ACTIVITIES
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Karolina Żyniewicz Pop-up Lab
Hosted by: Łaźnia CCA
Sunday, October 17, 2021 | ul. Strajku Dokerów 5,
Karolina Żyniewicz
Karolina Żyniewicz’s project is dedicated to collecting memories and biological traces of the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical and textile masks will be its central point. They have become the symbol of the complicated, pandemic reality full of uncertainty and fear. Photos of people with covered faces will definitely be iconic images of this period. Masks are supposed to protect us from infection, but worn for too long (without being replaced with new ones) they are not very good for our health. However, they will not only survive in pictures but also as waste. You can already find a lot of them in the streets, parks and forests. They are anonymous – we have no idea who wore them. It might have been the virus’s carrier or a person who got sick because of it. He or she might have suffered from other diseases without even knowing.
“At a certain point of the pandemic, in spring 2021, I would collect masks from the streets of Berlin to subject them to biological analysis and discover the traces of life left on them. The masks have their stories which I cannot hear so I decided to change my tactic and collect masks from particular people who leave biological traces on them as they talk about their memories of the pandemic. I want to get to know their personal stories.” – says the artists as she describes her project.
It is an attempt to develop an image of the pandemic times from a collection of memories and biological traces left on the protective masks understood as material memories. Lab analysis and presentation of the collection created during the completion of the project will be conducted in 2/3 years, according to the plan. Then, it will be possible to take a different perspective on them, to distance ourselves.
To take part in the project, you can make an appointment at a given time, as if you were seeing a doctor. I will be waiting for everyone. Each of you will get mu time and attention. Every memory is worth recording. Each mask has the significance of a materiel trace. There can be 5 people in the room at one time, which allows an intimate meeting during which people listen to one another. Each of the participants will be asked to sit in front of the camera separately, put on a fresh medical mask and talk about their memories from the pandemic period. When a participant’s tale is complete, he or she will give me the mask which I will store until the lab expertise.
The recordings will be completed in groups of several people.
Karolina Żyniewicz Pop-up Lab is part of the STUDIOTOPIA project supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. |
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