mgr Magdalena Franczak

 ORCID:0000-0003-2726-0913

The topic of my dissertation is “Places Without People”

“Places Without People” is an attempt to find a visual narrative that tells the story of what remains of us. It is a multi-stage work of looking for micro-cracks in reality and trying to create an appropriate narrative form and language. The project aims to connect the present with the past using the tools provided by the medium of art.

On the one hand, I look at objects that bear traces of their previous owners - triggering sequences of memories and stories, while remaining objective and non-judgmental. I am interested in the individual history of a single person seen through the perspective of their surroundings and the things they have left behind. The tension between forgotten space and forgetting space.

On the other hand, my research deals with abandoned, uninhabited spaces, often taken over by nature, slowly deteriorating. I would like to find an answer to the questions: what is nature's relation to these places? What do the nettles defending the access to the abandoned house mean?

The project has a structure of a book, which gives an insight into the creative process. Consequently, the individual stages of the work constitute the chapters of the project.

The starting was the photographic documentation and consequent initiation into a dialogue with places where traces of human existence had been left in the form of an abandoned house, remains of its foundations or plants indicative to human activity. The subject of research is also the public space, from where small shops and workshops, which used to be places of social exchange and building of interpersonal relations, are disappearing. I would like to explore the tension that arises between the need to contact the past and remembrance and to observe reality, which is transforming in front of our eyes, changing the order of the world.

Entering into the records of individual memory, exploring the silent protests hidden in the remains of human existence, I explore territories hitherto unexplored. I archive them in a subjective way. At the junction of collective and individual memory there is a gap open to further interpretations through the creation of artworks based on individual stories, where the research gap is created in front of our very eyes - in the moment when the present becomes the past. This is a moment that I would like to capture and explore.

SCHOLARSHIPS:

2022 -  Scholarship Ministry of Science and Higher Education

2020 - Scholarship Ministry of Culture and Heritage (project Margin of error)

2017 - Scholarship of Mayor of Lublin (project Make yourself at home)

2016- Scholarship of Mayor of Lublin (project Nomadic Studio)

2014-Scholarship Ministry of Culture and Heritage (project Ice Palace)

2011 - Scholarship of Marshal of Pomerania Region (project Hairy Candies)

2010 - Scholarship of Marshal of Pomerania Region (project Traces)

2009 - Scholarship of Marshal of Pomerania Region (project Room with the view)

RESIDENCIES:

2020- Art House, on-line residency, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, (Poland)

2019- Meet The Neighbors (international project), Osiedle Słowackiego, Lublin (Poland)

2018- Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz (Austria)

2017- Art Cube Artists’ Studios, Jerusalem (Israel)

SELECTED SOLO & TWO ARTISTS EXIBITIONS:

2022- The Nature of Measurement (duo with Laura Pold), Austrian Culture Forum in Warsaw (Poland)

2021- Escheat, Slendzinski Gallery, Białystok (Poland)

2021-Walking Notes, Virtual Canvas Project, Krupa Gallery, Wrocław (Poland)

2020-Margin of error, Wozownia Art Gallery, Toruń (Poland)

2020- Pandemic Full Moon, site specific, Lublin (Poland)

2019- Standing People, site specific, Lublin (Poland)

2018- Escheat, Archeology of Photography Foundation, Warsaw (Poland)

2017- Zadomowienie, public area, Lublin (Poland)

2017- People and objects, site specific, Lublin, (Poland)

2017- A day when nothing happened (duo with Yael Frank), Art Cube Artists Studios, Jerusalem, Israel, curator Maayan Sheleff.

2016- Mit geistern leben (duo with Monika Konieczna), Mieszkanie Gepperta, Wrocław (Poland)

2016- Imaginary Lexicon of Cluj (duo with Ludomir Franczak), public area, Cluj Napoca (Romania)

2016- Nomadic studio, site specific, Lublin (Poland)

2016- Luxury of discomfort, BWA Katowice (Poland), curator: Marta Lisok

2015- Sen o mostach przyprószonych śniegiem, Galeria Manhattan, Łódź (Poland)

2014 - Descent, site specific, Galeria Labirynth, Lublin (Poland)

2014 - The Ice is melting Ms Frankczak( duo with Yael Frank), Zachęta Project Room, Warsaw, Poland. Curator- Magda Kardasz

2012 – Blowup, Galeria Biala, Lublin (Poland)

2012 - Hairy candies, mixed media, Mieszkanie Gepperta, Wroclaw (Poland)

2012 -Twilight, mixed media, BWA Gallery, Zielona Gora (Poland)

2012 -Hairy candies, mixed media, Galeria 81stopni, Warsaw (Poland)

2011 -Home, mixed media, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Slupsk, (Poland)

2011 -Hairy candies, mixed media, Lentz's Willa, Szczecin, (Poland)

2011 - Hairy candies, mixed media, Galeria im. Slendzinskich, Bialystok, (Poland)

2010 - Traces, paintings, Galeria Biala, Lublin, (Poland)

