Waves
Grupa ŁONO (Marcelina Amelia & Marta Borkowska), Karina Marusińska, Patryk Różycki
BGSW / Ustka
Curator: Michał Żesławski
Graphics: Karolina Pietrzyk and Tobias Wening
The seaside resort provides the background for the exhibition that takes on the character of a “spa.” The artistic gestures and actions it contains are “treatments” administered for the benefit of emotional and spiritual wellness. The works speak of fears, traumas, and also about care work and survival strategies. Their vocabulary are objects, performances and unique rituals, and they draw inspiration from dreams, memories, hypnosis and the healing power of nature.
WAVES emphasise the potential of art as an (art) therapeutic tool that enables the processing of personal stories. Can art be disturbingly moving, while also keeping company, offering support and allowing one to find one’s own reflection in it? Finally, can it include outsiders in the creative process, putting them in the centre of an experience?
The sea – breath, tears, salt and water – is an element that connects bodies. At the show, the body becomes a carrier of emotions and a tool for their release. The activities on offer – workshops, manual work, gesture, touch – open up a space for relief and mutual tenderness. The body – as memory, a map of emotions, a tool of expression – occupies an important role in hydrofeminism which suggests that we are not separate individuals but part of a large inter-species and inter-generational network. It is through our bodies, which mostly consist of water, that we express, experience and dissolve whatever causes pain.
The works on display make it clear that sensitivity is not necessarily a sign of weakness. It can be a creative force – an ability to notice minute traces, personal stories and hidden emotions. It can also be a way of mounting resistance and building communities.
The exhibition has evolved from a workshop, and its eponymous reference to Virginia Woolf’s novel invites us to immerse ourselves in a stream of consciousness where reflections on life, relationships and the passage of time intertwine.
The exhibition is accompanied by texts co-created by voiced experiences of the artists.
Grupa ŁONO (Marcelina Amelia and Marta Borkowska)
An art collective started in 2021 by Marcelina Amelia and Marta Borkowska. The artists combine visual arts with community practices, exploring corporeality, emotions and human relationships with nature. Their paths first crossed at the Secondary Art School in Częstochowa many years ago, but they went separate ways. Marta Borkowska studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, obtaining her diploma in Glass Design in 2012, while Marcelina Amelia emigrated to the United Kingdom where she entered the University of Westminster in London to study Visual Communication and Illustration. Their works have been exhibited, among others, at the Wrocław Contemporary Museum, during the Cracow Gallery Weekend and at the Copeland Gallery in London. The collective’s work interlaces between Wrocław and Brighton. Apart from their joint practice, they are also active as individual artists.
Marcelina Amelia makes paintings and illustrations that have been displayed in many places from New York to Milan and have appeared in such magazines as The New York Times and Art Maze. As artist-in-residence at the Phoenix Art Space and member of the collective Rethinking Eastern Europe.
Marta Borkowska in her work – mainly sketches and artistic fabrics – explores the psychology of human beings, memories and rituals. She balances between art and design. She co-curated the Manuba “Rytuał” Collection during Gdynia Design Days 2024 and is an art educator.
Karina Marusińska
An interdisciplinary artist and socio-cultural animator. The focus of her work is on cultural conditioning, personal experiences and interpersonal relationships. She collaborates with individuals and communities, encouraging them to share their stories. She makes use of irony to interrogate patterns related to gender, exclusion or error status. She graduated from Ceramics Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, where she now works in the Contextual Ceramics Studio as an assistant professor with a postdoctoral degree. A member of the artistic and culinary collective Food Think Tank, and the performance group Łuhuu.
She was among the founders of the designer group Wzorowo (2008-2024), focusing on the social role of objects. She has received grants from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The awards she has won include Talent Trójki, Warto and make me! She has taken part in residency programs, exhibitions and festivals in Poland and abroad. Her works are in the collections of the National Museums in Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław, and in private collections.
Patryk Różycki
A visual artist, writer and podcaster. His work explores autobiographical themes, focusing on social conditioning that results from a person’s origins. His paintings address the questions of class advancement, economic exclusion, closeness and loss, as well as repressed emotions, including shame and fear. He graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk in 2017. He currently lives in Warsaw, where he is running the Guest Art Studio at the Faculty of Design of the Academy of Fine Arts there during the 2024/2025 summer semester. He has been a four-time curator of the Kick-Off-Perfo Performance Festival and co-curated Baza, a festival of experimental film forms. Nominated for the Paszport Polityki Award in the Visual Arts category (2024). His works have been presented, among others, at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Gdańsk City Gallery, Arsenał Gallery in Białystok and Polana Institute which represents him. In 2025, the Polish Institute in Vienna staged Różycki’s first solo exhibition in Austria.
Otwarcie 08.05.2025
Wystawa 09.05–14.08.2025
Around the WAVE exhibition:
BGSW / CAT, Ustka
10 MAY 2025 5pm
“Exhalations”
a workshop on making drawings-exhalations with Grupa ŁONO
17 MAY 2025 6pm
a curator’s tour through the exhibition at the Night of Museums
30 MAY 2025 6pm
07 JUN 2025 5pm
“Unspoken Words Are Incantations”
a workshop around ceramics with Michał Żesławski
28 JUN 2025 5pm
“There Are Different Types of Sand”
a drawing and painting workshop with Patryk Różycki
05 JUL 2025 5pm
“Wailer”
a performance by Grupa ŁONO and meeting with the artists
19 JUL 2025 5pm
“Clearing the Way for Emotions: Anger”
a workshop around ceramics with Karina Marusińska
Honorary Patron
Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodship Mieczysław Struk
Mayor of Ustka Jacek Maniszewski
Media Patron
NN6T
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