#milenasoporowska

[milenasoporowska]

Pandemic consequence: dreams / group exhibition / Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2020 

Artists: Michalina Chłodzińska, Milena Soporowska, Martyna Bolanowska, Adam Kozicki, Kamil Pierwszy, Iwo Panasiewicz, Katarzyna Olma, Paweł Olszewski, Aleksandra Liput, Jan Jurczak, Yui Akiyama, Planeta, Jan Porczyński, Zuza Piekoszewska, Joanna Krajewska, Øleg&Kaśka, Oskar Pawełko, Jan Możdżyński, Weronika Wysocka, Kaja Rata, Agnieszka Antkowiak, Laura Ociepa, Zofia Pałucha, Marceli Adamczyk, Matejko Michał, Mateusz Wójcik, Jakub Gliński, TissueHunter, Katarzyna Balicka, Wojtek Skrzypczyński, Jan Eustachy Wolski, Paweł Żukowski, Magdalena Lazar, Wiktoria Walendzik, Marta Niedbał, Aleksandra Kompała, Joanna Woś. Antonina Widt, Agnieszka Mastalerz, Konrad Żukowski, Maciej Nowacki, Grzegorz Demczuk

Organiser: Galeria Serce Człowieka

Partners: Nowy Świat Muzyki

The coming change caused by the pandemic first manifested itself in dreams. At the beginnings of psychology, Freud assumed that one must turn to them - to bring out of the unconscious sphere in order to expose one's desires, cravings, fears. Today, many psychologists claim that such attitude is wrong, and that what is instinctive allows us to live smoothly. Our mind is a cosmos in which too much concentration, too much exposure of certain components, manipulation of the unconscious makes us lose ourselves.Capitalism has always used human problems as a tool to exploit social groups. These issues has been pointed out, conceptualized or created as new ones. Through over-interpretation it appropriated the unconscious zone for these purposes. As a result, our subconsciousness ceased to be pure, free.

The pandemic as a time when many everyday phenomena forced by work were changed or pushed aside, revealed this state through dreams. For art, the pure unconsciousness is a natural matter of action that the "Pandemic consequence: dreams" exhibition wishes to selflessly reveal.

The exhibition was part of the Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2020.

On other pictures: corset by Atelier Planeta and drawing by Martyna Bolanowska.

Ace of Swords_trial_03 

Ace of Swords in Tarot stands for intellectual power and mental agency. It refers to our rationality and intellectual processing. My work was created during the  pandemic time when rational structures are being questioned. 

Ace of Swords is part of my Handmade Spiritismus project, which focuses on domestic esoteric practices and DIY spirituality. It derives from my fascination with XIX-th century spiritistic séances which were mainly held in private houses as somewhat intimate rituals of the middle class and bourgeoisie. Their main goal was to connect with the non-material world. Séances were organised without the official spiritual agent such as priest and usually with the use of everyday objects. 

I look for vernacular equivalents of such “séances” in modern times, focusing on different divination techniques – for example tarot. 

During the pandemic time, the hand became a recurring refrain – just like in a series of tarot aces which symbolise 4 basic elements. Hand acts as a controller. It proudly holds the emblem of its power. 

My Ace of Swords is a domestic reconstruction, a trial version of home-manufactured recreation of “mystical truths of divination” with the use of the simplest and easily accessible materials. 

Related links:

2019-2021 Handmade Spirtismus / project carried out during Sputnik Photos Mentoring Programme

Tarotiada / radio show / Radio Kapitał 

[freshfrompoland]

by Milena Soporowska

The Receptionist: Girls Just wanna have fun, 2017

karina-sternum.tumblr.com

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MILENA SOPOROWSKA - PO PIERWSZE

Galeria Fotografii pf, Poznań 21.01.2016 – 21.02.2016 kuratorzy Kamila Kobierzyńska, Bartosz Buszkiewicz z cyklu Przedmiot Fotografii

Bywa uosobieniem pierwotnej, irracjonalnej siły ukrytej w obiekcie lub istocie; materiałem, z którego składają się bliżej nieokreślone zjawiska; formą niewiadomego pochodzenia - niepodobną ani do wody, ani do śliny; czerpie z rzeczywistości poddając pod wątpliwość postrzeganie tego, co znane i bliskie.

