Stefan Bieńkowski

Looking for an outlet for observations from my ongoing research in Sociology, I would like to translate my existing work into the field of art. The subject of my PhD dissertation is care work and I study the work experience of caregivers of older people. During the analysis I realised that the scientific knowledge production did not allow me to work with the emotional dimension of the collected material and with my own emotions. In 2023 I began translating scientific material into other forms of expression. In autumn, in a collective action with Maria Oblicka, we produced an exhibition about work from the perspective of love and care, which was shown at the Przyszła Niedoszła Gallery. Based on excerpts from the interviews I conducted for my research, I started to work on a play about care work. I am considering creating a series of prints on the subject and creating a circle of support for caregivers. As part of the residency I would like to be able to look at these and other ideas at a distance and be supported in selecting one of the projects for further development.

I am a sociologist and artist working on precarious employment and care work. I am working on my PhD in Sociology at the University of Warsaw, and I am involved in a Fax-collective with which I talk about labour of love, care and social reproduction. I am pursuing a combination of art and science. Academically, I am working on a project on class mobility at SWPS University. Before that, I was involved in projects on precarious employment and peanut pensions at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2023,together with Maria Oblicka, I co-produced an exhibition at the Przyszła Niedoszła gallery entitled 3 Rooms with Care addressing the topic of care work. I have published in academic and non-academic journals. I graduated from the Interdepartmental Individual Studies in the Humanities programme at the University of Warsaw and from the Faculty of Industrial Design at the Academy of Fine Arts.