2010 -Two rooms, mixed media, Galeria nad Wisla, Torun,(Poland)

2010 -Sleeping Beauties, paintings, video, Galeria Wieza Cisnien, Konin, (Poland)

2008 -Secrets/Views, installation, Filebos Idealer gallery, Hasle, (Danmark)

2008 - Room with the view, light installation, Hospital for Children, Slupsk (Poland)

2007- Sleeping Beauties, paintings, installation, Arsenal City Gallery, Poznan (Poland)

2006 - Down the rabbit hole, installation, Wozownia, Torun (Poland)

2004 - Drybling, paintings, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Slupsk (Poland)

SELECTED GROUP EXIBITIONS:

2022- As far as the eye can see, accesible exhibition,  Lublin Cultural Center, (Poland)

2022- Silent house/cichy dom, The Center of the Worlds is Here, Przemyśl, (Poland)

2022- Time out of joint, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, (Poland)

2022- Deep into Painting, National Museum in Wrocław, (Poland)

2022- City of dreams, BWA Gallery, Krosno, (Poland)

2022- My z Wami/We are with you, charity exhibition for Ukraine, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, (Poland)

2021- Silent house, ACK Chatka Żaka, Lublin (Poland)

2021- Blowup 3, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin (Poland)

2021- Ruins of unwanted memories, public space, Lublin (Poland)

2021-The Center of the Worlds is Here, Przemyśl, (Poland)

2020- Simple gestures, BWA Katowice gallery (Poland), curated by Marta Lisok

2020- 2 (the two), Center of Worlds is here, public space, curated by Lila Kalinowska and Jadwiga Sawicka

2019- Column for Helen Deutsch, Center of Worlds is here, public space, curated by Lila Kalinowska and Jadwiga Sawicka

2019- Ventriloquist and silent paintings, Labyrinth Gallery, Lublin (Poland)

2018/19- Six Memos, Valladolid, Lublin, Liverpool, curated by Branka Bencic

2018- Spring dream, White Gallery, Lublin (Poland)

2016- Lucid dream, White Gallery, Lublin (Poland)

2015- Keeping Both Feet on the Ground, BWA Katowice and BWA Tarnów, curator Marta Lisok

2015-Hideout, Labirynth Gallery, Lublin, (Poland)

2014- Messenger, Night Activities, festiwal in public area, Katowice, BWA (Poland), curator Marta Lisok

2014- Folium Stramonii, Art review Survival, Wrocław, (Poland), curator Magdalena Zięba

2014- Paper schelters, Mieszkanie Gepperta (duo with Yael Frank), Wrocław (Poland), curator- Ania Stec

2013 - Genealogies of work, Arsenal City Gallery, Poznan, (Poland)

2012 - Sweet sickness, BWA ,Tarnow, Poland

2011 -Plica, installation with artist Iza Tarasewicz, Interdisciplinary Gallery, Slupsk, Poland

2009 -Faule Bricke, installation, Gdansk (Poland)

2008 - Warriors of love, Flensburg (Germany)

2008 - Secrets/Views, CSW Laznia, Gdansk (Poland)

2007 -Secrets/Views, Partnership project, Flensburg (Germany)

2004 -Full Contact, Quinta das Pratas, Cartaxo, (Portugal)

ARTIST BOOKS

2020- Magdalena Franczak: Margin of Error, Wozownia Art Gallery, PL/EN

2019- Magdalena Franczak: Standing People- a visual essay about the people working in a standing position, Nomadic Publishing, PL/EN

2013- Magdalena Franczak: Ice Palace, Labirynth Gallery, PL/EN

COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS:

2021- MANIFESTOS FOR THE FUTURE, installation in public area, with Ludomir Franczak, Jaśmina Wójcik, Jadwiga Sawicka, Ania Witkowska, ResKeil, Edwin Bendyk,DDK „Węglin”, Lublin, Poland

2021- Sound Sculpture, with Ola Rzepka, DDK Czuby Południowe, Lublin, Poland

2015- Six Verbs Movement, installation in public area, with Ludomir Franczak, Lublin, Poland, curator Yaelle Wisznicki Levi.

2009 -Pattern project, fashion installation, Powiekszenie, Warsaw, Poland

2009 -Under the bed, dance performance with Ula Sawicka and photos of Michael Ackermann

2009 -Handle with care, street performance, International Festival of Street Theaters, Arkhangelsk, Russia

2007 -Schneekugel, ZUOM - performance project with Ola Rzepka, Zofia Esden, Ula Sawicka

2007 -The well -Rondo Theater, International Festival of Street Theaters, Arkhangelsk

Links to online works:

Imaginary Lexicon of Cluj: https://vimeo.com/191777916

Margin of Error: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHgEup2mO1M

Walking Notes: https://thevirtualcanvas.site/?The-Virtual-Canvas-exhbition-Krupa-Gallery-Magda-Franczak-Ludomir-Franczak-Walking-Notes

website:http://mfranczak.blogspot.com/