Wystawa Mileny Soporowskiej to pierwsza wystawa z cyklu Przedmiot fotografii realizowanego w Galerii Fotografii pf Centrum Kultury Zamek w Poznaniu.

Czy „przedmiot fotografii” to reprezentacja tego, co widoczne, czy może emocjonalny stan osoby patrzącej? Dla kogo obserwacja byłaby więc próbą zawłaszczania postrzegalnego? Fotografia już̇ na początku wytwarza dystans pomiędzy obiektem a jego kolekcjonerem. Według Georges'a Didi-Hubermana jest to coś wręcz upokarzającego, kiedy gromadzone przez nas przedmioty są̨ jak pępowina przeszłości, od której nie potrafimy się odciąć, i które kończą jako symbol kontroli nad minionym czasem. Posiadanie władzy jest więc w takim ujęciu niczym innym, jak tylko narzędziem do uprzedmiotowienia. Co jednak, gdy użyta odbija się rykoszetem i trafia w sam środek aparatu, czyniąc z obserwującego przedmiot obserwacji? Kim zatem byłby bohater wyzwolony spod wzroku jej dotkliwego patrzenia? A może to nie przypadek, lecz przedmiot samego o sobie sądzenia. fot. Maciej Kaczyński

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HANDMADE SPIRITISMUS / 2019-2021 / ONGOING [excerpt]

project carried out during Sputnik Photos Mentoring Programme 2019-2020

Tutor: Agnieszka Rayss

A hand signifies the causative powers. It is also involved in making contact – with people, with the environment. When we make something with our own hands, it always has an added value. 

In the tarot, the hands hold the four symbols of the elements that structure our reality.

A spiritual séance begins with creating a circle by touching each other's hands.

The casts of the spirits' hands created during the séances served as evidence, testimony to the presence of such spirits.

According to chiromancy, our life is written on the palm of our hand.

Finally, various rituals require manual actions. Thanks to the involvement of the body, abstract thought is combined with matter.

During the pandemic, the hand became an ominous refrain – a source of infection, disease.

From then on, I started thinking about it even more often.

My aim was to document homemade “rituals” and at the same time to examine modern forms of DIY home esotericism. I wanted to document people's search for structure and meaning in astrology, tarot, spiritualism, numerology and runes. My starting point were the 19th century spiritualistic séances organised in private homes, without a clergyman as an official mediator.

The contact-restricting pandemic inadvertently turned my attention to myself, inwards. I began to follow the subtle signs of esoteric interests that I have developed from my childhood years until now. My handmade spiritual knitting is created using materials from my childhood, an assortment of stationery and five-and-dime shops, nail art items, souvenirs. The project is a record of the beginning of this journey and at the same time a prelude to presenting the stories of others like me. 

Related links:

2021 Sputnik Photos Mentoring Programme graduates group exhibition / Social Center of Photography / Warsaw

2021 “NO.9” book presenting projects by Sputnik Mentoring Programme graduates 2019/2020

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THE BOOK OF FRIENDSHIP / 2021-2021

The Book of Friendship is a result of almost 10 years of my research into modern esotericism. It was published by 19Rivers collective in collaboration with Ton Magazine/Lodz Film School and On Paper Lodz. It was designed as a deck loosely inspired by the Maior Arcana of Tarot and Stammbuch (eng. book of friendship), which from the XVIth century was a popular form of small diary. Stammbuch was also used by the middle class as a form of collective family diary.

My project mixes XIX-th century spiritism with New Age spirituality, pop culture cartoon characters, biedermeier period references, memes’ inspired content, Tarot and everyday life events in order to create a network of visual intersections. 44 images create 22 pairs (A and B) which coexist in a state of friendship (here I present a selection of images). The whole project is conceived as an eternally expanding system of references. It is open for change and flexible. Cards can be used for meditation. Deck originally comes with a dedicated box, but it also functions as a mobile, domestic or gallery exhibition. 

This collection of images depicts my own struggle (and also the universal craving) for meaning. By mixing archival photos from spiritisic séances, my notes, spontaneous snapshots, works from my different projects and seemingly trivial observations, I was trying to capture the chaotic, yet somehow complete and rational (in terms of esoteric beliefs) reality. It stems from my fascination with spritistic séances which were usually held in middle class living rooms and are the best example (in Western world) of the fascinating intertwining of everyday life with magic and the occult.

