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The Old School Residency | Gorna Lipnista, Bulgaria, WATER Rituals Art Festival, ‘A Difficult Room to Visit’ at FestivALT
The Old School Residency | Gorna Lipnista, Bulgaria
A several weeks long art residency over the summer manifested in multiple series of drawings and mixed media work on the topic of memoryscapes, intersecting references to cultural heritage, physical and cultural landscapes, and mapping.
Inspired by the culture heritage, landscape and myths of Bulgaria as well as the lack of representation of woman in historic family trees (as is the case in many other contexts), I’m incorporating some anonymous portraits of Bulgarian women in attempts to create an artistic commemoration to the many unknown or forgotten women of the past and weave them back into the landscape and into our consciousness through artistic intervention.
Шляя/ to amble
The 3 memoryscape series I worked on during the residency centers on the topics of cultural heritage, memory, and the act of slowing down my artistic process, of leaning into a meditative ritual with each individual piece. And the concept that each part makes up the whole and is not complete without the other.
For the 2 drawings series, my intention was to intuitively translate my newly acquired knowledge of myths, legends, traditions, and the landscape of Gorna Lipnista in initially blind line contour drawings. Based only on the projection slides and on locations in Gorna Lipnista, I then went back and refined the drawings to have images emerge.
The mixed media memoryscape, made of painting, pastels, ink, charcoal, found materials including maps and project slides, and pen, is inspired by the culture heritage, landscape and myths of Bulgaria as well as the lack of representation of woman in historic family trees (as is the case in many other contexts). I have included some fragments of maps of Bulgaria and anonymous portraits of Bulgarian women in attempts to create an artistic commemoration to the many unknown or forgotten women of the past and weave them back into the landscape and into our consciousness through artistic intervention.
September 2022, Kraków, Poland
WATER RITUALS | a series of equalitarian events and two exhibitions at KMWTW and Kiosk created by women and for women, gender non-conforming and non-binary folx. It is a safe and brave space for all!
The festival curatoress is Marta Grabowska, under the Muzeum Herstorii Sztuki w Krakowie / Museum of Herstory of Art in Kraków
Water, our guide and mode of connection, will carry us through various rituals associated with menstruation, birth and motherhood, the passing of time from a planetary point of view, and the perspective of the individual. Fighting the patriarchy, queering our spaces, interspecies equality, taming our traumas, and confronting climate depression are just some of the topics we will cover.
Shots from Joanna’s installation piece ‘Mending Fences’ displayed as part of the festival’s exhibition can be viewed below.
Mapping memoryscapes - Kraków 2022, drawing and found tourist map of Kraków || an experimental mixed media series in progress
‘A Very Difficult Room to Visit’ | Exhibition at FestivALT in Kraków, Poland | December 2022
Exhibition Opening: Saturday, 17 December 2022 at 19:00
FestivALT: ul. Józefińska 9, 30-52 Krakow, Poland
Exhibiting Artists
Gabriel Bielawski - Visual Artist, Sculpture
Hannah Naify - Visual Artist, Painting and Photography
Joanna Pottle - Visual Artist, Painting
Mira Rosenthal - Poet, Live Readings
Jeremy Wexler - Composer, Sound
