Małgorzata Szandała (PL)

The subject of my work stems from my longstanding interest in space and the attempts to figure out what it is and how it works. I was always curious how language as a tool (understood as a system of signs) can be employed to describe space. Another significant pillar of my work, are, generally speaking, the times in which we live: history, events, circumstances, traces of the past, namely, everything which creates concrete contexts that affect us at present. They shape our so-called reality, i.e. our concepts – language, our space and our bodies immersed in it. The concept of heterotopia, elaborated by Michel Foucault, at some point became key for my work. I came to a conclusion that in order to be able to fully discuss the topics of my concern three elements need to be combined: space, language and body, which become activated by the catalytic factor of violence (such as war, conflict, state of alarm, etc.).
On the other hand I realised what kind of tool language is in fact and the narration it creates. How close can facts and fiction be when we try to speak about the traumatic past. Often there are no tools to decide what the former is and what the latter is, when both work in the same way.
Researching is a very important part of my artistic practice and I consider the cognitive role of art the key aspect of my investigations. I am interested in site-specific installations, objects, conceptual art and subversive strategies.

Małgorzata Szandała (1977) is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. She continued her education at the interdisciplinary postgraduate studies “Art / public space / democracy – relations and possibilities” at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw with prof. Krzysztof Wodiczko and later on at the seminar of professor Andrzej Leder: “The Post-war Period in Europe. The Path of Trauma to the Surface” at the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw. She participated in residency programmes in the Künstlerhaus Lukas Ahrenshoop in Germany, Imprimerie – atelier pour arts et sciences in Basel (Switzerland), Artist-in-Residence Harlech in Wales, and in Honefoss in Norway. She took part in several dozen exhibitions in Poland and abroad (among others: Gallery of Action in Warsaw, Centre for Contemporary Art Kronika in Bytom, Field Projects Gallery in New York, Chelsea College of Arts in London, Vienna Künstlerhaus, Museum Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, Musashino University of Art in Tokyo, Korea Foundation Cultural Center in Seoul, Museum of Art in Timisoara). She currently works at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice.

malgorzata-szandala.art.pl