Małgorzata Goliszewska portfolio June 2019

Małgorzata Goliszewska

PORTFOLIO

Małgorzata Goliszewska Born in 1985. Lives in Szczecin (Stettin), Poland.

Educated and working both in contemporary art and documentary film, often combining and mixing these two fields of expression.

Graduate of the New Media Faculty at the Academy of Art in Szczecin and the DOK.PRO documentary course at Wajda School in Warsaw.

Currently a PhD student at the Poznań University of Art. She exhibited her works in Europe, Asia, USA and Africa. She works with various media: video, installation, performance, text, audio, drawing.

Artist’s Statement I am interested in expanding the boundaries of the documentary and in working directly with other human beings. Actually, there is not much creation in my work; rather, it is a faithful documentary of life as it is.

The events that unfold and the people that I meet are the continuing source of my art. What can be seen subsequently in the gallery is just an aftertaste, a nostalgic effort to recreate moments now gone, an effort doomed to failure as the past can never be recaptured.

I believe that there is no need to create art. Art is already present everywhere. One can participate in art at any time. I don’t feel like someone who is creating new worlds. I am someone who is trying to take part in a world that is already here.

Contact: tel. +48 516 637 403 email: goliszewska@gmail.com address: Cyryla i Metodego 13/8, 71-541, Szczecin, Poland photo: Bartek Wieczorek for Hestia Artistic Journey Foundation

Education 2018 - 2019

DOK.Incubator - international training programme for documentary professionals organized by the Institute of Documentary Film, venues: Donovaly, Telc, Malmö Each year only 8 film projects are selected to participate.

2018

EX ORIENTE - international training programme for documentary professionals organized by the Institute of Documentary Film, venues: Split, Jihlava and Prague 2016 - now

PhD student at the New Media Faculty at the Art University in Poznan 2017 - 2018

DOC LAB POLAND START and DOC LAB POLAND GO documentary courses organized by the Władysław Slesicki Film Fund in Warsaw 2010 - 2015

Art Academy in Szczecin, Painting and New Media Faculty - Master of Art in 2015 2013

Universitatea de Arta si Design Cluj-Napoca, Romania 2011-2012

The Wajda Masterschool of Film - DOK.PRO documentary course 2010-2012

Documentary intermedia course POLSKA.DOC in Warsaw organized by the Association of Creative Initiatives “ę” in Warsaw image from: East Doc Forum at EX ORIENTE 2018

Work as an educator 2019 Conducting documentary film workshops with children, youth and adults as a part of the WE DO. Young Polish Culture Festival in Oslo.

Conducting a series of authored art workshops with women, youth and seniors as a part of Sensations.

Humans and Situations projects in cooperation with the Oswajanie Sztuki association in Szczecin 2016 - 2017 Assistant of dr Karolina Breguła at the Critical Film Studio at the Painting and New Media Department, Academy of Art in Szczecin 2017

Conducting an art workshop with children from an orpanage in Bytom, as a part of the exhibition Watch out! There Are Sharks in the Pond! at CCA Kronika, Bytom 2017

Conducting an art workshop with youngsters from a reformatory youth center in Szczecin as a part of the Art of Culture project, organized by the Culture Incubator in Szczecin 2014 - 2019

Conducting documentary film workshops with children, youth and adults as a part of the Laboratorium Rejs project, in cities such as: Międzychód, Santok, Miasteczko Krajeńskie, Nakło nad Notecią and Słubice, organized by the Kod_Krowa Association 2013

Conducting an art workshop with children aged from 8 to 12, as a part of the Black Room of Colors exhibition, part of the 13 Sphere festival in 13 Muz in Szczecin 2011

Conducting a week-long documentary worshop with children from the village of Kołbacz as part of the Flying Animators of Culture project, organized by the ę Association and Spichlerz Sztuki.

Solo Exhibitions 2019 I Wish You All the Best in the World CCA Zielona Góra Farewell, Sorrow Groszowe Sprawy, Biennale Warszawa 2018 I Wish You All the Best in the World CCA Kronika, Bytom 2017

Made for Love (in collaboration with Maria Szydłowska), Madalinskiego 4/4, Poznan 2015

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish! CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw Thirty Inkubator Kultury, Szczecin Fantomele SOON_ project at Spectra Art Space, Warsaw the first and the last person must have a dog Leto Gallery, Warsaw 2013

Fantomele (with Artur Rozen), Piwnica Kany, Szczecin I’ll Call You When I Get There Upominki, Rotterdam

Works in collections: Małgorzata Smagorowicz’s private collection the Szczecin Zachęta Art Collection the Contemporary Art Collection of the National Audiovisual Institute the PKO Bank art collection the Hestia Artistic Journey Foundation collection

Selected group exhibitions 2019 Travel ergo sum Galeria Biała, Lublin Poland of our dreams Al. Ujazdowskie 8, Warsaw Domestic Works WYKWIT, Wrocław The Hybrid Pawilon, Poznań Homely Tropics WYKWIT, Wrocław Homely Tropics Próżnia, Szczecin A Perfect System ADA Puławska, Warsaw The Great Globe Art Quarter Budapest SUPERMARKET 2019 INDEPENDENT ART FAIR Tropic Pavilion, Stockholm New Curatorial Force Festival SZOK, Szamotuły FORCE FIELD. Polish Emerging Artists Giudecca Art Island, Venice Queen Bee CCA Kronika, Bytom 2018

