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Weronika Zielińska

uitwisseling, samenwerking, Netwerk, Gender, Experimenteel, Economie, Community, Artistiek onderzoek

Weronika Zielińska-Klein (PL) is an artist-mother, researcher, and educator. In her practice, Zielińska explores different curatorial strategies in which the concepts of gift and hospitality play an essential role. In 2012 Zielińska established Upominki – a non-profit project space for art in Rotterdam. Working with Upominki (“gifts” in Polish) moved Zielińska’s research further toward the practice of exchange, while also asking about how to sustain a non-profit space. In 2019 Zielińska was appointed to lead the interdisciplinary department of Autonomous Practices at the Willem de Koning Academy in Rotterdam. Her current research explores the intersections of autonomy, critical self-organization, and mothering, all three as practices – within the larger understanding of art as a means for cultural production. Zielińska is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM).

Guestroom; This place would be perfect if only it had an ocean view, an event with Esmé Valk - Guestroom project took place between January and May 2011 in a private house in Rotterdam. During that period, six international, Netherlands-based artists were invited to work in a guest room of our house. Each of the artists stayed for 14 days to work within the domestic context. At the end of the period, each of them developed a new work and prepared a public presentation. For more information about the project, http://welcomeintheguestroom.blogspot.com website.
Zomerkamp in the framework of Join in! - In 2014, Museum van Bommel van Dam asked a group of five artists and designers to consider the question: ‘What does the museum of the future look like?’ In response, they developed proposals that were implemented under the title Join in! The museum temporarily turned into a testing ground for a radically different way of working. The stakes of the artistic intervention: a stronger connection between the museum and its public.
Deze tentoonstelling valt buiten de verantwoordelijkheid van de directie van het museum - "This exhibition falls outside the responsibility of the director of the museum", an exhibition project developed as part of Project Rotterdam, a group manifestation of artists and designers working in Rotterdam at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Was inaugurated between 5 March and 5 April 2016 with the installation of a wall text with the above sentence in room 24 of the museum's Van der Steur building. The starting point of the project was the history of the museum building, designed in 1935 by city architect Ad van der Steur to house the City Collection. After surviving the 1940 bombing, the building had undergone several expansion phases. ‘This exhibition... was curated independently of the museum management. Yet the project took full advantage of the opportunities offered by the museum and intertwined with its institutional context. The title of the project referred to an anecdote from the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where local artists' associations were allowed to exhibit their works in the “Nieuwe Vleugel”, which had opened in 1954 under the direction of Willem Sandberg. A sign at the entrance to this wing read: ‘This exhibition is beyond the responsibility of the museum director’. The project was on display in several museum spaces that had lost their original function over time. Exhibited works came from the Rotterdam City Collection and the Modern and Contemporary Art Collection, as well as from outside the museum. In the end, this exhibition was nothing more than an artist's creation. It was a composition of spaces and works for the interpretation of which visitors had been invited.
Beyond the Moon ~ Ger C. Bout - In the summer of 2016, artist Ger C. Bout sought mentorship from Upominki to publicly present his photographic work. Despite a generational gap, they formed a friendship and discussed exhibition strategies and his artistic practice. Tragically, Ger passed away in May 2017 after battling cancer for a year. Supported by his wife Riitta, Upominki revisited Ger’s archives, focusing on his series "Beyond the Moon" (2013-2015), which showcased his fascination with body movement in theatre and dance through large-scale black-and-white digital photographs. This series emphasized abstract forms and challenged the viewer to see without preconceived notions, aligning with Wittgenstein’s idea that pictures gain meaning through context. "Beyond the Moon" was presented at CO-OP during Unseen Amsterdam, exploring exhibition formats that reflected Ger’s interests. This collaborative effort included selections from Ger’s archives that investigated themes of hosting and housing. The exhibition then moved to Rotterdam, where it was displayed in Upominki's space and neighboring homes, allowing the local community to engage with his work. Upominki aimed to merge the artist's vision with curatorial practices, honoring Ger’s legacy and their friendship through this project. Ger C. Bout (1950-2017) was a Dutch architect and artist known for his multidisciplinary approach, integrating architecture, furniture design, installation, performance, sculpture, and photography.
Beyond the Moon, Ger C. Bout workshop with Gill Baldwin, 2018 - "Maak je eigen droomhuis" in collaboration with the Nieuwe Gaffel, provided by Rotterdam artist and architect Gill Baldwin. Workshop for children aged 6-12 from Old West primary schools, inspired by the artist's fascination with architectural dysfunctionality, curved lines and asymmetry.
Upominki - Upominki means gifts. Proverbially and in the figure of speech, Upominki functions as a gift shop. While basing its practice on the ideas of hospitality and reciprocity, Upominki wants to create an alternative to the value of exchange and the gift-giving idea, two concepts particularly developed through the capitalistic economy. Upominki does not scream by means of its presence, but subtly points to the things that really matter. Through simple gestures Upominki wishes to stimulate people’s awareness for new possibilities and encourage them towards a daily activity of both making and seeing art, it also aims at always creating new situations through which art and life can connect. Upominki is a non-profit project space, initiated in January 2012, by Rotterdam based artist Weronika Zielinska-Klein. On occasions Upominki is being run in collaboration with other artists and curators. Past collaborations include: Gill Baldwin, multi-disciplinary artist; Natalia Sorzano, visual and performance artist; Jesse van Oosten, curator; emilia dudziec, visual artist and producer.

