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Alina Śmietana

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Visual artist. Born in 1996. Currently a PhD student at Academia Artium Humaniorum, the discipline of Fine Arts. Graduate of Media Art and Visual Education at Art Department, NCU in Toruń. Lives in Rome (Italy) and Włocławek (Poland). Prefers laughter, even through tears, to any form of submission. At the moment, she is mostly interested in magical thinking (understood as daily rituals and spontaneous teasing of fate in response to complete helplessness), instant substitutive solutions, and power relations in co-created works. 

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In my practice, I try to deal with problems that affect me directly as part of a group. The honesty of the experience is important to me, hence I must be a participant in it. The solutions I propose are not always rational, as are the sources of worry and their consequences. Rather, they serve to relieve tension. I prefer to laugh, if only through tears in helplessness, but against submission. 

My main focus right now is magical thinking (mostly mundane rituals and spontaneous gambling with faith as small sources of hope), instant substitute solutions and relations of power in co-created works. My artistic practice is based on theoretical and social research as I’m using rhizomatic thinking. Combining those two sources (knowledge and experience) allows me to create with everyday, well-known forms and references thereby not building distance with the participants. The most cherished artistic process for me is the liveness artworks, directly related to the presence of people. Hence, I often use the medium of performance or intermedia solutions. I choose medium to each work individually, mix them and experiment to find the most fulfilling solution. All of my works have performative based, they don’t fully exist without a person. 

Before materializing an idea, I wonder what its socio-ecological calculus will be. I try to do work whose balance is at least neutral, and preferably positive, i.e. it does not have a negative impact on the world and does not waste problematic resources. Don't do too much - do just the right thing and do what is right.  

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alin.smietan@gmail.com

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individual exhibitions

2021 Nobody is home,   Wozownia Art Gallery, Toruń 

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others

2023 Masterclass with Vladimir Nikolić, Trieste Contemporanea, Trieste, Italy

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collective exhibitions

2023

  • POR - POL NET https://porpol.net/: Kliki i obroty (online), UL Gallery (Gdańsk), Passevite (Lisbon)

  • Przewrót, Wozownia Art Gallery, Toruń

  • K _ _ _ _ _ C _ _, Nicponiej Art Space, Wrocław

  • Disarray, DOMIE, Poznań

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2022

  • Diploma 2021, CoCA, Toruń

  • Cyfroteka, OFF Piotrkowska Gallery, Łódź

 

2021

  • 3rd Biennial of Textile Art in Poznań, Stara Papiernia 2+, Poznań

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2020

  • #TODRAW - International Student Drawing Exhibition, Wozownia Art Gallery, Toruń

 

2019

  • 11. Triennial of Small Painting Forms, Wozownia Art Gallery, Toruń

  • Tits, Art of Choice Gallery, Gdańsk

  • Bella Skyway Festival, Toruń

  • I'm calling the police, Próżnia Gallery, Szczecin

  • Pogoń, Nurt Gallery, Toruń

  • 13th Performance Art Festival Circle of Time, Toruń

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2018

  • Performance Art Festival Kick Off Perfo, Toruń

  • Wystaw wię CSW, CoCA, Toruń

  • Transgresja, Art Center Dzyga, Lviv

  • 12th Performance Art Festival Circle of Time, Toruń

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2017

  • How is it ?, Labirynt Art Gallery, Lublin

  • 1st Biennial of Textile Art in Poznań, R20 Gallery, Poznań

  • 12th One-Minute Film Festival, Gdańsk

  • 11th Performance Art Festival Circle of Time, CoCA, Toruń

  • Wystaw wię CSW, CocA, Toruń

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2016

  • 10th Performance Art Festival Circle of Time, CocA, Toruń

  • Draw naturally: an international exhibition of student drawing, Wozownia Art Gallery, Toruń

  • Wystaw wię CSW, CoCA , Toruń

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