Capital. Survival 16 Art Review The Wallenberg-Pachaly Palace, Wrocław The Lottery Artel, Poznań On Boredom BWA Galeria Dizajn, Wrocław Everyday Life in Poland Arsenal Gallery, Poznań Love Pireus - Inkubator Kultury, Poznan The Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation Scholarship Exhibition MOCAK, Kraków Waiting for Another Coming CAC Vilnius Waiting for Another Coming Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw 2017

Good Students University of Art in Poznan Watch out! There Are Sharks in the Pond! CCA Kronika, Bytom Girlhood lokal_30, Warszawa Von der Seite betrachtet ohne zu schielen Polnisches Institut Berlin Simultaneity of Events CCA Torun Meerschmerz - morze współdzielone. Echo opery BWA Studio, Wrocław 2016

The Dolphin Who Casts a Net Halle 14, Leipzig (NIE)OBECNOSC Labirynt Gallery, Lublin Young Poland Ludvig Museum, Budapest HOME AT LAST: THE POLISH HOUSE DURING THE TRANSITION Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw Social Design for Social Living National Galerry in Jakarta, Indonesia Municipal Observatory: RESOURCES MIŁOSC Gallery, Torun Rage / Submission New Theatre, Warsaw Through the prism. Third edition Neon Gallery, Wrocław 2015

Test of Spirit CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw Paraflows: Digital Migration Kunstlerhaus, Vienna Nomadic Art Village Hohe Wand, Austria DKV Grand Tour Tossal Gallery, Valencia

16th Media Art Biennale WRO 2015: Test Exposure Wrocław Dans Quelle Vie Tu Monde(s)? Gallerie Rue Francaise by Miss China, Paris Mother’s Day with Małgorzata Goliszewska, BWA Gallery in Kalisz They are here already National Museum in Szczecin Through the Prism. Second Edition. Arsenał Gallery, Poznań Fantomele. SOON_18 Starak Art Foundation, Warsaw 2014

Towards the West GlogauAIR, Berlin Neighbours The Polish Jews History Museum POLIN, Warsaw Sound Developement City Art Tour in Helsinki The Hestia Artistic Competition Final Exhibition Bracia Jabłkowscy, Warsaw Focus Indonesia National Museum in Szczecin, Poland Young Forces Labirynt Gallery, Lublin Images that last kolektyw 1a, Poznań Silent Walk Press House, Riga Character Sewing Władysław Hasior Gallery, Zakopane Might and Glory Scena Gallery, Koszalin 2013

2nd International Video Art Festival OZON Galeria Rondo Sztuki, Katowice Vows of Chastidy CRZ Krzywy Komin, Wrocław Mum, I just really need to focus on my art right now Arsenał Gallery, Poznan GMO Kills Honey National Zacheta Art Gallery in Warsaw Pavilion 0 at Palazzo Dona, Venice The Abandoned Communist Cinema Arsenal, Cetatuie Hill, Cluj-Napoca, Romania The Limits of Fashion Bunkier Sztuki, PHOTOMONTH IN KRAKOW WRO Biennale 2013: Pioneering Values: Separacja Barw. Forward! WRO Atelier, Wrocław UPSIDE ART Willa Lentza / National Museum in Szczecin Black Room of Colours 13 Muz Gallery, Szczecin New Curator’s Forces Collegim Maius, Poznań 2012

Winners of the „Points of View” video festival, Manhattan Gallery, Łódź The European Museum Night - AVI. Video Attractions, Platerówka, Szczecin Analog photography exhibition, The Fountain Alley Gallery, Szczecin Experimental Laboratory, Dłużew New European Underground, Het Nutshuis, The Hague 2011

The 3rd young art festival - Przeciąg, Klub 13 Muz, Szczecin 6th Young Art Triennale, Center of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko Organ Vida International Photography Festival Student Center Gallery, Zagreb Fotofestiwal Łódź Art Center European Museum Night in Szczecin - Introspection National Museum in Szczecin Pomerania of Art - Identity Willa Lentza, Szczecin / Fabryka Karabinów, Gdańsk

Selected scholarships 2019 Polish Film Institute grant 2018 West Pomeranian Film Institute grant The Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation scholarship 2016

Artistic scholarship of the Marshal of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship 2015

The National Culture Center’s Scholarship “Young Poland” 2014

Award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Student for outstanding artistic achievements Scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding achievements The Artistic Scholarship of the City of Szczecin 2013

Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Student for outstanding artistic achievements Scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding achievements The Artistic Scholarship of the City of Szczecin 2012 The Artistic Scholarship of the City of Szczecin Scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding achievements

Selected art residencies and other activities 2019 Dissapearing: a one week art residency in Kozielec organized by CCA TRAFO and W788 Monthly art residency in ZARATAN Art Center in Lisbon 2018 Residency in Lithuania as a research for the Waiting for Another Coming exhibition in CAC Vilnius and CCA Zamek 2016

Residency at the MIŁOSC Gallery in Torun 2015

Nomadic Art Village Art Residency, Hohe Wand, Austria Residency at the quartier21, Museumsquartier , Vienna 2014

Residency in Valenzia as the Hestia Art Travel competition winner Mobile Residency in Riga and Helsinki with the Sound Developement City Sommerexpedition Residency at the Władysław Hasior Museum in Zakopane, Poland.

