Agnieszka Strzeżek / Sonia Jaszczyńska
As part of the WOK residency, we are undertaking process-oriented activities, aiming to use time and space to reflect on the future of the collective, its actions, values and structure. We want to explore how we can facilitate and improve our activities. We ask ourselves: do we want to continue as an informal collective or should we form an association? We want to map the artistic environment and find out what collaborations we can tap into both in Poland and abroad. We would like to get a better understanding of the legal and economic constraints we face and how to solve them. At present, we are experiencing a sense of chaos, overwhelm and isolation. We need time and reflection to reorient, reclaim and construct ourselves through art. During the residency we will use a method that is familiar to us from our publishing, zines and community work. We will start with conversations and from these we will create visual notes and sketches that will take the form of a residency journal.
Since 2022 we have collaborated on the interface of art, curatorial activities, publishing, art education and research work. Together we founded a publishing collective called Stopka, where we publish thematic zines according to a seasonal calendar of events. Kenaya Huanca-Villan, Basia Strzeżek and Karo Wyka are also members of the collective. We draw, write, organise open calls, edit texts, typeset, print and sew, and create themed promotional events for our publications. At the end of 2023 and beginning of this year, we successfully organised a pilot programme of home residencies, supported by tutoring, for mothers creators. The programme was funded by the Warsaw Observatory of Culture.