KATARZYNA ZOLICH – CORRECTION. COMMUNITY OF THE FUTURE
Photographs by the local artist depict the lives of alternative communities living in two Polish eco-villages, who seek and create contemporary utopias.
Katarzyna Zolich is an artist from Bielsko-Biała, a PhD student at the Faculty of Art of the Pedagogical University in Kraków, and a graduate of Cultural Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Her latest research project comprises a series of photographs and collages, a photo album and a video.
The project “Correction. Community of the Future” is part of Katarzyna Zolich's doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Professor Halina Cader-Pawłowska. The work focuses on alternative communities seeking and creating contemporary utopias. The author writes about utopia as a kind of vision, system - she places utopia on the side of ideas. Correction, on the other hand, is a process relating to a certain vision, but carried out in an imperfect reality – we can only make a certain correction of reality.
The exhibition presents a series of photographs by Katarzyna Zolich capturing the life of the community in two Polish eco-villages: magic rituals and spiritual transformation, rebirth, individual standards and a new social contract. These are the Eco-village of Brzozówka in Łódź and the Eco-village of Bhrugu Aranya in the municipality of Jordanów in Małopolska. The private photographs used in the exhibition are part of a collection deposited in the Blinken OSA archive by the Private Photo and Film Foundation (Privát Fotó és Film Alapítvány) from Budapest.
Katarzyna Zolich:
The exhibition "Correction. Community of the Future ”focuses on utopia in the context of ideological correction as well as searching for and creating utopias as a panacea for the existing reality.
I was attracted to the visual language of communities creating contemporary utopias. I wanted to see what it looks like, what it evokes, what it hides. I focused on the social spaces, symbols, gesture and actions undertaken by these communities. The project also addresses the various gestures and records of reality contained in the material heritage, which serve as visual manifestation of that which is hidden and unconscious in a given era.
Katarzyna Zolich – was born in 1983 in Bielsko-Biała.
Photographer, graduate of Culture Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (2009) and the Academy of Photography in Kraków (2014); PhD student at the Faculty of Arts of the Pedagogical University in Kraków. Winner of the scholarship of Spółdzielnia Młodych Twórców (2013), scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for the project “Catalogue of Invisible places” (2014, 2019), scholarship of the Mayor of Bielsko-Biała in the field of culture and art (2015) and the Wacław Felczak Institute of Polish-Hungarian Cooperation (2020). She was selected for the publication of “Debuts” in 2014 as one of the 36 most interesting debuting artists. In 2017, she participated in the residency programme at Vera & Donald Blinken Open Society Archives in Budapest, Hungary, and in the Erasmus programme at the UGR University in Granada, Spain.
Solo exhibitions include: “Opis gęsty”, Debuts, TIFF Festival, Centrum Kultury Agora, Wrocław (2013), “Coordinates”, PDF, Wuppertal, Germany (2015), “Zaplecze władzy”, ArtZona, Kraków (2017). 2018 saw the publication of the artist's first photo book, created in collaboration with Beatrice Bergamo: Vivir en Valparaíso”, Granada: TRN – Laboratorio artístico transfronterizo (Spain 2018).
The artist is an active member of the Paper Beats Rock foundation, where she assists in the creation and organizations of events popularizing knowledge about zines and photo books. She organizes and conducts editorial workshops all over Poland. Her interests include collective work and social issues, especially in relation to the symbolism of power and symbolic violence.
Together with Alicja Jakimów, she created a book about emotions for children, “Oh Boo - On the Trail of Feelings”.
Since 2019, he has been running an online self-publishing library under the banner of Małe publishing.
She lives in Bielsko-Biała.
Galeria Bielska BWA, Café Club Aquarium
The exhibition runs from 28 May to 30 August, 2021
as part of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the merging of Bielsko and Biała.
The opening: Friday, 28 May, 6 pm
During the opening, Katarzyna Zolich will present her work and talk about the development of the project.
The opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by a concert - a relaxing journey with unique sounds and delightful vibrations created by crystal bowls, crystal harp, shamanic drum, Himalayan bowls, koshi bells and other ethnic instruments. The presenter, Alma Fortuna, is known for her love of living in harmony with nature, referring to folk tales and traditions of natural healing, practicing sound, movement and art therapy. She is an instructor of expression therapy and relaxation techniques.
