. masks) with you. “Live” meeting will be open to people after prior e-mail registration (e-mail: airwro@strefakultury.pl). Taking care of each other’s safety and health, we also ask you to keep a social distance (2m) and to use disinfecting liquids at the event site.

Facebook event: [link: https://fb.me/e/2cnEGODJd]

Idea

The team of the artist-in-residence programme AIR Wro would like to invite you to the premiere of an interview with Volha Martynenka, who participated in the residency project called Belarusian Winter which take a place in November last year. The project was dedicated to Belarusian visual artists who live, study or work in Poland and have been brought here by the revolution. Realised under the banner of AIR Wro, the residency of Culture Zone Wroclaw undertook a reflection on the role of women in the context of the current growing manifestations in Poland, Belarus and many other countries of Europe and the world.

By providing creative space to the invited female artists, the coordinators of the AIR Wro programme had the opportunity to learn about their individual stories and experiences. Thanks to the cooperation with Joanna Synowiec, curator and animator, who conducted a series of interviews with them, we will hear about their memories, personal choices of migration to Poland, artistic inspirations and authorial activities of Belarusian women artists.

Premier

The premiere of the video interview with Volha will take place on 22 March at 5 pm on Culture Zone Wrocław’s YouTube channel. The interview is conducted in Polish with the option of choosing an English translation.

Interview with Volha Martynenka

A visual Belarusian artist, she has lectured on video art at the independent ECLAB university. She comes from Minsk, where in 2016 and 2017 she co-organized the international queer festival TOUCH. In an interview with Joanna Synowiec, she talks about the course of two editions of this event, and also draws the landscape of industrial Minsk from several years ago. Currently, Volha lives in Wrocław, where she creates two-dimensional works. Since, due to the pandemic, the events cannot take place in the same format as before, the artist had to reevaluate her previous practices focused on photography of cultural events and performances. In the interview, Martynenka points out the precarious nature of the artist’s profession:

I think not everyone is like David Hockney and not everyone can earn money with their paintings or photos. Unfortunately, many people who do great art are also waiters, programmers, baby sitters. – confesses the artist.

Schedule of publications:

8.03 Paulina Komarowa | more about the artist | watch the interview

15.03 Zlata Lebedz | more about the artist | watch the interview

22.03 Volha Martynenka | more about the artist
17:00 • the premiere of the 3rd interview

29.03 Jana Shostak | more about the artist
17:00 • the premiere of the 4th interview

Idea

The team of the artist-in-residence programme AIR Wro would like to invite you to the premiere of an interview with Zlata Lebedz, who participated in the residency project called Belarusian Winter which took a place in November last year. The project was dedicated to Belarusian visual artists who live, study or work in Poland and have been brought here by the revolution. Realised under the banner of AIR Wro, the residency of Culture Zone Wroclaw undertook a reflection on the role of women in the context of the current growing manifestations in Poland, Belarus and many other countries of Europe and the world.

Premiere

The premiere of the first video interview with Zlata Lebedz will take place on 15 March at 5 pm on Culture Zone Wrocław’s YouTube channel. The interview is conducted in Polish with the option of choosing an English translation.

Interview with Zlata Lebedz

Belarusian painter and performer, student of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. She has been living in Poland for four years. Zlata is interested not only in 2D formats, but more and more often she focuses on performative activities, especially in the area of feminism, about which she talks through the prism of her own experiences.

As she says: Studying in another country is interesting for a young artist, but I can see that art in Poland is permeated with Polish nationality. It is not a bad thing. However, for an outsider, the creative process in such an environment becomes a challenge.

In an interview, the artist talks about her inspirations from everyday life, and also she shares very sincere reflections on femininity, protests and Belarus.

Schedule of publications:

Idea

The team of the artist-in-residence programme AIR Wro would like to invite you to the premiere of an interview with Paulina Komarowa, who participated in the residency project called Belarussian Winter which take a place in November last year. The project was dedicated to Belarusian visual artists who live, study or work in Poland and have been brought here by the revolution. Realised under the banner of AIR Wro, the residency of Culture Zone Wroclaw undertook a reflection on the role of women in the context of the current growing manifestations in Poland, Belarus and many other countries of Europe and the world.

The premiere of the first video interview with Paulina Komarowa will take place on 8 March at 5 pm on Culture Zone Wrocław’s YouTube channel. The interview is conducted in Polish with the option of choosing an English translation.

Interview with Paulina Komarowa

A student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw talks about her series of photographs immortalising her friends and colleagues from her childhood. The artist grew up in Belarus. Although she was supposed to become a journalist, her interests turned to photography. It is worth noting that the interview was conducted in November last year, when the intensity of protests accumulated both across the eastern border (public opposition to the elections in Belarus) and throughout Poland (the All-Poland Women’s Strike). […] Everything has already changed. We will certainly not be the same as we were before this summer. – confesses the artist in the interview.

