This year’s residency collaboration between LAZNIA CCA and W788 is connected to ‘Sense perception’ theme and it is a part of a long-term interdisciplinary project curated by Nina Czegledy. Numerous artistic, research and educational activities, including exhibitions, discussions, presentations, artistic residencies and educational workshops focus on the study of multisensory perception of the environment. In 2019, a series of artistic residencies was initiated. Invited artists began working on projects related to the senses of: touch, smell, hearing, sight and taste. The finale of the project will take place in LAZNIA CCA in Autumn of 2021. Two other artists that have participated in this year’s residency edition in W788 are: Pamela Leończyk and Krzysztof “Arszyn” Topolski.
Krystyna Jędrzejewska-Szmek’s notes on the residency in W788:
I got to know Kozielec by walking along the routes marked by plants. By the road leading through the village, roadside weeds grow, such as: plantain, compass lettuce, agrimony and burdock. In the fields, bulky ears of wheat ripen, with dry poppies in between. At the bottom, by the backwaters and old river beds, you can wade in the fields of horsetail and comfrey. In the damp ravine it is different – the vegetation is dense as in a tropical forest. I was interested in the sounds that accompany the practices with plants. That’s why I was looking for hairy leaves which, when stroked, rustle pleasantly. Fruits which, when squeezed, make a juicy pop. Stems which crunch and creak, once broken. This is how I created a herbarium of Kozielec, but one that consists of sounds, instead of dried leaves and sprouts.
Inspired by the "Magical Herbarium" written over a hundred years ago by the ethnobotanist Józef Rostafiński, I have woven a large apotropaic braid from mugwort, which was later hung in the studio for residents. Today mugwort is a meaningless plant, an unwanted weed that needs to be mowed. But it used to be different in the past – it was a very important magical plant. It had a lot of properties which were related to the well-being of the household and the safety of its inhabitants. Searching for mugwort in the area, collecting and braiding was a kind of ritual for me. The smell of its drying leaves accompanied me until the end of my residency.
"Mugwort: it removes the devil when you incense it at home;
relieves the fatigue ones by covering their legs with it;
ladies infertile mugwort makes fertile;
when used outside and inside, wipes out all kinds of damage from magic;
hanged above the doors, gates, windows, it protects from witchcraft and charms (...) "- translation from Polish; “Magical Herbarium”, Józef Rostafiński, Akademia umiejętności [Academy of Learning], Cracow, 1895