Residency at the House of Keret in Warsaw Mobile art residency FOCUS_INDONESIA at the Jatiwangi Art Factory in Indonesia 2013

Month residency at Upominki Art Space in Rotterdam 12 day residency in Thailand at the Amazing Thailand Film Challenge in Bangkok 2012 Taking part in an international conference Young Artists Linked In called New European Undergroud as 1 of 5 selected polish artists, The Hague

Selection of prizes won at festivals 2019 The Starak Family Foundation Prize for Polish Emerging Artists: an exhibition during the 2019 Venice Biennale 2018

Dok Leipzig Prize at the East Doc Platform Pitching Forum in Prague II place - Audience Award at Survival 16 Art Review in Wrocław The ColorOffOn Prize at the Kraków Piching Forum during the 58th Kraków Film Festival 2017

HBO Prize at the Kraków Pitching Forum during the 57th Kraków Film Festival 2014

3rd Striking Film Festival in Gorzów – Honourable Mention The Eye of the Young Festival in Swidnica – Special Prize Hestia Artistic Journey Special Prize: Art Residency in Valencia To Love a Human Film Festival in Auschwitz – 3rd Prize 2013

7th IN OUT FESTIVAL: Modern forms of rebellion CCA Łaznia, Gdansk - Grand Prix 3rd Video Art Festival Points of View ms2, Łódz - 2nd Prize International Film Festival ZOOM Jelenia Gora - Best Film Prize 17th Comedy Flm Festival in Lubomierz - Honourable Mention 2012

The Pressure Cinema Film Festival, Leszno - Honourable Mention KolorOFFon Film Festival in Bydgoszcz – Grand Prix The Independent Jan Machulski Cinema Prize, category: Best Independent Documentary of 2011.

Independent Film Festival CK OFF, Przemyśl, PL - Grand Prix and Audience Prize XXI DokumentART Film Festival, Szczecin / Neubrandenburg, PL/DE Westpomeranian shorts - Grand Prix VI OFFELIADA Film Festival in Gniezno – I Prize International Independent Film Festival „Publicystyka”, Kędzierzyn Koźle, PL - I Prize X Happy End Festival in Rzeszow, PL - Prize for Best Independent Documentary The Golden Anteaters Film Festival, Lublin, PL - III Prize Saratov Sufferings Festival, Saratov, Russia - Special Prize Solanin Film Festival, Nowa Sól, PL - I Prize sOFFa Film Festival, Olsztyn, PL - Grand Prix The OFF Discovery of the year 2011 - II Prize 2011

MUVISH FILM FEST, category: documentary - Grand Prix VI International Short Film Festival ŻubrOFFka, Białystok - Honourable Mention XX DokumentART Film Festival, Szczecin/Neubrandenburg, PL/DE Westpomeranian shorts - Grand Prix The „Pressure Cinema” Film Festival, Leszno, PL - Honourable Mention IV Twisted Films Festival, Lublin, PL - Grand Prix Internationalw Film Festival „Publicystyka”, Kędzierzyn Koźle - Honourable Mention The Film Mountain Festival, Zielona Góra, PL - Grand Prix - Golden Mountain FAMA International Student Campus, Świnoujście, PL - Honourable Mention IX Happy End Festival in Rzeszow, PL - Prize for Best Independent Documentary

Filmography

2019 Lessons of Love documentary in progress, Poland 2016 Cafe Smile 20’ documentary, Poland 2015 Three dreams about Gosia 17’ experimental documentary, Poland 2014 Twins 20’ documentary, Indonesia Eighteen 17’ documentary, Poland 2013 Life at the border 40’ documentary, Poland / Czech Republic I’ll call you when I get there 20’ documentary, Poland / The Netherlands Happiness 7’ documentary, Thailand, in collaboration with Artur Rozen 2012 Who loves me 10’ documentary, Poland This type of birds 12’ documentary, Poland 2011 Dress me 16’ documentary, Poland

Lessons of Love

feature-lenght documentary production: HBO, Widok Film Foundation in progress since 2016 Glamorous Jola is the brightest star in Café Smile, a dancing club for seniors. But behind her cheerfulness there’s a tragic story. She’s spent 30 years with an alcoholic husband, raising 6 children on her own, working hard to survive. Jola suddenly realizes that she has little time left and decides to experience some joy before dying. “This part of life belongs to me!” – says Jola and runs away from the marital nightmare to her hometown Szczecin, to take control over her life.

