Thanks to the efforts of the Theatre Institute, the University of Silesia, and the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Asylum installation, which was awarded at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial, will be presented to a broad audience once again. Ksenia Makała’s work will be on display at the International Congress Centre during the 9th Silesian Science Festival in Katowice. Free entry passes are available on the SSF website.
The Asylum project aims to create a safe space. The levitating form that stretches out over the audience assumes the function of a shelter — a safe haven. However, it may also appear as a foreign and unsettling element that challenges the principles of gravity and stability. It contrasts with the existing architectural space. The ASYLUM is an interactive meeting place. A makeshift food outlet, created from a variety of readily available elements, is open to all passers-by and is located under the levitating form. This refers to the emergency aid efforts following the large-scale aggression against Ukraine in 2022.
The Asylum won the Responsiveness to Urgencies award in the Student Exhibitions category, as judged by the jury at the 15th edition of the Prague Quadrennial 2023.
A poetic contrast between the real and the metaphorical, the ability to touch on the crisis with an apparent and profound simplicity. Up, the volatile ceiling is safe but precarious. Down, the human solidarity that eases hunger, thirst and cold, is also safe and provisional.
As part of the project, there was an initiative to encourage children to express themselves artistically, entitled “My Asylum”/”My Shelter”. In response to the author’s description, works were created to complement the installation and address the themes of danger and security. The artists were children from Poland and Ukraine.
The installation will be accompanied by a photo exhibition featuring work by Markéta Bendová from Prague, Maciej Czerski from the movement and art workshops for families, which took place at the Theatre Institute on 19 November 2023, and Rafał Wyrwich from the Night of Museums at the Silesian Museum in Katowice in 2024.
The Katowice Silesian Science Festival is one of the most significant popular science events in Poland and on the European continent. Its mission is to awaken and strengthen public interest in science, inspiring intellectual curiosity in people of all ages. The main programme consists of several hundred activities of various types. A significant element of this programme is the demonstration stands located within six knowledge zones, which reflect the scientific disciplines taught at universities in the Silesian Province. These zones are nature, the humanities and social sciences, technology, medicine and health, the exact sciences, and art.
Ksenia Makała’s installation will be on display in the Art Section.
Asylum
Author of the installation: Ksenia Makała
Subject-matter expert for the Student Exhibition at the PQ 2023: Prof. Marek Chowaniec
Curators of the Student Exhibition at the PQ 2023: Prof. Marek Chowaniec, dr Jarosław Cymerman, dr Krystyna Mogilnicka and dr Anna Rudek-Śmiechowska
Producers of the Student Exhibition at the PQ 2023: Krystyna Mogilnicka and Karolina Dziełak-Żakowska
The Student Exhibition at the PQ 2023 was produced by the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute. The execution of the project “15th Edition of the Prague Quadrennial 2023” was co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
