NOMADIC FOCUS
Formulating and distributing artistic materials
Nomadic Focus was a piece by Waldemar Pranckiewicz presented during a group show called Interzone in the Studio BWA gallery, Wroclaw, Poland. The project took place between 22nd and 29th October 2009. Waldemar Pranckiewicz invited 11 artists to submit materials either with a personal content or related to important issue. Over the week he presented participating artists in a form of screenings, talks and arrangements around the gallery space. Interior design during the Nomadic Focus project was created from donated tables, pillows, lamps and plants. The whole space became a cross between a reading-room and a place for screenings, talks and discussions. Nomadic Focus was about generating awareness of different concepts, sensibilities or strategies around the world related to culture, society and wide understood politics.
Participants:
WacĹaw Ropiecki [PL] â Selected photographs from 70â. Photographs from the Zmien swiat [Change the world] series.
Presented photographs from â70 and early â80 were mainly self-portraits and depicted various surroundings and emotional states. The more recent works are documenting a Christian charity work among people in Russia.
Czekalska+Golec [PL] â Leaflets and film propagating a vegetarian lifestyle.
The artistic duo of Tatiana Czekalska and Leszek Golec promote idea of vegetarianism and many of their works emerged from cooperation with animals, mainly dogs and cats. Leaflets produced by artists were given away during the Nomadic Focus project and the presentation of selected works done by the duo took place.
More about Czekalska+Golec: www.czekalska-golec.pl
Jacek Zachodny [PL] â Presentation based on a trip to India and Iran.
Jacek Zachodny is working from many years on his piece about the issue of death. To get a different perspective on this topic he travelled beyond Europe. He makes video and mixed-media works. Jacek presented his films recorded in Iran and India. There was a discussion about his films and works afterwards.
More about Zachodny: www.jacekzachodny.strefa.pl
Przemek Sanecki [PL] â Artistâs Talk
Przemek Sanecki is making performances and films. The Studio BWA gallery prohibited presentation of his work or hosting a talk with him as a result of his previous performance at one of the gallery spaces a few months earlier. During that performance he snorted a white powder which resulted in sending by the galleryâs lawyer a legal notice to police about possible offence. A talk with Sanecki as a part of the Nomadic Focus took place in another gallery, which ironically was located in the same building but two floors beneath. A half of the talk was about his performance practice and other half was about current actions taken against him by the BWA gallery.
More about Sanecki: www.sanecki.art.pl
Carl Jacobs [BE] â Posters.
Jacobs is an art historian and was an assistant curator during the Brussels Biennial production period in 2007-2009. Currently he works as a lab manager in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is designing and editing various publications related to art and science.
In the space of the Studio BWA gallery were installed his two posters. First said: The viewer asks the artist gently though compellingly to concentrate again on qualitative matters The second asked: Are you part of the 95% who doesnât care or are you part of the 5% who does care but knows it has no influence at all.
Jesper Alvaer [NOR] – Istanbul Biennial Bootleg.
Alaver is an artist based in Prague, Czech Republic. Many of his projects may be characterised as long-term investigations and work takes into account various life worlds and the effects of cultural constructions. His projects often materialise in form of installations, videos or undocumented interpersonal meetings. [Quoted form the www.oca.no website]
Fatima Hussain [PK] â The Redo Pakistan project
Fatima Hussain is an artist based in Pakistan. Her Redo Pakistan project is a platform for presenting ideas for scenarios of the country, be it geographical, political or intellectual.
More about Redo Pakistan: Other Asias
Elpewicz [PL] â Would be nice to have a look
Project by Elpewicz is inspired by photographs of Edward Krasinski and his family and friends interacting with a scotch tape in 1969. Photographs were taken by Eustachy Kossakowski. Elpewicz creates his own interactions between a woman, a kid, a dog and a man, and all of that takes place in the Saska Kepa district in Warsaw, Poland. The scotch tape is not so important this time but still appears in a series of domestic and outdoor improvisations. The project under the nickname Elpewicz was created by: Anna Lawrynowicz, Mia Lawrynowicz, Lukasz Rusznica, Nina (a Pinscher dog) and Waldemar Pranckiewicz.
Photo documentation of Elpewicz’s books can be seen here.
Annelys de Vet [NL] â Presentation of the books: Subjective atlas of Serbia and Subjective atlas of Palestine
Annelys de Vet is a critical graphic designer based in Brussels and head of the design- department of the Sandberg Institute Amsterdam.
Her work explores the role of design in relation to the public and political discourse. Since 2003 De Vet is working on a series of subjective atlases that are âmappingâ a country, region or political entity in a personal way by the inhabitants themselves. They are invited to map their country in their own way; be it political, critical, culinary, romantic, negative or positive. Personal involvement is always a starting point, with the aim to produce human, cultural and unconventional images and in doing so develop alternative views towards political entities that lack a nuanced representation in the media. [Extract form provided CV]
More about Annelys de Vet: www.annelysdevet.nl
Slavs and Tatars [Eurasia] – Presentation of the books: Kidnapping Mountains and One Star Forever.
Founded in 2005, Slavs and Tatars is a faction of polemics and intimacies devoted to an area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia. Based between Brussels, Cambridge, and Moscow, the collectiveâs work spans several media, disciplines, and a broad spectrum of cultural registers (high and low) focusing on an oft-forgotten sphere of influence between Slavs, Caucasians and Central Asians. Slavs and Tatars is Kasia Korczak, Payam Sharifi, Boy Vereecken and Victoria Camblin. [Quoted form the group website]
More about Slavs and Tatars: www.slavsandtatars.com
Vanessa Winship â Georgia in progress
Vanessa Winship is a photographer living and working in the Balkans and the Caucasian region. In a frame of Nomadic Focus there was a presentation of her photographs form the series Georgia in progress, followed by a discussion about Georgia and the look of photographed people.
More about Winship: www.vanessawinship.com
All texts by Pranckiewicz if not otherwise stated.
Waldemar Pranckiewicz wants to thank you all dear participants and people involved in production of the event.
Special thank you goes to Beata Bartecka for the assistance before and during the project.
More photos:
Robocza Uwaga Nomadyczna Grupa (Opening Party)
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