Helena Łomnicka
I applied for the programme a few months after moving back to Warsaw, having spent almost ten years living abroad. As I built most of my career outside Poland, the local scene feels quite alien to me today. The lack of an extensive network of contacts means I find myself in a state of limbo ‘in between’, and I feel that my experience needs to be renegotiated so that I can re-establish myself in the local context and find my place in Warsaw for the long term.
I view the WOK residency as a laboratory for this change: a space to simply be ‘here and now’ for a moment, rather than letting one’s thoughts race anxiously ahead to the future, as well as an opportunity to build relationships and perhaps slightly redefine working methods.
As an independent researcher of contemporary spirituality, I often refer to the concept of ‘equality of knowledge’. I strive to treat esoteric and mystical knowledge on a par with scientific knowledge – for me, this is a prerequisite for researching these fields with due respect. During my residency – in the spirit of this year’s theme – I would like to reflect more deeply on what this equality means in practice. I used to be very keen on extending my theoretical propositions to experimental research methods, but I feel that over the years I have had to start opting for more tried-and-tested choices, as these stood up best in the eyes of grant-awarding bodies.
I would like to use this time and support of WOK to re-examine how my research methods can reflect an attempt to de-hierarchise structures of knowledge and function as a concrete research-artistic practice, rather than merely a theoretical proposition. I hope that this experiment will allow me to rethink the foundations of my work and regain a sense of professional agency, and above all, to find stable ground for my future personal and professional endeavours in Poland.
I am an independent researcher focused on the analysis of contemporary spirituality and its intersections with modern politics and visual culture. I hold a degree in cultural studies as well as an MA in the History of Esotericism, obtained as part of a program led by the Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents in Amsterdam.
In the last years my research has focused on neo-Marxist perspectives on spirituality, as well as on the analysis of contemporary esoteric discourse in digital culture. I have lectured on these and related topics in academic and cultural contexts, including at Willem de Kooning Academy (2022), Post-Office Amsterdam (2025), and on Radio Kapitał (2025).
In my work I seek to foreground alternative forms of knowledge and to examine the enduring presence of spiritual belief, myth, and magic in the contemporary world. In 2026, I am collaborating with Romanian visual artist and researcher Dorin Budușan on a new research project focused on the analysis of historical and contemporary vampiric references in the construction of Western narratives about Eastern Europe, as well as the geopolitical identities that emerge from this process.