Finally, she can do what she’s always dreamt of: she fools around with her best friends (Lodzia and Jagoda), she dances, writes poems and songs. In Jola’s eyes, the world is always romantic, colorful, dramatic, grotesque even. Such are her costumes, make-up, decorations in her Italian style villa, as well as her songs. The lyrics introduce us to Jola’s deepest dreams, dilemmas and fears. In her songs Jola often speaks of love – something that she strongly believes in, yet never truly experienced. She has very little faith in men, but to her surprise, a strong feeling appears between her and Wojtek, one of her admirers from the dancing club. The problem is, that in Italy there is still Bogdan, Jola’s husband, to whom she promised lifelong fidelity in front of God. “A vow is a vow” believes Jola.

Will she leave her past behind and accept new love? Will she give herself a right to joy despite her religious beliefs? Is it something that will make her happy?

Cafe Smile

20’ documentary, 2016

Cafe Smile is a restaurant in Szczecin, active for more than 50 years. It hosts weekly dances for senior citizens. These events have their regulars who wait all week to dance to their favourite songs, performed live by the Savio Band (Robert and Paulina). The film “Lesson of Love� is a portrait of the place and a collective portrait of its dancers. There is a number of characters, each over 60 years of age, each with a different baggage of experience and different expectations from life and from dancing. They share a love for dance and a longing for love.Each of the characters has a lot of golden advice on love. They share their wisdom with the film director, a young girl with her own dilemmas. It turns out, however, that in the theme of love and relationships, we are all equally confused. All we have left is to dance.

Three dreams about Gosia

17’ 2015 experimental documentary in collaboration with Rafał Zarski The film is based on three dreams that Rafał Zarski had in a short period of time. The figure of Małgorzata Goliszewska plays an important role in each of these dreams. In an attempt to understand those dreams and their hidden meaning (if any), Zarski and Goliszewska decide to replay and recreate everything that happend. Additionally, they ask three different dream interpreteurs about their opinion. The narrator tries to reconstruct particular images from his subconscious, arranging them into a coherent whole. The visual layer of the film is made up of images designed to reproduce individual dreams as faithfully as possible. Apart from traditional video, it uses such techniques as green box and animation. This results in a dreamy film collage.

The project is continued with other people who had dreams about me. watch here: https://vimeo.com/130967441

Twins

20’ 2014, documentary, Indonesia The film was made during a mobile art residency FOCUS_AIR_INDONESIA_2014 organised by the UPSIDE ART Fundation. The main part of the residency took place in the Jatiwangi Art Factory.

I found my indonesian astrological twin sister, born on the same date as me, that is 12.06.1985. She lives in a small village - Burujul and her name is Nining. She has two children and a husband. She doesn’t speak english. She is muslim and she has never been abroad. Her husband is a riksha driver.

I spent 24 hours with her, following her everyday life rhytm and accompanying her in her usual tasks.

We slept in one bed, prayed together in the mosque, cooked, cleaned and made laundry together.

I was surprised with all the attention that the people from the village gave me. They told me that this is the first time a white woman visits Burujul. Everybody wanted to have a photo with me and in every moment I was surrounded with groups of children. This made the whole project different than I imagined. But the kindness, trust and the way everybody invited me to their lives, was a big deal for me.

I continue the Twins project in other countries. watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU8u01vlxB4

eighteen

17’ 2013 documentary, Poland In this film, archive footage from a VHS tape from 2003 are remixed with present interviews with people involved in the events on the tape and with a music video associated with those events by one of the interviewees.

My eighteenth birthday was always a big trauma for me. I organized a giant party in an abandoned house, with 4 DJs and 100 people invited, most of which I didn’t know personally. At the beginning of the party I got so drunk that I couldn’t participate in it anymore. I woke up in the morning to see a devastated house full of strangers. Five of my friends, who were at this party, tries to reconstruct their and mine memories after 11 years. It is accompanied by the Prodigy - No good music video - an unfullfilled ideal of that party. watch here: https://youtu.be/2wVQH0x9bpk

I’ll call you when I get there 20’ 2013 documentary, Poland / Netherlands

The film is a result of a month-long art residency at Upominki Art Space in Rotterdam.

The curator of the project is Weronika Zielinska. from the curators description:

(...) we had no specific expectations for Goliszewska’s contribution in this project. Yet when travelling by train to Rotterdam, the artist encountered a number of events, which irreversibly influenced her approach.

Being desperate and tired of not being able to run away from that situation, Goliszewska decided to give up fighting it, and let it be. Now, after some time spend on working in Rotterdam, she became to realise that such gift of unforeseen events each time brings new subjects into her work. While focusing on the ideas of control and identity, „I’ll call you when I get there” illustrates how the stories that we create in our minds, often intervene with our consciousness so that we start to believe in them actually being true.

We try to protect the ones that we love the most, but how do we know when caring and protecting turns into invigilation or even an obsession? The impossibility to predict what can happen next is the main reason to be afraid and worry about one’s future. However the artist wonders would there be any joy in life without the idea of unpredictability? watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r80kN98Jzx0

This type of birds

12’, 2012 documentary, Poland artistic mentors: Paweł Łozinski and Jakub Piatek Producer: Towarzystwo Inicjatyw Twórczych poster: Agata Królak

From the review by Tadeusz Sobolewski:

Małgorzata Goliszewska, a student from the Art Academy in Szczecin, made a funny film „This type of birds”, about a vegetable shop, besieged by people and pigeons. The owner sells fruits and vegetable, and at the same time feeds the birds. Invisible, he speaks from inside of the booth and is in a constant dialogue with the world, like an ancient greek philosopher. Sometimes, he gives someone a pear for free. The clients come to him, to gossip and to confess, and he talks with everyone. For this man, selling is a reason to meet people. He teaches us how to talk and how to take care of each other.