Schedule of publications:

8.03 Paulina Komarowa | more about the artist

17:00 • premiere of the 1st interview

15.03 Zlata Lebedz | more about the artist

17:00 • premiere of the 2nd interview

22.03 Volha Martynenka | more about the artist

17:00 • the premiere of the 3rd interview

29.03 Jana Shostak | more about the artist

17:00 • the premiere of the 4th interview

Idea

Culture Zone Wrocław and Fandom invite you to a meeting with the participants of the AIR Modernism residency, which is a summary of their research on Wrocław’s modernism. The event officially ends the month-long stay of foreign residents in Wrocław.

Notes from Wrocław’s modernism

Three projects by Diana Felber (Germany), Levan Asabashvili (Georgia) and Marta Smektała (Poland), although different in many respects, pay attention to how to study the urban fabric in difficult times. The residents visited the most important points of modernist architecture on the map of Wrocław, worked with archives and, despite pandemic difficulties, participated in city walks, cinema screenings as part of MIASTOmovie festival or events organized by local institutions. We encourage you to talk with residents about their stay in Wrocław and how they used and will use the information collected over several weeks.

Entry and safety of the meeting

The conversation will be conducted in English. Please take precautions, wear masks and disinfect your hands during the meeting. Entry is free, but due to our common safety and limited number of places, registration is required. If you are interested in participating, please send a message with your name and phone number ti the following e-mail address: airwro@strefakultury.pl.

Thinking about your safety and therefore the limited number of available places, we decided to also live broadcast the meeting on AIR Wro Facebook. We are also waiting for your questions, which you can ask in your comments.

AIR Modernism

An international and partnership based residency project focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to modernism. The purpose of the residence is to map how Wrocław, Chemnitz and Tbilisi reflected pan-European ideas, i.e. modernism, what was their status in the past and what is it today, and how changes in time and space (East / West) influenced modernism and its perception? The residence is also to network Polish, German and Georgian artistic circles and institutions. Selected residents had the opportunity to conduct a field study on the basis of which they created their own research / art / design projects. The project was carried out in cooperation with the Culture Zone Wrocław, the City of Chemnitz applying for the title of ECoC 2025, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz and Tbilisi Architecture Biennial and will be developed until 2025.

Idea

Culture Zone Wrocław invites you to a meeting with the Mexican visual artist Pablo Ramírez González as part of the Overdue Time Off / Zaległy Urlop artistic residency. The artist talk, which will take place at the neon courtyard of the Reception (Ruska 46 street), will be accompanied by an exhibition of photographs of the resident. The meeting will be held in English.

As a photographer, he explores the relationship between the artist’s free time and professional work. During the meeting, Pablo will talk about his artistic practices, topics that inspire him and the series of photographs entitled “Jungleporn”.

“Paradise Vacation”

Before coming to Poland Pablo Ramírez González worked in the mayan jungle of Tulum, one of the trendiest location for alternative tourism in The Mexican Caribbean, a hot spot for tourist looking for „spiritual experience“. A photographic series „Jungleporn“ is an attempt to portrait this environment, its contradictions and such issues as neohippie and spirituality.

The artist taking part in the residence Overdue Time Off/ Zaległy urlop is fascinated by the relationship between work and leisure time and the topic of modern tourism.

Pablo Ramírez González

Mexican artist was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. The artist has a master degree in artistic production and visual arts. He graduated from the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos, UAEM (Mexico). Less than 3 days after arriving in Poland he encountered the problem of being unable to travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pablo has a master degree in artistic production and visual arts. He graduated from the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos, UAEM (Mexico). The artist creates many projects which involve local communities, e.g. in 2019 he cooperated with the Identitat collective from Barcelona on the project “Ecosystems of recreation”. He did a map for undocumented migrants then. Other projects are mainly intermedia installations, photo projects, murals and artistic research projects.

Meeting safety information:

Only people wearing a mask will be able to participate in the meeting. Taking care of each other’s safety, the organizers ask for social distance (2m) and for the use of disinfecting liquids at the event site.

The residency project Overdue Time Off / Zaległy urlop is part of the AIR Wro residency program, study visits and international cooperation of the Culture Zone Wrocław.

Join the event on facebook!

Idea

The third project created as a part of BERLIN_cultural forum_WROCŁAW – a meeting of creators and organizers of culture from Wrocław and Berlin, whose aim is to network and co-create projects combining different disciplines of art.

Everyone’s meeting at the station.
The dance continues and our journey is about to begin or has just ended. The inspiration for the search is the “essence of transit“, penetration and movement, co-creating our contemporary liquid reality. More and more people, for personal, professional, political or economic reasons, are on the road and in constant motion.
The show will begin at the Ostkreuz railway station in Berlin before the train to Culture leaves for Wrocław around 12:30. It will be continued on the train to Culture and at intermediate stations and after the arrival to Wrocław. The final is planned again in the evening at the Ostkreuz station in Berlin.

