Coming back to the exhibition: on the opposite wall of the gallery, there’s a screening of a film I was working on in Germany. I created my first project from here. On the walls, there are ceramics created as props that I used in the film. This time I am reminded of the walking balls that I saw at Jasna Góra sanctuary, left there as votive offerings following the healing by a miraculous painting of the Black Madonna. I created ceramic bowls, goblets, soap dishes, essentially various objects or devotional items for performing a cleansing ritual, baptism or just a relaxing bath. When planning the film, I thought of water as an element that binds religions and the rituals of different cultures together, as a source of purification, but also trauma. Some pottery was not fired in the kiln, so the clay dissolved in the bath, contaminating the water, thus creating an inverted cleansing ritual.
KG: Interest in pre-Christian / pre-capitalist rituals has always been present in modern and contemporary art. The current wave of spirituality is rooted in the exploration of feminism, anti-colonialism, and alternative systems of power. This manifests both in artistic practices and the gallery programmes. Do you think that pandemic fears strengthen the links between ritual/magic and art and politics?
AW: Even before the pandemic, I managed to visit Morocco and Turkey and explore hammams and public baths, and make the installation Make Love not Art, Relaxation Movement in Frankfurt am Main. I meant to critique not art itself, but certain mechanisms functioning in the art world and the world focussed on production. I suggested trying to change the perspective by opposing the pressure exerted by the art system. I invited viewers to join the Relax commune, all one needed to do was to get into a tourist car, listen to the sounds (my sister recorded her therapy session on Tibetan bowls), drink a tea of herbs that I brought from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, get a hand massage with olive oil that I brought from the Pantelleria Island, get a clay face mask, or play chess. A few people just sat there for hours doing nothing.
Perhaps the pandemic has highlighted some tendencies more recently present in art. Although, given the interest in healing and care practices, it seems to me that the artists have actually predicted the pandemic.
Interview originally conducted in Polish, translated by Joanna Figiel, July 2021. Conversation conducted for The Residents Magazine published by the Residencies Programme of Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle. Courtesy of the authors and Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle.
Alicja Wysocka – currently studying at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, previously at the Faculty of Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind at the Pontifical University in Kraków. She holds an MA in graphic design. Her work is situated at the intersection of art, design, and activism. In her work, Alicja deals with the topics of cooperatives, collaboration, alternative economies, as well as crafts, therapy, and rituals.
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