Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art
Centre for Creative Activities in Ustka
/ ul. Zaruskiego 1a
Discipline / photography
Period of stay / March – April 2023
Project title / Ukrainian Landscape
Curator
Weronika Teplicka
Artist talk
Centre for Creative Activities in Ustka
4.08.2023 / 1 p.m.
Performance
Ustka promenad
7.08.2023 / 1 p.m.
“The first of my activities during the artist residency will be a performative-drawing called “Ukrainian Landscape”. Its idea is to draw attention to the nightmare of the war that has been going on continuously since 2014. On a large-size white roll, traces of successive days of war will be imprinted in a symbolic way, alluding to the wall notes of defenceless people staying in shelters. I would like to symbolically juxtapose the peaceful and touristic landscape of Ustka with what is happening across the Polish border in Ukraine. The creation of the drawings will be stretched over time, analogous to the developments of the war. I suggest the project be presented in open urban spaces of Ustka. This activity will be complemented by a painting installation entitled ‘Rascists Go Away’. Its main motif will be doormats strewn with flowers. This is my reflection on the slogans spread by Russian propaganda which depict Russian occupiers as the ‘liberators’ of the oppressed Ukrainian people greeted in the streets with flowers. My project will be complemented by workshops referring to the history of Ustka dedicated to the local community and tourists. I would like the participants of these meetings to create their own versions of ‘postcards from holidays’ with positive messages, energy and hope for the future. Let the beauty of the coastal landscape of Ustka and its surroundings, its architecture and multicultural history permeate them.” /Olena Matoshniuk/
Olena Matoshniuk
was born in Lutsk. She lives and works in Wrocław. She graduated from the Painting Department of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław – the studio of Prof. Marian Waldemar Kuczma, and from Lutsk National Technical University, majoring in Design. In 2014-2019 she pursued an individual teaching programme in the painting studio of Vera Konska. Author of solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad. Participant of numerous art plein-airs, workshops and animator of culture and art in a broad sense. She works in painting, performance and video art. She has received the Gaude Polonia scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, she is a three-time winner of the Wrocław Mayor’s scholarship in the field of artistic creation and education, and she has twice been a finalist in the national competition Students’ Nobel Prize in Art. Member of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers. Her works can be found in the collections of the Korsak Museum of Contemporary Art in Ukraine, the Krupa Gallery Foundation and private collections.