Ostkreuz Berlin 12:40 -> Kulturzug / Train to culture -> Wrocław 16.48 -> Ostkreuz Berlin 21:19

Authors, artists:

Andreas Kaiser (music) – he was learning to play the organ under the supervision of a Peter Wackwitz and training as church musician with Martin Blindow, Münster. Studied sound engineering at the HdK Berlin. He took a piano lessons with Wilhelm von Grunelius. For many years he has worked as an organist in Münster and Berlin, in the same time he is composing film music (for over 15 years now).

Anja Schäplitz (dance, singing) – dancer, choreographer, musician, trained at Laban Centre, London.
Anja has produced and choreographed a variety of cross-generational community arts projects working with people with all abilities and from diverse cultural backgrounds specializing in site specific choreographies in urban spaces, such as London and Stockholm. She lives in Berlin since 2010. Anja is a dancer at company no thrills since the early nineties. In 2014 she co-founded the Berlin-based non- profit organization Tanz & Theater im PHYNIX e.V.. In 2015 she joined the Global Water Dances Performance Kollektiv Berlin as a choreographer. Two years later she became jointly as an Artistic Director. Anja is also bass guitarist and singer with Lerch & Band.

Hanna Szymczak (dance) – dancer, choreographer, and performer. Her main styles include contemporary, modern, improvisation, and contact. She has a bachelors in Leadership & Performing Arts from Hope College in Michigan, USA and a masters in Performing Public Space from Fontys University in the Netherlands. She is also a Fulbright Fellow alumnus of the German-American Fulbright Program. Hania has created, performed and taught in Germany, India, Greece, Turkey, Poland, the USA and beyond, including at SLOT Art Festival and representing Poland in Moving Visegrad, a choreographic residency during the 3rd Visegrad-Turkish Culture Festival in Istanbul.

Sylvia Tazberik (dance, singing) – soprano and theatre teacher. Born in Slovakia, she spent her childhood in Berlin. She studied classical singing in Dresden and Berlin. Since her graduation she has worked as a freelancer, sings in opera choirs and also performs as a soloist in her own music programs.She began learning Polish four years ago. She is also a theatre teacher and works with students and adults, offers opera workshops and works with enthusiasts.

The project is supported and financed by the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe.

Idea

The title BODYWHOLENESS was created by combining the words body and whole, in a synthetic way it refers to the issues of the project. It is an attempt to think of man as a holistic being, in which carnality is inseparably intertwined with the soul and mind. Such an attitude is important, especially today, when busy with everyday life, overwhelmed by media messages, bombarded by visual stimuli, we forget about the body, we think only about its external surface – its appearance. We cease to be in the body, to be the body, to be the BODYWHOLENESS. Is it possible to take at least a small step to be closer to the body, as is used to be?

We invite you to take part in the intermedia performance of Mateusz Czyczerski (performance) and Joanna Szproch (camera/photography) on October 4th, at 19:00 in TIFF Center. This action is the result of a meeting between the medium of photography, which is commonly used to aestheticise and objectify carnality with the art of performance based on deep and often extreme contact with the body. It is an attempt to overcome one’s own boundaries, both artistic and bodily. The curator of the project is Agata Ciastoń.

The performance will last about 2 hours, it’s script and finale is not planned. You can join at any time, as well as leave the room.

The project was created as part of Berlin_forum kultury_Wrocław initiated and implemented by Convivium Berlin e.V., Kulturzug / Train to culture and Culture Zone Wrocław as part of the AIR Wro program – in cooperation with TIFF Center and GLOGAUair. Project BODYWHOLENESS is supported and funded by the Senate of the City of Berlin for Culture and Europe.

Idea

“BODYWHOLENESS” project, created in cooperation with photographer Joanna Szproch (Berlin), performer Mateusz Czyczerski and curator Agata Ciastoń (Wrocław).

The workshops, prepared by the artists mentioned above will be divided into two parts. Practical activities will be preceded by a short introduction to the issues of carnality, shame and femininity/male in art and culture. In the practical part, the participants will take a part in dance and movement classes, and the work with the body will be aimed at self-expression. The classes will also include a photography workshop inspired by material prepared together with the choreographer, consultations with artists, discussion and the work effects presentation.

~ registration is obligatory ~

Workshops are conducted in Polish and participation is free of charge, after prior registration by 26 September at the latest, through the application form available HERE [pl version]. The meeting will take a place at TIFF Center on Ruska Street 46a/9 in Wrocław. The number of places is limited.

