The “Język kolażu/Collage Language” project was carried out by Marta Janik and Alex Urso at the Praga-Północ Culture Center (Known as Dom Kultury Praga in Warsaw) from September to December 2019. This project was a real test of Collage as an artistic technique, and of its versatility and ability to connect people with each other and their local area. The project began with a simple artistic experiment. By drawing from a collection of more than one hundred historical photographs of Warsaw’s Praga district, Alex Urso (a collage artist from Italy) and I prepared collages reflecting on our individual experiences of the Praga District, which is located on the right bank of the Vistula river that divides the city of Warsaw into East and West. These initial collages then formed the starting point for our communications around the event, and from this work we created promotional posters and a unique installation that was located inside an advertising pole at the Downtown Railway Station.
The main part of the project took place as workshops with other Warsaw residents. As a result of eight intergenerational workshop meetings led by Alex Urso and myself, the residents of Praga North experienced themselves becoming real artists through the process of Collage and created many original works .The best of these artworks were then printed as high quality postcards and sent out into the world to various cultural institutions and other international collage artists. The project also included Varsavianist lectures, and the creation of a stop-motion animation film, leading us from Downtown Warsaw and into the Praga District.
This exciting project concluded with the opening of the “Language of Collage” exhibition itself. The opening of the exhhbition was held at the Koneser Prague Center on December 10th, 2019 and continued until December 30th, 2019. The exhibition featured postworkshop works and collages by various professional artists associated with the Praga-Północ area of Warsaw. The opening event also featured live experimental music by “MIN t” singer and producer Martyna Kubicz, who’s musical style explores the areas of dance electronica and neo soul, if you are interested you can check out her debut album “Assemblage.” The event also featured a performance by “Kejos The-At-Er” a new-circle band from Wroclaw, who kindly performed a show of live collages that they had prepared especially for the event.
Praga-Północ enchanted in an advertising pole near the Palace of Culture! The installation made together with Malgorzata Czekajlo invited the public to visit the Praga Culture House and take part in the workshop.