The film was realised as a part of the POLAND.DOC. workshop, organised by the Creative Initiatives Association in Warsaw and it was partially financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. watch here: https://vimeo.com/35225274

Dress me

16’ 2011 documentary, Poland All my life I’ve been criticized by the people who surround me about the way I look.

Eventually I decided to let them be in charge and tell me how to dress and finally see the image of me they’ve been dreaming of. I let my mother, my grandma and my best friend to dress me for five days. The effects surprised everybody, mostly me.

Selected Awards:

7th IN OUT FESTIVAL: Modern forms of rebellion CCA Łaznia, Gdansk - Grand Prix III Video Art Festival Points of View ms2, Łódz - 2nd Prize

The Jan Machulski Independent Cinema Prize category: Best Independent Documentary Independent Film Festival CK OFF Przemysl - Grand Prix and Audience Prize X Happy End Festival in Rzeszow Prize for Best Independent Documentary IV Twisted Films Festival Lublin - Grand Prix The Film Mountain Festival Zielona Góra - Grand Prix

Dress me is part of the Contemporary Art Collection of the National Audiovisual Institute and can be viewed online at http:// ninateka.pl/film/ksw-malgorzata-goliszewska-ubierz-mnie It was screened in polish TV stations: TV KINOPOLSKA and TVP KULTURA in the period 2012-2015

selected solo exhibitions

I Wish You All the Best in the World 26.06.2018, CCA Kronika, Bytom 15.07.2019 CCA Zielona Góra curators: Agata Cukierska and Katarzyna Kalina

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!

10.12.2015, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw curator: Stach Szabłowski

Thirty 12.06.2015, Inkubator Kultury, Szczecin curator: Małgorzata Goliszewska Masters Diploma at the Art Academy in Szczecin

the last and the first person must have a dog 07.02.2015, Leto Gallery, Warsaw curator: Sebastian Gawłowski

I Wish You All the Best in the World 26.06.2018 - 29.06.2018, CCA Kronika, Bytom curators: Agata Cukierska and Katarzyna Kalina

I’ve read a lot of self-help books: Polish, American, scientific, esoteric, psychological online, I became an expert. For three years I lived surrounded by advice, tips and cautions. (...) The viewer enters a world of a complicated mother-daughter relationship. As the artist admits, this bond was the beginning of her artistic path, and art served as a form of therapy back then. The tragicomical overtone of this relationship gave Goliszewska no choice but to focus on it with her art practice. (...) The artist, seeing her mother’s life failures, does not want to repeat them, so in her adult life she searches for a new source of knowledge and experience. On the way, she meets many mentors, guides and teachers. She seeks masters of truth in astrologists and authors of dozens of self-help books. She looks for her new guide, and after an initial euphoria when she finds one, an inevitable crisis occurs and she starts her search anew.

She meets Jolka, a woman in her sixties, with a brutal past, who despite her age and difficult experiences, starts singing again and dreaming about her first love. At the same time, the artist accidentally meets a retired natural sciences professor, who turns out to be an expert in love and who secretly writes and publishes self-help books under the nickname of Alina Dunin. (...)

After going through a stage of total disappointment with men and feverish searches for understanding, Goliszewska experiences a moment of relief - in the warmth and wisdom of the mature women that surround her. In such a group, conversations are not the most important thing, sometimes it is just enough to dance.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

10.12.2015 - 10.01.2016, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw curator: Stach Szabłowski

Since I was a child, I had a dream of meeting an alien (someone not from this Earth) and

kissing them.

It took me some time to understand that every human and every being in this world would be suitable for this. Alienness began to unfold itself in front of me. Then, there was a yearning for meeting a higher, more evolved civilization, that ours could learn from. Recently I was struck by the fact that such community is living on our planet and developing their culture since 30 milion years, in contrast to our short 200 000 year history. This wonderful civilization inhabits the watery part of the Earth, much greater than ours and mostly untouched, yet undiscovered by us. They are the hosts and we are the aliens here. We are the ones making the mess and they are the ones who can’t keep up cleaning it.

On the 8th of August 2015 two bottlenose dolphins were seen in the Baltic Sea, near Hel. Since then, they didn’t leave me alone. I had to make this exhibition. Let this be that first, symbolic kiss.

My first impulse was to devote a major part of the show’s budget to help dolphins and induce some real change. However, after long research and after consulting experts, I understood that dolphins wouldn’t find money helpful in any way. Therefore, I travelled to Egypt – a place that provided the highest chances of meeting dolphins in their natural environment – planning to shoot a movie. There were several short and very emotional meetings, but I did not manage to document any of them. The film that was created as a result shows my intense longing for the next, even closer contact.

