Michalina W. Klasik

Statement

MICHALINA W. KLASIK born in 1984, is a polish visual artist. Works with image, object, text. Her artistic practice is guided by the idea of decolonizing nature. Since her residency at the Spanish Institute Joya: arte+ecologia in 2018, she has been working on the project untitled: ”The Secret Activism”, which includes all her recent works. She cooperates with artists, activists from different parts of the world, dealing with the issues of deep ecology. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice (2010). PhD in fine arts in 2017. Finalist of the Open Out Festival in Norway (2020) and the ”What’s Next for Earth” project run by the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB, Stanford University, USA, 2020).

GlogauAIR Project

TREE-HUGGERS

For a quite long time now, in my artistic practice, I have been engaged in activities which I call ”the secret activism” – I create images, objects, texts and document various actions, which aim to convey the reflection on how we destructively affect nature. As my residency project, I would like to create a series of works telling the story of deforestation on an unprecedented scale, which is currently taking place in Polish forests. The online residency is an ideal solution for me because my ‘atelier’ will be the forest – I will stay outside a lot. I want to wander/photograph/document/protest and then use the collected materials to create objects and images. At the same time, I want to gather via the Internet a large collection of photographs – portraits of people from all over the world who have photographed themselves while hugging trees. And then process these photographs so that they unify, simplify, and together begin to bring to mind the representation of some mysterious tribe – a great, kind, global group.

Tree-huggers are not only people who simply like to cuddle up to the trees, to draw energy from them, but above all, they are the term for ecologists – those who stand up for nature. “The first tree huggers were 294 men and 69 women belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism, who, in 1730, died while trying to protect the trees in their village from being turned into the raw material for building a palace. They literally clung to the trees, while being slaughtered by the foresters.” And this fight is still going on – quite recently, in Poland, in defense of the oldest primeval forest in Europe – the Białowieża Forest – the heritage of all of us, people were pinning themselves to the trees to protect it from harvesters. Under current government, many of the old, wonderful Polish forests are now being cut down at a huge rate. I’m also observing this phenomenon in south Poland, where I live. I would like these project to be personal, relating to places close to me, but at the same time to be read universally.

CV Summary

Latest actions and exhibitions

• 2020
  • Attempt 4 – International Contest for Experiment in Visual Arts, finalist, Jan Tarasin Gallery, Kalisz, Poland.
  • Leave No Trace, Open Out Festival, finalist, Tromso Kunstforening, Norway.
  • What’s Next for Earth, project finalist, Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB), Stanford University, USA.
  • Sustainability Roots, pop-up exhibition, Kozkincs Konyvtar, (cooperation with Extinction Rebellion Hungary), Budapest.
  • Pandemic TRANSGRAFIA, International Print Triennial Society in Krakow, virtual project.
  • Infinite thoughts, international woman artists exhibition, Classic Gallery, Nepal.
  • Beyond The Veil, international woman artists exhibition, Poznań Art Week.
  • Lost, International Art Festivals: Festival de Arte Lanzarote and Festival de Arte Fuerteventura, Spain/France.
  • XI Triennial of Small Painting Forms, group exhibition, Wozownia Art Gallery, Toruń.
  • Weltshmerz, Drawing Triennial Wrocław, group exhibition, BWA Gallery, Wroclaw.
• 2019
  • The Ideal System, group exhibition, part of the Warsaw Museums’ Night, Ada Puławska Gallery, Warsaw.
  • Inter-species peace, in cooperation with Lab Resque, group exhibition, Apartment Gallery, Toruń.
  • Forgive me for being a human, solo exhibition, FaVU Gallery, Brno, Chech Republic.
  • X Polish Printmaking Triennial, New Silesian Museum, group exhibition, Katowice, Poland.
  • Micro, A.I.R. Gallery, group exhibition, Manchester, Great Britain.
  • 6 Digital Printing Triennial, group exhibition, Era Art Gallery, Gdynia.
• 2018
  • Art residency at the Spanish Institute Joya: arte+ecologia.
  • Every day, solo exhibition, Joya: arte+ecologia Institute, Parque Natural Sierra María – Los Vélez, Andalucía, Spain.
  • Finalist of a Neo Proof Print Exchange Competition, Neo Gallery, Bolton, Great Britain.
  • Directly, solo exhibition, Nutting Gallery, USA.
  • Neo Proof Print Exchange, Neo Gallery, Bolton, group exhibition, Great Britain.
  • The 6th Tokyo International Mini Print Triennial, group exhibition, TAMA University, Japan.

Gallery