THE STORIES WE (DON’T) SHARE

Datum:
Locatie: de Brakke Grond
In samenwerking met: Mirthe Berentsen

In this workshop, participants come together to share personal anecdotes that made them reflect on their role(s) as an artist-mother (parent) in the current socio-political context and come up with short- and long-term action items and recommendations that can be implemented in their immediate work environment; organizations, networks, institutions.

https://brakkegrond.nl/agenda/588/motherhood-in-de-kunst

“Rhubarb crumble with footnotes (35 persons)” during anual WdKA Research Day

Datum:
Locatie: Willem de Kooning Academy
In samenwerking met: Willem de Kooning Academy

A day of conversations on doing research at WdKA during which I shared my current research project Matricentric feminism, critical self-organization, and autonomy (working title), and invited the public to collectively prep a rhubarb crumble. Here crumble was symbolic of a memory from my home(country), where we make baba or babka, a yeast cake stemming from the Proto-Slavic word for grandmother.

https://research.wdka.nl

"In this Together" performative lecture during Learning from the Pandemic: Possibilities and Challenges for Mothers and Families

Datum:
Locatie: on-line
In samenwerking met: York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, The Mothers Matter Centre and Demeter Press

This interdisciplinary conference brought together scholars, practitioners, and activists to explore the impact of the pandemic on mothers and families around the world while considering strategies for the post-COVID climb-out. Combining multidisciplinary and intersectional perspective, it examined the impact of the pandemic on mothers’ wellbeing, and care and wage labour in the context of employment, schooling, resettlement, and family relationships.

https://learningfromthepandemic.vfairs.com

Feminist Viennese Coffee House

Datum:
Locatie: on-line
In samenwerking met: Barbara Philipp

Feminist Viennese Coffee House is a series of online conversations with women artists and curators connecting Amsterdam, Paris, Maryland, Newton Kansas, Graz, Todmorden West Yorkshire, Rotterdam, Tel Aviv, and Berlin. During the #11 encounter, I gave a presentation about my current research on Matricentric feminism, critical self-organization, and autonomy (working title) and guided the conversation on motherhood studies as discourse non-existent in Dutch art education institutions.

https://barbaraphilipp.com/viennese-coffee-house/

Work-Life Balance, Strategies to divert Neoliberalism

Datum:
Locatie: Galería Metropolitana
In samenwerking met: Anamaria Saavedra and Luis Alarcón López

“Galería Metropolitana is spacious and children friendly with easy access for wheelchairs and strollers. By taking my family on a residency I meant to productively deal with the struggle of balance –between my work and life– without undermining one from another. By making the existing precarious conditions explicit, I used them as opportunities for creating new meanings. Shaped by trust and generosity not by distant prejudices, this project’s main objective was spontaneity and no high expectatio

https://galeriametropolitana.org
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