Thirty

12.06.2015, Inkubator Kultury, Szczecin curator: Małgorzata Goliszewska

Thirty was a one day long event, which consisted of an art exhibition, 2 concerts and one drag queen performance, and a 30th birthday party of seven women from Poland, Indonesia, Macedonia, Spain, Israel and Latvia. All of this was presented as a Master of Art diploma, together with the Master thesis on sisterhood.

The exhibition presented 6 different videos, each one documenting a 24-hour process that I spent with each of the sisters. Each video had a different style. Some were looped fragments, some looked like typical documentaries, one was extremely slowed down. Five of the seven astrological twin sisters came to Szczecin to celebrate their birthday and meet each other. Their presence and the party itself were the most important works of art.

Additionally, there was an astrologer present, giving astrologic advice for free.

The project Twin sisters is ongoing .

the last and the first person must have a dog 07.02.2015 - 07.03.2015, Leto Gallery, Warsaw curator: Sebastian Gawłowski

from the curator’s text:

Over three years Goliszewska recorded the sounds she made in her sleep, sounds that she hadn’t remembered making, sounds that came about, it would seem, outside of the artist’s own consciousness.

The recordings depict a range of inarticulate noises and smacking lips to words, phrases, sentences and songs. The recordings formed a sort of sleep journal. The words and phrases are articulated in a remarkably expressive manner – woven through with astonishment, enthusiasm and engagement. In some instances it’s almost impossible to believe it’s the voice of someone who’s asleep. (...)

We have, thus, the title of the exhibition, taken from the sleeping artist’s first recorded uttering, which doesn’t follow any rules of grammar or punctuation, it knows no commas or capital letters. Goliszewska stakes out her own self in a situation where “I” becomes completely alien and unpredictable. It’s still her voice, her manner of speaking and articulation, but the words are no longer familiar or even recognizable. (...) The show is crowned with a song, or rather, the looped phrase: “but I don’t know how that goes in life”, sung by Goliszewska in a hypnotic tone. The phrase becomes a mantra springing from doubts concerning “real-life” and a reversal towards the reality of sleep and one’s own inner workings.

After years of documenting the outside world, Goliszewska has chosen to follow the words of Jung: “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes”.

other works

Astrological Twin Sisters, ongoing since 2014 In My Sleep, ongoing since 2012 2019 score, 2019 Mom’s Room, 2019 The Proffesional, 2018 I Miss No One, 2016 Messages (I go), 2014 Everything, 2013 Zen, 2013 The Flag, 2012

Astrological Twin Sisters

A performative project, ongoing since February 2014

The project is based on the idea of finding one’s astrological twin, a person born on the same date and year.

I am searching for my astrological twin sisters around the world, women born on 12.06.1985 I have already found my twin sisters in a small village in Indonesia, in the capital of Macedonia: Skopje, in a small city in Latvia, in Barcelona, in Tel Aviv and in Kaunas, Lithuania. I also found one in Poland, who is actually a man, but performing at night as Drag Queen Charlotte. The sisters met each other on 12.06.2015 - our 30th birthday in Szczecin, Poland. This was a birthday party, exhibition and my Fine Art Masters Diploma.

I have spent 24 hours with each of those sisters, living their everday life with them. The process is very simple: I always ask the sister to let me spend 24 hours with ther and to be able to record it and also not to make this a special day and not to treat me like a guest, more like a „shadow” of their life.

It’s like saying: “Hey, I don’t know you, you don’t know me, but let’s be sisters for one day!”.

I use this as an opportunity to see how different women of the same age live around the world. The “Twins” project is an attempt to examine women’s life situa­tions all over the world and concentrate on the similarities and differences. It is also a quest exploring the idea of feminity, womenhood, sisterhood, being a stranger, an alien and being close to someone, asking about the global humankind family.

The outcome is usually a video, each time different in form. But that is just a documentation of the process that happend beetween two people. And only these two people were the real viewers.

How do the countries we live in influence us? What makes a sister a sister?And what makes a stranger a stranger? Are we really so far away from each other?

These are the questions I would like to try anwsering with the project „Twins”.

In My Sleep

audio documentary project, ongoing since 2012

„In my sleep” involves sound recording every night and capturing the words I speak in my sleep. I speak much, almost every night and the language I speak in is different, depending on the country I am in. After one week of recording I have about 30 seconds of monologue.

I inspire myself later with those words (which i never remember that I have said and which each time surprise me and scare me a little bit).

During 3 years, I’ve collected 30 minutes of sleeptalking, which have been published by the polish Super label and can be listened to here: https://super-label.bandcamp.com/album/ostatnia-i-pierwsza-osoba-musi-mie-psa

2019 Score

video 1’, music score, 2019

2019 score is a one-minute documentary musical piece. It is based on statistics reflecting seleced aspects of human life on Earth. Each of the instrumental tracks illustrates one of the statistics. This piece can be performed by any group of musicians. Before performing, each of the musicians chooes one statistic and then rolls a twelve sided dice to determine the pitch of sound to be played.

The work is 60 seconds long but it can be played any number of times, virtually indefinitely.

Then, it becomes a real-time reflection of the events happening worldwide.

