In 1988 she graduated from École des Beaux-Arts in Aix-en-Provence. In 1992 was awarded a scholarship for a residency in Escuela de Deseno, Altos de Chavon, Dominikana Republic. In 1998 participated in Transfer in the Kultursekretariat Nordrhein-Westfalden in Germany, and in 2001 in a similar residency project in New York, USA. Between 2002-2003 she was an artist-in-residence in Philip Morris Kunstforderung in Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, and 3 years later was awarded a Scholarship Governement Francais Paris. Important group exhibitions: Horizons, Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwang (1996); Transfer Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal; Museum Bochum, Bochum (1998); Art Negotiators Faced with Reality, Laznia Center for Contemporary Art Gdansk (2000); Scene 2000, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2000); In Between: Art From Poland 1945-2000, 400 Gallery, Chicago (2001); Irreligion Museum Atelier 340, Brussels (2001); White Mazur, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2003); Prague Biennial 1, Peripheries Become the Center National Gallery, Veletežni Palác, Prague (2003); Anne, Marie, Madeleine, Espace Apollonia, Strasbourg (2004); Art from Poland Kunsthalle Darmstad, Germany (2005); Potential Contemporary Art Collections for the Museum, Warsaw (2005); Nomads of Nowadays, Laznia Center for Contemporary Art, Gdansk (2006); Gestures of Infinity, Minoriten Kultur Graz, Austria (2007); Art Collection of 20th and 21st centuries in Ms2, Lodz Museum of Art (2008); Red Eye Effect, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2008).

Individual exhibitions: Human Clear, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (1996); Somebody Else is Using Your Eyes, Zderzak Gallery, Cracow (1996); Human Clear, Soros Center of Contemporary Arts, Praha (1998); This is Klara and this is me Pico, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (1998); Family, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok (1999); Visitation, Potocka Gallery, Cracow (1999); This is Klara and this is me Pico, 400 Gallery, Chicago (2001); Virgins, Potocka Gallery, Cracow (2002); Fanshon, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2003); Fanshon, Le Guern Gallery, Warsaw (2004); New Jerusalem, Starmach Gallery, Cracow (2007); Concise Stories, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok (2007); Forbidden to Forbid, Gdansk Photography Gallery, Gdansk (2009).

The head kerchiefs of Turkish or Kurdish women Marta Deskur photographs in the streets of Berlin’s Kreuzberg, do not cover faces. However, we can see no facial features in her work. Almost all of the photographs concentrate on the fabric draped over the hair. An outline of a profile that we sometimes notice makes us realize a sense of insatiability, slowly growing even stronger within us. Has not photography taught us an unrestrained contemplation of human face? Do we not love photography because it allows us to stare at people at whom we would not dare to look at for too long in the street? Marta Deskur consciously plays with this frustration, helping us realize the blind spots of our own eyes. A Muslim kerchief, Marta Deskur seems to say, although it most often covers only the woman’s hair does not allow western people to see the woman’s face. The kerchief entirely possesses the gaze of the people. It distinguishes its wearer from the crowd in a Berlin street but it distinguishes the person only to lock this person in our own categorization as a Turkish woman, beyond any individuality. However, Marta Deskur has removed the images of kerchiefs from the contextof the street and placed them on white tiles. And now, paradoxically, the kerchief starts to reveal what was previously hidden. From its curves we can decipher the shape of a woman’s head, the gravity of her hair made into a bun, the line of the back – the unmistaken signs of presence. The woman, hidden before our gaze, invisible to our eyes, dissolved in the white of the background, seems even more painfully present.

Excerpts from Olga Stanisławska’s catalogue text for ‘Fanshon II’ exhibited by Le Guern Gallery, Warsaw.