Registration for the workshop means simultaneous consent to the processing of personal data described in the document: HERE [pl version].

~ important ~

No photographic, choreographic or dance experience is required to take a part in the workshops! We will not teach you how to dance or how to photograph. Priority is #BODYWHOLENESS. The participants should have a telephone with a camera with the possibility of sending pictures. Please, dress comfortable, easy to be in a move outfit. Workshops will last from 10.00 to 17.00 (with an hour break around 14.00).

~ workshop leaders ~

Joanna Szproch: is an artist active in the field of photography and a lecturer. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź with a Master of Arts degree in 2004, she returned to Warsaw, where she worked on international commercial and artistic projects, developing her own distinctive style. In 2012 she moved to Berlin and redirected her practice to a path full of authenticity and freedom from tradition. From a feminine perspective, she explores the places where the innocent and the outcasts come into contact with each other. In 2016-2018, she conducted the “Photography and Art Direction” course at the HTK – Academy of Design in Berlin. Currently, she is finishing preparing her own photographic book, which is the result of many years of cooperation with her friend and the muse @smilefomedaddy. Joanna Szproch has taken part in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Weserhalle (DE), GlogauAIR (DE) and Melkweg Gallery (ND); she is the author of the zine “Bibgul”; she photographs for both printed magazines and designers, she cooperates with many Berliner artists.

Mateusz Czyczerski: performer/ dancer/actor/educator/pedagogue; currently lives in Düsseldorf. He graduated from the Lower Silesian University of Lower Silesia applied Sciences in Modern Art Design Now, specialization: performance and manager of artistic activities with Art Therapy at the Faculty of Pedagogy. Founder of the foundation for culture and art Sanatorium Kultury and Love Art House art studio. Member of the performative artistic group Dolphin Gang. He realizes his own artistic projects (Ra: and PINK DICK). He works in the areas of performance / movement / dance. Mateusz is the author of the dance style Stilettos Impro Dance, which combines heel dance with authentic movement and improvised dance. In his activities he explores the limits of sexuality, comfort zones and provokes, arranging situations that become uncomfortable. He cooperates with Wrocław Contemporary Theatre, Grotowski Institute and BWA Wrocław Gallery.

Agata Ciastoń: is an independent curator, teacher and writer, member of the Scientific Society of Photography; lives in Wrocław. She received her PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of Wrocław (thesis entitled “Photography and Film: Media Meeting”). She cooperates with public institutions of culture, education and publishing houses. Her main research interests are visuality and cultural involvement of media. In her current curatorial practices she concentrates on archives and the coexistence of different media in artistic projects. She has also developed a strong fascination with the semantic potential of food and plants functioning as a medium in art. She deepens her body awareness and relationship with it through regular practice of meditation.

Idea

Weekend proposition for analog films lovers! This Saturday on 17 August ( 6 p.m.) will be premiered a movie “Window” at the Otwarta Przestrzeń Kultury in the Szczytnicki Park in Wrocław. Fascinated by the so-called Recovered Territories, Judith Röder decided to show this region using a unique tool: a 16-millimeter analog Bolex camera.

At the beginning of this year, German artist once again visited Lower Silesia, this time as part of a study visit organized thanks to the cooperation of the Wrocław Culture Zone and the Wersja Foundation – one of the two organisations from Wrocław whose projects were included in the AIR Wro programme as part of the last edition of the Competition for NGO.

The screening of the film will be accompanied by a meeting about the material heritage and heritage of Lower Silesia and its affiliation. What social and political processes led to the disintegration of some of the extraordinary monuments of Lower Silesia? Is there a visible transformation of the landscape of our region, which took place during two generations? Who and why is trying to save monuments of memory? We will talk with Maciek Wlazło, the author of the blog Beard of Breslau, Angelika Babula from the Anna Foundation in Gostkowo and art historians Agata Gabiś and Jakub Zarzycki about how the places are shaped – both geologically (mines, sandpits, quarries) and culturally (architecture, urban planning) – by their inhabitants.

What does the artist herself say about the film? “Wrocław. Lower Silesia, where the landscape is shaped by various political, cultural and social concepts. Architecture gives testimony, it exists reflecting both memories and memories as well as the present. As an artist, I create the still nature of single frames using silent shots of a still camera. The unstable image of a 16 mm analog camera shows the passage of time. The visible signs of the past are gaining in importance. Dysfunction, loss of usefulness, absence of the original purpose opens the space to beauty.”

Organizers: Strefa Kultury Wrocław and Wersja Foundation

Partners: Wrocławskie Centrum Rozwoju Społecznego, Otwarta Przestrzeń Kultury, BWA Wrocław

Additionally, thanks to the cooperation with the Foundation Instytut Reportażu, Röder’s work will also be presented at this year’s edition of Miedzianka Fest between August 23rd and 25th.