Katarzyna Majak (Poland)

Im_placement II (2009)

Programme: Aleja Kwiatowa, plac Żołnierza Polskiego 2 Available from 19.03.09

A photographer , a critic, a curator . She obtained a diploma in Photography from the Faculty of Multimedia Communication at ASP in Poznań (2003). She learnt Photography from Edward Weston's grandson in Carmel, California (2002), and John Sexton, Ansel Adams' assistant in Aspen, Colorado; A grant holder of Anderson Ranch Arts Center (2003). As an artist-in-residence she took part in an international project Florida - First Contact in the Atlantic Center for
the Arts  (2002).
She has written about Photography for a quarterly Photography,  Fototapety, she cooperated with The Positive. She has been in charge of the studio of Photography and other media at the Academy of Photography since 2003. Besides photography she deals with installations, and video. She has had exhibitions in Poland and abroad (USA). In 2008 her project Desire was presented by Zderzak Gallery at  ART FORUM in Berlin.  Among others she was a curator of the exhibition of young Polish photography Globe-all? in Tucson, Arizona (2004) where she was staying as an artist-in-residence, she had her individual exhibition and she delivered a lecture on Polish photography in T ucson PIMA Arts Council. She was a portfolio reviewer during the Month of Photography in Krakow (2008).
She graduated from English and Russian Philology at UAM in Poznań.

Im_placement II
... It is a keyword-installation for my father , who sold his beloved orchard to help me buy my own apartment. The orchard was the place he had spent all his free time. When he lost it  he suffered from depression and I felt kind of guilty . I am still trying to give back  the orchard,  to pay it back. The installation evolves. It may be a gust of wind in the orchard, or the orchard at night…
When does it happen? When does an orchard stop being just an orchard, especially that it was long ago cut down and annihilated? However , it still exists, but it is not just an orchard anymore. There starts to be in it a part of a person who remembers it, who transfers it, tries to implace it, who is looking for some space for it.
A nomadic orchard – Will it accept the openness of the space where any metamorphosis may happen? Will the orchard be saved for this price, and its annihilation – annulled?
That is an orchard, which admittedly does not exist anymore, but which still lasts.
What is an orchard in fact? It is something I recall and something I reject.  The orchard defines me, but I do not want to be defined. The orchard gives me roots and I want to wander . It is to be imperceptible...
The orchard seemingly –  non-implaced, but maybe thus set – even stronger as it had to be up to my memory . Could I disown it, could I deny it? It still is. The nomadic orchard – like me. This action is invariably symbolic, purifying. Especially that an orchard and an apple tree have a strong symbolic basis.  The rich symbolism of an orchard, an apple and an apple tree makes me a kind of Eve trying to atone.
The artistic strength of Katarzyna Majak's works is the fact, that they are derived from her own life, from reaching out to the mythology of childhood as only this kind of actions may be associated with the term  Art.
Being (Sein) in the orchard is not only going back to family life but also the eternal or looking for eternity . Katarzyna Majak thinks about creating an orchard – an installation that would remind of the years of childhood. The image and the realisation of an orchard is also a special way of paying off her father . The orchard is a term being  inside her .  The motif both of recreating the orchard and  implacing different spaces is crucial to her .
Majak has also reached for the fascinatingfilm of Akira Kurosawa Dreams, where the plot of cutting down trees caused great perturbations for the ghosts living in them. In Majak's creation there also appeared culturally different fascinations associated with an orchard. In the work Rooms these are hanging trees in a form of an installation. A similar atmosphere was in the works of an artist from Łódź –  Aleksandra Mańczak, which were derived from her ecological interests. Katarzyna Majak's works have a more family , mythological or biblical meaning.
Life sometimes  implaces us itself. We are attached to different behaviours, we lack freedom of speech, we are overwhelmed with institutions or political system. The issue of objectification of a human was taken up with great artistry by  Andrzej Wróblewski in his tragic painting. His creations are propagated by Zderzak gallery . Katarzyna Majak wants to return to this life, but also the art issue, as she wants to identify herself with an orchard...

Krzysztof Jurecki