Answering comprehensive to this question I should write a thick book (laugh).
Art is a basic component of human nature and each culture. One of the key ways to manifest creative abilities of man - a set of conscious human activities, resulting in a aesthetic object called the artwork (eg. painting, sculpture, building, film, piece of music, stage piece, photography or happening).
Since the beginning of human existence on earth, in all ages and cultures, there was a desire to create an art.
You can not present a history of any age without reference to the art of this era, which, like science was a necessary and important component of the ruling all the systems. Contacts between continents, countries, regions would not be as intense, if not functioning art as a powerful mean of communication and exchange.
Art in all times and places are limited bond between perception and imagination: artists of different cultures gave a visible form of invisible matters, such as symbols or symbolic meaning to the visible forms.
We accept the phenomenon of art as something completely normal, natural, not thinking about the obvious things: a significant proportion of people are reading books, listening to the music, going to the theatre, cinema, visiting exhibitions and monuments - why? If we simply answer “They are looking for entertainment” it will explain nothing. Because why, getting into other people’s artwork and faith, it entertains us, relaxes. Why identification with the painting, music and the image of the characters of the novel, a play or a movie affects our inside so strongly?. Maybe people want to be someone more than themselves only? Maybe through the art we are escaping from worse to better life? To the more transparential and fair world? And all those without taking a risk. fleeing the worst being in better survival in risk-free? It is a piece of art which frees us for a moment from the "bonds of existence," neutralizes social differences, creating "world community", without class division, national differences causing that people can understand much more and change the world.
Art from the dawn of history taught, communicated, gave solace and joy. We can boldly say the art always has, is and will remain the "book of life".
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Agnieszka. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?
As I mentioned before, my early paintings were dark, cold, catastrophic, full of pain and definitely monochromatic. I'm sure that both the themes of the artworks as well as their coloristic resulted from difficult life I had and from many traumas I passed.
Few years ago, I started intensive psychotherapy which significantly changed and is still changing perception of myself, other people, surroundings, modifies a lot in my life helping to understand more. This strongly impacted my art. This year, with an exhibition titled "Mono Closing" I symbolically ended monochrome and dark period of my creativity. Simply I could not resist not to use the colours, which I was omitting on purpose before. I have abandoned bad feelings and dark thoughts. Rather, they abandoned me (lough) and I am extremely happy about that starting the new artistic period.
Because I paint intuitively, basing almost exclusively on emotions, it is very difficult to predict which art direction I will follow and which topics I will touch in the future. However, It does not bother me at all, on the contrary, makes me excited about the future and what it will bring in the creative dimension.
Also in the interview, I mentioned that I create design objects (mainly furniture and lamps). Recently, I also devote a lot of time to this topic.
As for the future projects. First of all, this year, I want to close on a doctorate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź - Interior Design and Fine Arts faculty. In my PhD studies touch very important subject of “healing architecture” designing cardio surgery unit for the oncology hospital in Łódź. In Poland, hospital patients are suffering in badly designed interiors, mainly due to lack of architects’ knowledge about how strong influence has interior architecture (light, acoustic, colours, materials, sound and even art) to the recovery process. There is no literature on this subject or it is very weak therefore I also plan to write a book in the future.
Exhibition of my painting are held every two months. This year, the most interesting event might be in July when I am going to paint with the construction silicone life, at the giant stage for around 1000 people. For sure It will be very exciting. But May exhibition in Łódź might also bring a lot of joy to the viewers. My goal is to come with retrospective exhibition of my artworks with the participation of my friends artists (painters, sculptors, photographers and musicians) and their creations.
This will be kind of summarise of my artistic activity I Poland because end of the year I am planning to relocate to the United States. I am already under process of searching proper art promotor to assist me to develop on the US market. and I strongly hope I will be able to win hearts and minds of the American audience. The same as in Poland, I also intend to continue interior design activity.
These are my plans but…… I'm not a believer but I like this assignment: "tell the God about you plans, you will make him only laugh" (laugh). Anyway, I strongly hope that all goes according to the schedule in the nearest future.
I Also wish to thank you for the great and fascinating conversation. It was the real pleasure. Let me to wish you a lot of successes and next wonderful interviews with great artists in the future.
To the readers of this interview I am sending a lot of worm feelings.
de-identify myself, by losing my roots, my culture, I would be very happy. Unfortunately the human being does'nt choose the place where he is born. He grows up in a society that automatically identifies, through education, culture, family... More than ever I think it's more important to go on a way of self-knowledge with the aim to meet “the other”.. This other without which we can not exist. It's the same for the artist. It is more important for me to be focused on my practice than to try to define it according to esthetic criteria of identification. It's probably the reason i like to remember the painter Matisse who said or wrote that an artist must never be prisoner of himself, prisoner of a style, prisoner of a reputation.
Would you like to tell us something about your background? Could you talk a little about experiences that has influence the way you currently relate yourself to your artworks?
All my way is influenced by encounterings.
It began by the meeting with my professor of literature at school. More than giving French or Literature classes, she brought us to discover texts, movies, plays, visual artworks and to think about on what we saw or read.. Thanks to her that I met Pierre Vincke, a theatredirector who was worjink in the tradition of Grotowski ... Both of them have led me to go to theater school. In this school I had meetings. Meetings with artists but also and especially human beings that made me discover. I always need o discover rather than to master a practice. It's probably the reason my encounter with Monica Klingler and Boris Nieslony was decisive for me and led me on the path of Performance Art which is a form still difficult to define. Each performance artist has a different definition of what it is...
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about race and ethnic identity in visual culture?
No I don't have a specific artwork that has influenced my artistic practise but many.
I'm influenced by some philsophers as well as poets or musicians or dancers or visual artists but also by some places or landscapes or atmospheres ... For some years, I was used for example to go to India where I was used to follow some traditionnal muscians or to learn bharatanatyam and practice vipassana meditation... Of course this experience has impacted my art work.... This brought me to think and work differently... My experience in India brought me to discover traditionnal strong art and paradoxally to the way of Performance Art. But there I see one common point: to make no separation between art and life and to be here and now, without projection on the future.
It's difficult for me to speak about race and ethnic identity. But I can say that today we miss more and more this notion of “to be here and now” which is more present in some cultures ... By practising Performance Art, it's my way to be connected to this way of thinking. And even in this field actually it's more and more difficult. The society and the art world brings us more and more to plan in advance, to define our work, more than to do. Just to do. To do what we deeply need.
And of course, my encountering with Black Market International and later the notion of Open Source or Open session via PAErsche have also a big impact on my work. When we go on that, each of us perform by sharing time and space but without trying to convince each other on some common way. This is for me a wonderfull way how we can meet each other, regardless of our origin, our race or our “identity”...
Many of your works carry an autobiographical message. Since you transform your experiences into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.
My memory is clearly a starting point to create. I don't have any autobiographical message. I use my personnal experience ( what I feel , what I see, what I learn, what I ear...) to work. It's a motor or a material. I'm not able to paint, so I can't do something with red or white or yellow or black colors. All I have is life, a body alive. And I need to do something with that...
My sensation about life sometimes is too intense then I need to transform this intensity in some action. Some artistic action... If people can take something from this action this is great... but I don't want to give them “a specific message” or to control the translation of my experience.