For example: right now, the following events take place every 60 seconds: 9 AIDS / HIV diagnoses, 59 marriages, 258 births, 108 deaths, 18 deaths of hunger, 120 people are killed in accidents, 58 airplanes take off, Bill Gates earns 15,000 dollars, US national debt increases by 3 million dollars, 5 earthquakes, 2,800 trees are cut down, an average man thinks about sex 10 times, 300,000 tons of ice melt in Antarctica, 7 new Wikipedia articles are published, and 5 books are published.

When we combine those individual sounds, the rigourous, sober and objective statistical data begins to generate music, which may illustrate the rhythm of our human world

Mom’s Room

installation, audio, 2019 Part of the Queen Bee exhibition in CCA Kronika, Bytom

This installation was part of the Queen Bee exhibition about the status of young polish female artists. I didn’t attend the installation of the exhibition nor the exhibition itself.

My mother made the installation in the way that she wanted. The objects are taken from her house, as she collects everything that has to do with my artistic career. She is my biggest fan.

The recordings accompanying the installation are my conversations with my mom, who has big doubts about taking part in the exhibition, about giving away her treasured collection and about me not getting enough money working as an artist.

The Professional

interactive performance, confesional, video screen, 2018

During the 2018 SURVIVAL Art Festival in Wrocław, visitors could at certain times confess their good deeds in a real renessaince wooden confessional. There was always someone sitting inside and listening. We collected 403 good deeds in 5 days. They were written down everyday and subsequently displayed on a screen. Everyday there were more and more good deeds on the screen. We used a screen that is normaly used in polish churches for displaying the lirycs of religious songs.

A professional is the opposite of a confessional. It is a space in which one’s good deeds are confessed – both small and lifechanging ones. Before going to the professional, you remind yourself of moments when you behaved selflessly and momentarily existed only for others. Here you won’t hear clichéd formulas, punishments and rewards, praises and reprimands or feel a sense of guilt. There are only facts – how many good deeds you have accumulated. In the Professional we are pro- not con-. We concentrate on what was good and how we can create more of it.

The work was created and performed by the Dracena Collective: Małgorzata Goliszewska, Szymon Wojtyła and Justyna Popławska

I Miss No One

3’33’’ and 21’46’’ 2016 videoperformance, two-channel video

After a series of painful breakups, disappointments and so-called heartbrakes, I began to seriously wonder about the fact that some couples manage to survive in happiness, love and peace for many years and others, despite the best intentions, part in great pains. Do those happy couples know something or have something that others are missing?

Is love a non-renewable resource? How can you deal with it wisely enough to last for years?

I was looking for answers in Bristol and Teatralna dancing clubs, among the patients from Ciechocinek - married and single men in retirement age, older people and so much more experienced than me. They advised, warned, comforted, assured and even recited poems of their authorship. My last dance was with my father.

After leaving the dancefloor I did not feel wiser in any way. These conversations discouraged me from relationships. I was not sure if I still want to play this game. As provided by spa patients, at my young age, the resource of potentially interested men is enormous. After logging into several web portals, I found that indeed, it seems infinite. For now, I watch them all from a safe distance.

This project was realized as a part of the art residency in MIŁOSC Gallery in Torun, 2016.

summer

Messages (I go) videoperformance 5’ 2014

Every day thousands of messages are addressed to us.

Streets, screens, billoards, papers and other people, speak to us in every second.

In this performance I am walking through Szczecin streets and speaking aloud every message that I see and that is addressed to me. watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GrbM3n2BQA

Everything. Google’s Suggestions for my IP. (Bachelor diploma) 2013 a book of documentary poetry, 50 pages 16 videos, together 60’

You can enter anything into the search box. The computer does not judge us, so we can give it our unlimited trust and ask questions that we would not dare to speak out loud. Every day Google remembers millions of personal secrets and confessions of anonymous users. These statistics are sometimes frightening and sad.

Why after typing: “my father is” the most popular three phrases we receive are: “beating me, harassing me, molestsing me”? After typing: “I do not want” the first place displays “to live” and after “I hate” in turn: “myself, people and my job”.

I am interested in confronting the viewers, with their own fears, thoughts, dreams, secrets, filtered in the ocean of the internet and thrown ashore in the form of Google search suggestions. I present them in the form of poetry, comparable to a short haiku. I hope that such poems can function independently in the world of poetry and art, not always necessarily combined with Google search.

I hope that the recipient will learn from these poems something about themselves, about the Polish online community, and also indirectly and about me. And after reading it will open the browser itself and start exploring this world on their own.

I dreamed of a child

why does the head hurt

I dreamed that I have cancer

why do the ovaries hurt

I dreamed that I died

I dreamed that I was kissing

I dreamed that I was peeing I dreamed that I dreamed

I dreamed that I gave birth to a child

I dreamed that in a beautifull garden I met I dreamed that I was pregnant

why do farts smell bad

why does does the sponge cake fall

why doesn’t blaszczykowski like lewandowski why god doesn’t listen to me why not

why does my abdomen hurt why bvb

why does the stomach hurt

Zen

7 channel video installation with sound, 2013 Seven loading icons are spinning constantly in never-closing circles. The modern popular internet symbol, which symbolises waiting is very similar to the Zen philosophy symbol - a snake eating it’s own tail.

