Visual artist, graduated from Photography at Multimedia Communication Department of Poznan Academy of Fine Arts where she is a PhD candidate; graduate of Poznan University – English philology and Russian philology; studied photography with Edward Weston’s grandson, Kim, at Carmel, California, USA, and John Sexton (Ansel Adam’s assistant), Aspen, Colorado, USA; awarded a scholarship by Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Colorado, USA (2003); artist-in-residence in ‘Florida - First Contact’ project at Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida, USA (2002). Apart from photography she works with video and installation. Writes on photography for ‘Fotografia’ quarterly, cooperated with ‘Pozytyw’ and ‘Fototapeta’; translates texts on photography into English; photography lecturer since 2003.
Exhibited in Poland and abroad (USA, Germany); curated photography shows e.g. a young
Polish photography exhibition ‘Globe-all?’ at WomanKraft Gallery in Arizona,
Tucson, USA, (2004); portfolio reviewer at Krakow Photomonth (2008). Selected
group exhibitions: Everyday Reality, Arsenal City Art Gallery, Poznan (2002); F12,
ff Gallery, Lodz (2003); Negatives Florida – First Contact, Atlantic Center for the Arts,
Florida (2002); Things and Objects, Manggha Center, Cracow (2003); The Present,
Medium Gallery, Bratislava (2003); Traces – Labirynt VII, KOK Gallery, Klodzko (2005);
From Zbigniew Tomaszczuk’s collection: Pod Schodami Gallery, Cracow (2004),
4 Fotofestiwal, Lodz (2005), Działan Gallery, Warsaw (2006); Dom Edyty Stein, Wroclaw (2006), Atelier Gallery, Chelm (2006); Po Schodach Gallery, Lublin (2007), Focus Gallery, Siedlce (2007); Odd Works, New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, USA (2008); Woman = No to All Discrimination, Niecodzienna
Gallery, Warsaw (2008); Desire, Art Forum Berlin – with Zderzak Gallery (2008); Different, Free, Equal, Green Gallery, Warsaw (2009); wdt, Poznan Photography
Biennal, Stary Browar, Poznan (2009); Figuracja czy abstrakcja II, Drei Art Galerie,
Radolfzell, Germany (2009); Figuracja czy abstrakcja II, Farbiarnia Gallery, Warsaw (2009).
Individual exhibitions: rooms, ON Galery, Poznan (2004); rooms, Okno Gallery
Slubice (2004); Cze, Zakret Galery, Warsaw (2004) ‘4x5’, WomanKraft, Tucson,
Arizona, USA (2004); Off_g, 4 Photography Biennial, Poznan (2005); Im_Placement,
Wozownia Galery, Torun (2008); Desire, Zderzak Gallery, Cracow (2009);
Im_Placement II, International Festival of Visual Art inSPIRACJE, Szczecin (2009);
Desire / Dechirer, Manhattan Gallery, Lodz (2009); Elder Works, The Museum
of Cinematography, Lodz (2009).
Katarzyna Majak’s project is a story of a strenuous ‘disengagement’ from the burden
of a phantasm. It will become more comprehensible once we see ‘it’ mirrored
in a fairy tale, which will reveal Katarzyna Majak’s project to be not only fiction made
material by artistic gesture, but also a universal story rooted in real life. I believe
all of the artist’s activities making up the wedding dress narrative become
a symbolic ellipse rooted in the artist’s experience and contains wisdom not only
for her as an individual but also contains a message for every woman.
I am convinced that artistic activity based on quasi-fetishism of a wedding dress and
examination of its ‘magic’ potential in various surprising contexts, becomes a gesture
projecting ‘fairy-tale’ incidents onto ‘objects’. It brings to life an object so that by means
of mediation self knowledge, and indirectly knowledge of cultural mechanisms, could be achieved.
The continuation and completion of the project are motivated by two meaningful
questions: how will the story of the dress end and what artistic gestures will
reveal the secret of desire? Since only what was given power may rule us, what
was given ‘power’ may change us profoundly.
Excerpts from Przemysław Owczarek’s ‘Desire/Dechirer’ catalogue text,
Zderzak Gallery/Manhattan Gallery 2009.
