Karolina Grzywnowicz is a visual artist whose work bridges contemporary art, research, and activism. Her works deal with plants in social and political context, often of a violent nature. She perceives landscape as a living archive in which traces of past events are recorded. Her methodology involves working with specialists across various disciplines e.g. botanists, soil researchers, hydrologists and local people to allow for a space of interaction and exchange of knowledge. She is currently working on a project about the politics of planting, plants used to camouflage violence and exploring scent as a tool of micro resistance and healing. She is interested in the practices of weak resistance, everyday activities, seemingly unnoticed gestures that have the power to resist oppression. She works in various media: installation, sculpture, video; she creates situations and art interventions. She lives in Berlin and works internationally.
Exhibitions:
18.11.23 – 05.01.2024
“Walking through underwater meadows” – show “Anti-textbook. How to build an invisible place?”
Kronika Center of Contemporary Art, Bytom
29.09 – 22.10.2022
“Distillates” – show “Grounding”
Warsaw Gallery Weekend, Jednostka Gallery, Warsaw
23.17 – 21.11.2021
“Bedtime” – show “Everyday Forms of Resistance”
Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
12.11.2020 – 14.05.2021
“Weeds”, “Still Life” – show “Love Letter to the Earth”
Tbilisi Online Biennale, Tbilisi
02.10.2020 – 17.01.2021
“Something in common”
Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw
01.10 – 07.11.2020
“The Camel Never Forgets”
Warsaw Gallery Weekend, lokal_30, Warsaw
19.09.2020 – 30.04.2021
“Flags of Weak Resistance” – show “Eureka”
National Museum of Ethnography, Warsaw
27.07 – 01.09.2019
“Every song knows its home” – show “Deep Listening”
BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice
26.04 – 05.05.2019
“Second nature” – festival “Erbstücke”
Hellerau – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste, Dresden
15.09 – 18.11.2018
“Weeds” – show “Floraphilia. Plants as archive”
Akademie der Künste der Welt, Köln
21.06 – 01.07.2018
“Still Life” – show “Inter-species Conservation”
Fotofestiwal, Fabryka Sztuki, Łódź
21.04 – 27.07.2018
“Still Life” – show “Trouble with Value”
Onomatopee, Eindhoven
08.10 – 15.10.2017
“Still Life” – installation in public space
Unsound Festival, Kraków
28.07 – 10.09.2017
“Song for displacement” – show “Solstices”
BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice
10.02 – 12.03.2017
“Weeds” – show “Antagonistic Gestures”
Dzialdov Gallery, Berlin
24.11.2016 – teraz
“Grün | Zielony” – participatory project
WRO Art Center, Wrocław
07.05.2016 – teraz
“Weeds” – installation in public space
Bęc Zmiana Foundation, Powiśle, Warszawa
18.03 – 09.04.2016
“Weeds” – show “Resilience. Secret Life of Plants, Animals and Other Species”
Büro für kulturelle Übersetzungen, Leipzig
04.09 – 01.11.2015
“Weeds” – solo show
Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warszawa
04.07 – 20.09.2015
“Weeds” – show “Magic Mountain”
BWA “Sokół” Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nowy Sącz
Awards and Art Residencies:
2024 – CEC Artlslink International Fellowship, Chicago, New York (US)
2024 – Art Quarter Budapest (HU)
2024 – Travelling Plants, French Institut of Pondicherry (IN)
2022 – Special Prize – Warsaw Gallery Weekend (PL)
2019-21 – Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (PL)
2019 – Biopolis, Botanical Garden, Kraków (PL)
2019 – Mamarat, Ramallah (PS)
2019 – Hellerau, Dresden (DE)
2018 – Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE)
Talks and Performances:
13.10.2023
Art intervention, Botanical Garden,
IMPULS Festival, Leipzig (DE)
25.10.2023
Workshop and art intervention
State Hospital for Mental Diseases, Rybnik (PL)
02.09.2023
Pop-up olfactory installation and artist talk,
Floating University, Berlin (DE)
24.06.2023
Artist talk, Sankt Hansine,
Vi Lever På Polsk, Copenhagen (DK)
02.10.2022
“Transmitters of Memory”
Jednostka Gallery, Warsaw
13.12.2021
“Feminist Surveillance Art”
Yale University, New Haven, CT
09.12.2021
“Bedtime” – “Horizons”
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
17.11.2021
“Singing about the dark times”
Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
24.10.2020
“Every song knows its home” – “The Route to Safety”
Insomnia Festival, Tromsø
28.07.2019
“Second nature” – festival “Temporary Autonomous Zones”
STUDIO Theatre, Warsaw
20.07.2019
“Second nature” – festival “Zero Point”
Kampus Hybernska, Prague
07.12.2018
open studio – festival “Winterfest”
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
28.10.2017
“Slag heap hiking trail” – site specific intervention
BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice
21.10.2017
arist talk, DOFA – Lower Silesian Festival of Architecture
Museum of Architecture, Wrocław
09.10.2017
discussion: “Europe’s Last Primeval Forest”
Unsound Festival, Kraków
25.11.2016
artist talk “Grün | Zielony”
WRO Art Center, Wrocław
29.10.2015
artist talk “Weeds”
Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warszawa
25.03.2014
“Voids. A walk” – site specific intervention
Terka, Studenne
22.05.2014
“Weeds” – presentation
artistic and scientific conference “Disappearing”
Galeria Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków
25.03.2014
“Weeds” – artist talk
Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków
Grants and Scholarships:
2024 – Visegrad Fund (HU,SK)
2024 – Goethe Institut Chennai (IN)
2023 – Berlin Senate (DE)
2023 – Stiftung Kunstfonds (DE)
2021 – The Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation (DE)
2020 – Art Station Foundation (CH)
2019 – Akademie Schloss Solitude (DE)
2019 – Adam Mickiewicz Institute (PL)
2013 – Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (PL)
2013 – Lotto Foundation (PL)
2012 – European Cultural Foundation (NL)