Each of the icons is accompanied by a sound of one of seven Tibethian Zen bowls, The sound is made by rubbing the bowl with a constant, circle movement. Spinning happens in every second of our lives, in every atom of our bodies, in every planet of the universe. Even the smallest elements are in the state of constant spinning. It’s a neverending process, the condition of existence. Realising this, enables to see the definition of the universe in each of the spinning icons. This work is an invitation to meditate on the circle symbol and an opportunity to be here and now for a while.

The Flag

video, 24’ 2012

The work consists of 3 elements: The object - a transparent flag, the same size as a typical polish flag The anthem - a polish disco-polo song: „Majteczki w kropeczki” („Dotted panties”) by the band Bayer Full, streched 800 times in the program PauliStretch.

The video - the flag with the sky in the background, should be played in an endless loop.

Even the most silly polish song one could ever think of, has a sense of sacredness hidden inside of it. watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXThMkgsagY

selected photography projects

Untitled, 2013 Fantomele / Ghosts, 2013 Observation, 2012 selfportrait, 2012 Solstice, 2012 Truisms, 2012 Perfect Imperfection, 2012 Illumination 2012 Out of Focus, 2012 gosia / basia / marysia, 2011 mom//dad, 2011 Analog photography from the period 2008 - 2015

Untitled

Found ID photographs, framed.

Observation

video, 01’15’’, 6 digital photo stills, 2012 The work is an attempt to define what time is, by observing the difference beetween a still image and a moving image. 6 nine seconds long recordings of still objects, confronted with 6 photographs of the same objects, framed in exactly the same way.

What makes the image alive? Can time be seen?

selfportrait

9 digital photographs, 2012 An attempt to identify with my own body.

Solstice

10 digital photographs, 2012 My two grandmothers: Kazia and Marysia, haven’t seen each other for many years.

One of them is in a retirement home. The other one spends a lo to time at home, alone.

I was trying to find common things in their two little worlds and learn something about being old.

Fantomele / Ghosts

aboratory developed frames from found cinema filmreels, 2013 Exhibitions:

Fantomele. SOON_18 Starak Art Foundation, Warsaw The Abandoned Communist Cinema Arsenale, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Fantomele Piwnica Kany, Szczecin, Poland

Truisms

mail art, 31 ID photographs For my open call I got 42 anwsers from people willing to participate in the project, from all around Poland.

Each person emailed me their ID photo and then I sent them an envelope with a stamp, adressed by my own hand, with my address.

They had to write their secret, put it in the envelope and just throw it in the mailbox.

All the envelopes looked the same. 100% anonymity was preserved. I got 31 secrets.

Perfect Imperfection digital photo portraits, 2012

The project portrays the Polish and International impersonators of Elvis Presley: on the photos, from the left: Ryszard Wiercimak/ Elvis is Back/ Szczecin Jacek Zaborowski / Elvis Show / Ciechocinek Krzysztof Jankowski/ Welcome to my world / Łódź

Illumination

9 digital photographs, 2012 A portrait series of people met on the street.

I asked each of the people are they happy. If they said „yes”, I took a picture.

Exhibited in: New European Underground, Het Nutshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands Medialny Stan Wyjątkowy, National Art Museum in Szczecin, Poland

Out of Focus

12 medium-format analog photographs This summer I found myself in Transnistria – a country I didn’t even know existed. I had my camera, a Lubitel 166B, with me and I was trying to catch the feeling of this strange, strange place.

The Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic is a country that does not actually exist. It’s a thin strip of land located beetwen Moldova and Ukraine. It claims to be an independent Republic, but hardly anybody has even heard about it. They have their own currency, their national anthem, their president….

The people I met there have told me amazing stories which I don’t really remember now. All I have left are these photos. The portraits I took are totally out of focus. So is the situation, blurry and unclear.

The photos were published in Mint Magazine (UK).

gosia / basia / marysia 12 digital photographs, 2011

3 women, 3 generations, 3 apartaments.

Gosia, age 25, is me, basia - 53 is my mom and marysia - 77 is her mom and my grandma.

Each on of us lives alone. We are neighbours.

Each one of us has her own world, her own space.

We have some things in common: being messy, collecting things, collorful decorations.

Watching the photographs, one can have an impression that we are looking at images from one apartament, not three different ones.

mom // dad

3 photo collages, framed and a ripped analog photograph, 2011 The work is an interpretation of the fourth commandment: Honour thy father and thy mother.

It consists of an old photograph of me with my parents ( I am two years old).

The photo is torn in two, in the middle, that’s where I am.

My parents haven’t seen each other and spoken since about 10 years.

The rest of the installation consists of three framed collages, where I pasted my father’s figure (from his vacation in Egypt) to the holiday photo’s of my mother, so it looks like they were together.

This collage is not meant to trick the viewer, but just to show the need of „pasting” mom and dad together agan.

Analog photography from the years 2008 - 2015 Countries: Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, Morocco, Scotland, France Cameras: Zenit TTL, Smena 8M, LOMO LC-A, Lubitel 166B, DRUH Including: Multi-exposure experiments and Lomography Experimental wedding photography Documentary and Reportage More attached in the potography booklet.