In this talk, the artist explores the three-year-long artistic research project with the “Girls from the Castle”, female inmates of the Warsaw Grochów Detention Centre. “Castle” is a colloquial term for a maximum security prison. Exploring the notion of childhood as a cell, and culture as a prison, she has been working with a group of prisoners for over three years.
Did you know that the convict(s) in the closed ward are not allowed to work? Did you know that they cannot prepare a meal for themselves? They cannot even boil an egg. Did you know that you are never alone in your cell? Do you think that prison makes prisoners better people?
During the workshop, Proszczuk will explore the creative process of this project, as well as the co-production of knowledge and ways of working within a challenging setting. She will present videos and artifacts created during the meetings at the Castle: full-face masks, soft sculptural objects, fairy tale illustrations, and fairy tales made with the inmates.
Eliza Proszczuk (PhD) – visual artist, educator, textile-maker, and author of spatial objects and collages. She is currently working at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw at the Faculty of Interior Design in the Fabric in Architecture Studio. Her work explores themes related to feminism, femininity, and sisterhood, and works with women in prison, patients in addiction treatment clinics, or people with experience of exile. Proszczuk graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Faculty of Painting (2006) and Post St. Joost in Breda, Faculty of Visual Arts (2009). A frequent starting point for her work is the traditional art of north-eastern Poland.
The event series of WARP addresses the relations and linkages of knowledge in research on material culture, curation, technology, and art through lectures and workshops.
You can also participate online via Zoom. Please find the link and the programme of the event series here: https://www.kulturtechnik.hu-berlin.de/en/warp/