Related links:

2021 Art Bibuła Festival / Paper Beats Rock - video book presentation   

2021 Ton Magazine / 19Rivers workshops 

2020 - ongoing Tarotiada radio show / Radio Kapitał 

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FAKE NEW / group exhibition / FOTOSPOT Centrala gallery / Poznan / 2021 

Artists: Ioannis Anastasiou  / Joanna Bubak / Basia Budniak / Oktawian Jurczykowski / Magdalena Kasperczak / Agnieszka Sejud / Milena Soporowska / Jiang Xue 

Curator: Anka Gregorczyk 

Organiser: Przestrzeń Robocza and FOTOSPOT Centrala gallery 

Documentation: courtesy of FOTOSPOT / Centrala gallery

"What Donald Trump, an intelligent refrigerator, remote work, 5G and microplastics have in common? Dynamic technological, environmental and social changes and huge amount of information make it increasingly difficult to assess what is real or false. Contrary to scientific facts, new and unverifiable theories emerge. Fabricating information and disseminating even the most irrational theories has become a child's play. How to respond to them? Should we fight them by opposing facts, expose them, censor them, or maybe ridicule and downplay them? When we leave them on their own, will they eventually become part of the "new normality"? 

We present the works of eight authors who create or expose false narratives; interpret the modern definition of "normality" or "new normality", raise the subject of fake news, conspiracy theories, virtual reality, the recent experience of an epidemic, including the closure and "transfer" of life into an online realm. "

Photographs presented in ZIN were selected by Franek Ammer and Agata Połeć from Przestrzeń Robocza as part of FAKE NEW OPEN CALL. The exhibition was curated by Anka Gregorczyk from FOTOSPOT and Centrala gallery.

Related links:

2021 FAKE NEW Zin documentation 

2021 FAKE NEW in FOTOSPOT Centrala gallery 

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Sputnik Photos Mentoring Programme Graduates 2019-2020 / group exhibition / Social Center of Photography / Warsaw / 2021 

Artists: Ada Novicka / Andrzej Tworkiewicz / Anna Hartman-Ksycińska / Daria Izworska / Dimitri Molev / Filip Piotrowicz / Filip Rybicki / Jagoda Malanin / Justyna Streichsbier / Joanna Bubak / Joanna Szpak-Ostachowska / Martyna Nitkowska / Marcin Piekałkiewicz / Marzena Hans / Milena Soporowska / Monika Schreiber / Sayam Ghosh / Zuzanna Głód

Mentors: Jan Brykczyński / Karolina Gembara / Michał Łuczak / Rafał Milach  / Adam Pańczuk / Agnieszka Rayss

Curator: Michał Łuczak

Organiser: Sputnik Photos collective 

Partners: Social Center of Photography Chłodna 20 and Archeology of Photography Foundation

Graphic design: Daria Abibok

Documentation: courtesy of Sputnik Photos collective  

Related links:

2019-2021 Handmade Spiritismus / project carried out during Sputnik Photos Mentoring Programme

2021 “NO.9” book presenting projects by Sputnik Mentoring Programme graduates 2019/2020

[milenasoporowska]

BURL RADIO SHOW / Radio Kapitał 

A burl is a tree growth that is considered a defect, which paradoxically creates outstandingly beautiful and extraordinary patterns. It is often used in furniture design. For me it is a synonym of beautiful anomaly, seeing the charm in something that, in a general perspective, is viewed as an aberration, deviation from the standard, a flaw. My radio show is a tribute to all these “beautiful anomalies”, which can take form of animate and inanimate beings, places, concepts and practices.

