As a result of the Art Encounters residency program, the curator Zofia Cielątkowska worked with a group of Romanian female artists, together they developed a concept based on their previous works. The research, the project and the exhibition COMMON SPACE — Images, Stories, Voices place women’s stories in space and time, by means of various historical and contemporary materials dedicated or connected to Romanian women. The project makes it possible to acknowledge and appreciate women’s unseen work and everyday activities. It gives the space for (her)story. COMMON SPACE is thus a pretext for the critical reflection on femininity and woman’s place in history and the present. The project has an open form and will be developed through the public’s contributions and ideas. Within this project, there were two workshops, the one on Friday explores the content and the test – feminism, propaganda, image and instruction (what added value are these bringing in the context of women then, but also the general content of the Almanac), the introduction of general concepts about instruction, trajectory and image. The Saturday workshop questions the search for answers to certain general needs: we need a welcoming space, we need to see it as our personal space, we need friends, we need a favorite store close to our homes, we need familiarity, activities that shaped us in time. And since we are not the only ones that go through this process, how can a common space help us share these experiences?
Zofia Cielątkowska is an independent curator, researcher, philosopher, writer, editor. Her research and writing focus on social contexts in philosophy and culture with special emphasis on visual and performing arts. She is a doctor of Humanities in Philosophy – Embodiment of the Subject: Philosophy and Performance within the Context of Contemporary Critique of Culture. She has published more than 50 texts including academic papers, articles, reviews and interviews. Her area of research spans from mechanisms of power, post (neo)colonialism, to women’s rights and feminism. She gained her professional experience working in cultural institutions such as Aberystwyth Art Centre (Aberystwyth, Wales), Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw, Poland) and National Audiovisual Institute (Warsaw, Poland).
