Zuzanna Litawińska, Aleksandra Szczodry / Ointment / within the artist residency

Zuzanna Litawińska i Aleksandra Szczodry
Ointment
within the artist residency

Opening
22.06.2023 / 6 p.m.

Exhibition
23 – 28.06.2023
Centre for Creative Activities in Ustka / ul. Zaruskiego 1a

Curated by Weronika Teplicka

Maść (ointment) is an undertaking carried out by a pair women testing different ways of understanding reality and seeing which ones will soothe and be absorbed into the body and spirit. The word maść can evoke various associations, from an apothecary meticulously measuring out ingredients in a sterile interior, to an old hag grinding herbs in an ancient mortar. It can refer to the healing ointment we apply to our bodies when something ails us, or to a magical substance, like the one that made Margarita from Bulhakov’s novel fly to the ball. Finally, maść (in polish language) can also refer to the colour of skin or fur, stimulating reflection on belonging to a species, race or social group. Maść project explores and combines these associations. It provides a record of the search for one’s place in the world, looking at one’s own difference, discovering one’s own femininity, recognizing one’s own conditions and bonds of belonging. It is a place of putting on and taking off masks, of rational analysis and magical combining of elements.

Zuzanna Litawińska – born in 1989. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 2018. Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture for 2019, as part of the scholarship she recorded tales and stories of women from different parts of Poland, which she then incorporated into a multimedia exhibition. She works in a variety of media. Her work is inspired by nature, anthropology, primal beliefs and symbols. She often uses plants, or parts of plants, in her works.

Aleksandra Szczodry –  born in 1983. Multidisciplinary artist, PhD in art (2019). Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2019). Her painting work explores the spiritual condition of women in the contemporary world. As an advocate of methods of deep transformation, she explores the essence of focusing on the inner development of the individual and learning about oneself through spiritual practices, working with myths and elemental energies. Her works have been presented at A.I.R. Gallery in New York (USA), the Art Armoury in Gdańsk, Saint-Luc Gallery in Liège (Belgium), the Mazovian Centre for Contemporary Art ‘Elektrownia’ in Radom, Salon Akademia Gallery in Warsaw, Wozownia Art Gallery in Toruń, O’Flaherty Gallery in New York, and more.

 

Photos: Weronika Teplicka, Zuzanna Litawińka, Aleksandra Szczodry
Photos from the exhibition opening: Krzysztof Tomasik