KATARZYNA MAJAK | WOMEN OF POWER
Bunker of Art
Plac Szczepanski 3a,
Cracow, Poland
Opening: Thursday 21 March, 6 pm
22 March 2013 – 14 April 2013
Curator: Agnieszka Żechowska
Co-ordinator: Renata Zawartka
Maria healer and visionary from women of power © Katarzyna Majak
Maria Ela video still © Katarzyna Majak
Katarzyna Majak’s exhibition at Bunkier Sztuki is the first exhibition in Poland, with more planned, to present a series of photographs portraying women who represent the new spirituality. The exhibition also comprises three films, documenting the ritual of purifying the city as well as fragments of the artist’s conversations with the women.
The project Women of Power is the outcome of the artist’s research, which took more than a year and for which she had received a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Katarzyna Majak set up on a journey, creating a map of beliefs which has altered the image of Poland as we know it – a country identified with Christian, and specifically, Catholic tradition. The protagonists of the project represent contemporary strands of pagan and neo-pagan spirituality, including Ásatrú, Wicca, Celtic reconstructionism and the Native Polish Church. There are healers, herbalists, story-tellers, shamans and witches – whose knowledge is based on intuition and contact with nature. In Podlasie, the artist met whisperers, who combine indigenous traditions, passed on through the generations, with the Christian Orthodox religion.
A return to the ‘roots’ can be very difficult, due to a shortage of tangible traces of Slavonic culture and the assimilation of pagan traditions by Christianity. The women in search of them go on initiation journeys to countries where old customs and tradition have survived. They learn from spiritual teachers and guides from the New Zealand Maoris, North American Indians and Peruvian shamans. Out of such journeys are born new, syncretic forms of spirituality.
The project has been exhibited, among others, in the Porter Contemporary Gallery in New York, the Slovene Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana, the Central European House of Photography in Bratislava and as a part of 31 Women in Art Photography at the Hasted Kraeutler Gallery in New York.
About the project: www.womenofpower.pl
--
/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.over-blog.com%2Ft%2Fcedistic%2Fcamera.png)
/http%3A%2F%2Fus-mg42.mail.yahoo.com%2Fya%2Fdownload%3Fmid%3D2_0_0_1_43062_AGdVfbwAAAKSVNDZTAqPIPJSJTk%26amp%3Bm%3DYaDownload%26amp%3Bpid%3D2%26amp%3Bfid%3DInbox%26amp%3Binline%3D1%26amp%3Bappid%3Dyahoomail)
/http%3A%2F%2Fimg2.ymlp333.net%2Fq8ny_vernissage_1.gif)
/fdata%2F3366896%2Favatar-blog-1125186116-tmpphpeKRH2W.jpeg){kind=avatar}