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Marta Michalak

Manager of Art and Research Projects

marta.michalak@wok.art.pl

(she/her)

I work as a Project Manager at the Warsaw Observatory of Culture. Previously, from 2018 to 2022, I was the Production Manager at Biennale Warszawa. Earlier, I co-authored the programme framework of projects addressed to the Dance Department of the Institute of Music and Dance, including a programme for a career shift for dancers. I also handled programming activities and collaborated on the organisation of two editions of the Łódź Dialogue of Four Cultures Festival, I served as an expert in a think tank in the Political Cabinet at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and worked on the programming and organisation of the SPOTKANIA International Theatre Festival at the Dramatyczny Theatre of the Capital City of Warsaw.

As a cultural anthropologist and theatre scholar by education, my interests revolve around activities that intersect art and social change. My experience lies in designing and coordinating highly dynamic and changeable processes, working with diverse organisational cultures, and building interdisciplinary project teams.

Photo by KANAPLEIDIKI

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Announcing the results of the call for applications for Co-thinking artistic research process and networking meetings

We received 114 applications. The applicants define the field of artistic research in diverse ways, situating it within a broad spectrum of institutional and non-institutional practices and subjecting them to critical analysis. Reading the applications has already given us the opportunity to explore this field. The large number and high quality of the submissions show how necessary reflection on artistic research is in Poland and how many people wish to pursue this path in their practice.

Co-thinking: open call for the process of artistic research and networking

My Back Tells the Story. Narratives of women with scoliosis

We are taking the subject of scoliosis out of hospitals and doctors' surgeries and into the public space. The exhibition is the result of five months of meetings aimed at creating a space to share the experience of being a woman with scoliosis. During this participatory process, we met other women with the condition for the first time.

Artistic and Research Projects

Co-thinking: open call for the process of artistic research and networking

In Poland, artistic research has been developing for years on the margins of art and science institutions. Although these ephemeral practices are an inexhaustible source of new cognitive strategies, they have not yet found their own place in the cultural field. Their creators lack funding and institutional support, and their work has not received much critical or scholarly commentary that could help deepen our understanding of these practices.

Artistic and Research Projects

As part of our partnership with Fundacja Stocznia, we are showing the exhibition Connections at WOK Lab. This exhibition is about connections. About combining art with activism, about creating conditions for collective action, but also about constructing narratives that help bridge different contexts. We believe in the importance of polyphony, but also in the search for common ground.

Artistic and Research Projects

We invited artists with a migration or refugee experience to walk around Warsaw, to places that are important to them. Their stories, anecdotes and digressions, opinions and emotions are an attempt to answer the question again: how else could it be In Warsaw? Now ahead is a three-day methodological seminar.

Artistic and Research Projects

First workshop meeting

Elise Bernhardt led a workshop which launched a study aimed at facilitating the process of modelling a dance institution in Warsaw.

Stepping to a dance institution in Warsaw

Starting with a clean slate

We present a summary of the discussion Conversations on the performing arts ecosystem: Production House vs. Dance Stage, or How They Do It in Berlin... held on 26 April 2023 at the Komuna Warszawa theatre, with the participation of Joanna Szymajda (dance curator associated with the Art Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Urszula Kropiwiec (Deputy Director of Nowy Teatr in Warsaw), Wojtek Ziemilski (director), and Grzegorz Laszuk (co-founder of Komuna Warszawa). The discussion was moderated by Piotr Morawski. The Warsaw Observatory of Culture was a partner of the meeting.

Warsaw’s Performing Arts Scene

Warsaw’s Performing Arts Scene

At the Warsaw Observatory of Culture, we carefully monitor the contemporary artistic landscape and the mechanisms that condition it. We are interested in the changes that are currently taking place in this field.

Artistic and Research Projects

A networking for members of the Belarusian photography community living in Poland

WOK Lab host the FSH1 platform for Belarusian photographers. On July 12, 2023, a networking meeting was held aimed at people from the Belarusian art community interested in contemporary photography.

Artistic and Research Projects

Municipal Fellowships 2023/2024

The Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) is the thematic partner of the 5th edition of the Municipal Scholarship Programme. The aim of the programme, which supports doctoral students from all over Poland, is to deepen our understanding of the processes and challenges facing the changing Warsaw and its inhabitants, and to use this knowledge in the development of municipal policies.

Artistic and Research Projects

Virtual experiences at WOK. Reality Bender graduation project exhibition

Experience the world of virtual reality and generative digital environments at the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) during the Reality Bender graduation project exhibition. The exhibition was feature the latest graduation projects from the 3D and Virtual Events Studio II, part of the Media Arts Department at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts.

Artistic and Research Projects

Secondary Archive at the Warsaw Observatory of Culture

A showcase of the work Secondary Archive: Ukrainian artists' sound statements was shown in the WOK's front window from 23 February until 5 March 2023. The installation could be seen and heard from 34/50 Marszałkowska Street.

Artistic and Research Projects

Curatorial and research meetings at the WOK

On 17–28 March, WOK Lab hosted eighteen participants and four mentors for the curatorial and research activities of Territory in/out.

Artistic and Research Projects

Evaluation of temporary exhibitions production

At the invitation of the Museum of Warsaw, the WOK project team developed and executed a pilot evaluation process of the production of the Museum's temporary exhibitions.

Artistic and Research Projects

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