Host: Milena Soporowska 

You can listen to all the episodes here [PL]

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TAROTIADA RADIO SHOW / Radio Kapitał 

Tarotiada is an invitation into the initiation of The Fool – 22 cards of Maior Arcana of Tarot - divination deck of cards known for hundreds of years – becomes a starting point for cultural ad music explorations. Every broadcast of the series is dedicated to one specific card and analysis of different faces of divination – mystical, entertaining, scientific and many more. Hosts: Milena Soporowska / Ania Kamecka 

You can listen to all the episodes here [PL] 

Related links:

2022 Major Arcana of Fungi / collaborative project by Edka Jarząb

2020 Ace of Swords card reconstruction / group exhibition / Serce Człowieka / Warsaw Gallery Weekend 

2019-2021 Handmade Spirtismus / project carried out during Sputnik Photos Mentoring Programme

[milenasoporowska]

And if darkness is more than blackness, what else could it be / group exhibition / Centre for Creative Activities / Ustka-Slupsk / 2020

Artists: Lena Achtelik / Martyna Borowiecka / Mateusz Hajdo / Kaja Redkie / Milena Soporowska / Łukasz Stokłosa

Curator: Marta Kudelska

Documentation: courtesy of BGSW (more photos HERE)

The exhibition “And if darkness is more than blackness, what else could it be?” is a record of phantom delusions of the past, and a register of whispers, illusions and hallucinations. The idea behind the show is an uncompleted spiritual session with a host of apparitions and spectres which come to life through the works of invited artists. A seance has always been conducted according to pre-established rules; its course meticulously planned, executed and controlled. Any contact with the “other side” is, by definition, extraordinary, but it can also get out of control and seriously distort the participants’ judgement of reality. Often perceived as little more than romantic and innocent games or attempts to spin nostalgic yarns about ghosts and spectres that might also send shivers down your spine, spiritual sessions in fact aim at stimulating discussion on the boundaries of imagination and perception of the past – areas currently undergoing a profound transformation.

The works of the artists invited to the exhibition – Lena Achtelik, Martyna Borowiecka, Mateusz Hajdo, Kaja Redkie, Milena Soporowska and Łukasz Stokłosa – reveal the remains of the late, half-dead, half-living tissue. Each artist performs the rite of passage in their own way, each of them conjures up spirits and tries to harness the darkness but combining the present with the fading past. Some of them visit dark, stuffy rooms with 19th century cabinets, trying to find any vestiges of sticky ectoplasm and reconstruct the process of its formation. They bring to light the remains and shreds found. As in a classic horror novel, that which is forgotten or hidden at the bottom of a dark trunk in the attic returns to haunt the living.

All of the invited artists perform lunatic and unconscious activities which are aimed to trigger the dark and uncontrollable side of our imagination. Darkness is associated primarily with shelter for all kinds of conspirators, charlatans, demons and wraiths. In this eerie realm, the human body appears as a symbol of fragility, vanity and transience. And the moment of entering this strange abyss is a silent consent to accept new and suspend old norms and truths. In this context, the exhibition “And if darkness is more than blackness, what else could it be?” lures visitors to take a perilous stroll through the dark areas of their own imagination. Here the visitor encounters that which is undefined and alien, and yet at the same time strangely familiar.

Related links:

2020 Marta Kudelska guided curatorial tour 

2020 exhibition review / SZUM Magazine 

2019 Domestic Violence project

2019 Domestic Violence, individual exhibition, FOPA Gallery, Żyrardów

2019 Domestic Violence, text for Rooms exhibition catalogue, Fotofestiwal - International Festival of Photography in Lodz [PL/ENG]

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HELENA / 2013-2016 [excerpt]

„But suppose it comes and envelops your face while you are quietly asleep…” Jacques Lacan, Le séminaire. Livre XI: Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse, Seuil, Paris, 1973. The project consists of photographs inspired by documentation of spiritualistic séances. I seek elements of this alternative reality in situations/things seemingly ordinary. It is a record of the “spirits” materialization itself, as well as the moment just before the appearance of ectoplasm. I treat ectoplasm as a representation of primordial, irrational force hidden in every structure - object or being. It is for me also a sudden coagulation of lamella – indivisible, indestructible, immortal substance, as Lacan describes it. “An uncanny excess of life” that does not need the ones who live. “An ‘undead’ urge that persists beyond the (biological) cycle of life and death”, as Žižek puts it. It is an organ without an organism. Life as a threat. This “surplus” is being captured, intentionally or accidentally, by photography. Camera becomes for me a tool extracting unnoticeable, till now, energy, that “excess”. It is like a record of too extensive, unbearable quantity of life, which spills out from reality.

Project was shown as solo exhibition as part of Object of Photography/Przedmiot fotografii [2016] – a curatorial project inspired by Georges Didi-Huberman, curated by Kamila Kobierzyńska and Bartosz Buszkiewicz, held in pf gallery / Culture Centre Zamek in Poznan, Poland.

