3 March - 28 August, 2022
1 PLN

Olga Micińska: The Guild

The Guild exhibition tells the story of a still non-existent guild of female carpenters and joiners—women who work with wood. According to the tradition of German travelling guilds, which is still alive today, an apprentice, having completed his training, would set off on a journey, travelling from one commission to another.

Olga Micińska turned the space of the Rynek 30 Gallery into a makeshift stop along the way of the imaginary ”guild” members.

Fot. Tomasz Kaczor

The artist uses her own sculptures-objects and items selected from the Museum of Warsaw collection. She supplements them with photographs in order to stage a story about the craftswomen union. The shape that the imaginary guild’s workshop takes encourages us to change our way of thinking about the production of objects as a male domain associated with physical power and hierarchy.

The craftswomen union conjured by the artist realises a utopian idea of a just division of labour, faith in the power of cooperation, and an aesthetic revaluation.

Micińska uses seemingly simple objects such as a blanket, a transport box, an underwear shirt or a nail polisher. She constructs a world in which there is also room for respect for the body and physicality of a female worker. The artist introduces fabrics into her installations. Delicate silks in the airy clothing of female apprentices or woven fabrics are yet another important motif in her work.

Fot. Tomasz Kaczor

THE BUILDING INSTITUTE

The Guild is a continuation of Olga Micińska artistic activities to date. The artist’s research and performative practices include crafts, in particular woodwork and weaving, ways of organising production and systemic assumptions behind these processes.

The Building Institute, established by Micińska in Amsterdam, serves as a platform for artistic and manufacturing activities. This artistic and mentoring project boasts a solid educational dimension. It consists in training and supporting young women so that they can participate more in the hitherto male-dominated crafts related to woodworking.

COLOPHON

photographs, objects, staging: Olga Micińska

curator: Karolina Ziębińska-Lewandowska

accompanying program: Lidia Pańków

production: Marta Galewska

graphic design: Anna Burchard

text edition: Urszula Drabińska

poster design: Anna Światłowska