TABAKALERA International Centre for Contemporary Culture. Donostia - San Sebastián

curator: Magda Kardasz (Zachęta — National Gallery of Art / Zachęta Project Room)

Project URSUS<> TABAKALERA by Jaśmina Wójcik comments on the idea of twin towns and cultural exchange built on it. It attempts to present histories of people and places, to create the actual relations between people from two countries with different history, that in some aspects might find similarities and mutual inspirations. The departure point for the artist are histories of the former tractor factory Ursus in Warsaw and the former tobacco factory – Tabakalera in Donostia, which is also the venue of the project.

Jaśmina Wójcik, born 1983, works with people, on the verge of art and social activism, aiming for social change, bringing back memory of people and places, pointing out ecological problems (for example the exhibition Hiding people among people without contact with nature leads to perversions at the Zachęta Project Room in 2012). Author of video films, drawings, projects in the city space and interactive installations. In 2008 she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where she’s now a lecturer. She lives and works in Warsaw.

About Meeting of the Project Rooms

From the very beginning the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw has been open to young artists. One of the places where their works can be viewed today is the Zachęta Project Room at 3 Gałczyńskiego Street – a laboratory space and a stage of artistic experiments combined into one, curated by Magda Kasdasz.

Meeting of the Project Rooms presents the work of three young polish artists. The invited artists – Jaśmina Wójcik, Michał Frydrych and Natalia Bażowska, represent different creative approaches. They will all present the outcomes of their activities carried out explicitly within the space of the Tabakalera, referring to the local context or history of the space. All of them were the authors of site-specific installations at the Zachęta Project Room, during the last three years of its activity.

About Zachęta Project Room

Upcoming exhibitions within the project

May - September 2016 Michał Frydrych
September - December 2016 Natalia Bażowska