More info about the exhibition HERE.

Related links:

2016 Alien Hand Syndrome, interview for MAGENTA MAG [PL]

2015 The Receptionist, text for MONO Magazine, Body issue no. 04 [PL]

2015 Helena, Der Greif /Guest Room curated by Bruno Ceschel/Self Publish, Be Happy

2015 Helena in Prism Magazine, issue no. 19

2014 Helena in MAGENTA MAG

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GUEST ROOMS: DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY AS AN ARTISTIC INSPIRATION - INTERVIEW FOR THE WEIRD SHOW 

iT’S a THUG LIFE of a postrealism PhoTOgraPhEr in this world of DoCUmenTARY PHotoGRAphY. In an interwiew for The Weird Show, an international platform for modern collage, I talk about my LOVE/HATE relationship with so-called objectivity.

You can read the whole text HERE.

[milenasoporowska]

from Helena series / 2015 [Domestic Violence project]

[freshfrompoland]

PROJECT: ‘GUEST ROOMS’ by MILENA SOPOROWSKA

GUEST ROOMS [2012-2013]

“Unheimlich is the name for everything that ought to have remained hidden and secret… and has become visible.”

This project was for me a way to explore space once alive, today transformed into a museum showpiece accessible for the visitors only through the sense of sight. Processed into images, they separate themselves from their original function, becoming a radical version of obje trouvé. Introducing amorphous item; alien, yet based on the coloristic reference, I wanted to deconstruct the seeming unity of the interiors and question their title “hospitality”. For me, the encounter of what is defined and familiar with what is disturbing and cognitively unstable, constitutes a specifically fascinating issue.

Guest Rooms also creates the initial impression of the reality in the photographed scene - the moment of integration of paint and the room. The theme of the project is therefore human perception, and anxiety triggered by its defects.

It is a collision of two different stylistics’/aesthetics’ as well. The contrast between them, at the same time, composes a possibility of creating a dialogue. Historical interiors [baroque, renaissance, mannerist etc.] are being collated with abstract shapes that recall informal, action painting or tachisme.

Technique: mixed-media: re-photographed postcards with acrylic sculpture-like forms, edition: 6+2AP, size: 10,5x14,8 cm

Milena Natalia Soporowska [1989, Warsaw] – finished History of Art [main faculty] at College of Inter-area Individual Humanistic and Social Studies [University of Warsaw, 2014], where she also studied Psychology and Cultural Studies. Studied photography at The Society of Polish Art Photographers [Warsaw, 2012, graduated with distinction] and Academy of Photography [Warsaw, 2013]. Laureate of the 5th edition of ShowOFF contest for young talents at XI Photomonth in Cracow [2013, project: Guest Rooms, curator: Bownik]. Co-founder of curatorial project ABBILD. Curator and co-organizer of several group exhibitions: URBILD/ABBILD [gallery lokal_30, Warsaw, 2013], The World Picture [under the auspices of Anda Rottenberg, Branicki Palace, Warsaw, 2014], UN/HEIMLICH [gallery Starter, Warsaw, 2014]. Scholarship holder at Summer Academy in Traunkirchen [2012] and Salzburg International Academy of Fine Arts [2014]. Took part in various group shows. Writes about art, especially photography. Develops her concepts as a curatorand writer, as well as an artist. Writes her master’s thesis about ekphrasis.

http://cargocollective.com/karina_sternum

http://karina-sternum.tumblr.com

Photographs:

1. Milena Soporowska, La Salle à Manger, CHÀTEAU D’ANSOUIS, Vaucluse [Dining room]

2. Milena Soporowska, Grünes Eckkabinett, Staatliche Museen Heidecksburg, Rudolstadt  [Green Corner Cabinet]

3. Milena Soporowska, Arbeitsraum der sowjetischen Delegtion, Cecilienhof  [Study of the Soviet Delegation]

4. Milena Soporowska, Gabinet Pisarza, Muzeum Henryka Sienkiewicza, OBLĘGOREK  [Writer’s Cabinet]

Photographs courtesy of the artist

[freshfrompoland]

by  Milena Natalia Soporowska

Untitled #7, from series -Helena- (c) 2013-2014