Joanna Pawlik’s work centres on the relationship between the body and the landscape. The artist situates her own body within the space of spoil heaps, wasteland and industrial ruins, treating them not as a backdrop but as an active participant in the experience. Disability, pain and everyday life intertwine here with a relationship to a place that is constantly changing. The exhibition can be viewed from 6 July to 31 August in Łódź.
The curatorial text is by Magdalena Komborska-Łączna
In the spirit of the ‘mental ecology’ of the French psychotherapist and philosopher Félix Guattari, the landscape functions as a space inhabited both physically and psychologically. The boundaries between interior and exterior, body and environment, remain fluid, creating a shared territory of experience. Slag heaps have become a particular symbol of this relationship – landscapes created as a result of human activity, which, over time, undergo processes of regeneration and become habitats for new forms of life. Destruction and rebirth coexist there, forming a metaphor for a body capable of transformation, of regaining agency and of constantly negotiating its own boundaries.
In the monumental photographs, the performer’s figure almost vanishes into the landscape – a ‘blackout’. This becomes a metaphor for uncertainty, liminality and the blurring of boundaries between the body and the landscape. Pawlik presents the body as part of a larger whole, subject to processes of regeneration and transformation. In contrast to narratives focusing on the experience of pain, she directs attention towards agency, the recovery of presence, and the possibility of transcending limitations through action.
Another key theme in the artist’s work is her reflection on femininity and the ways in which the body is represented. Pawlik tells a tender story of corporeality that defies norms. Her photographs depict the non-normative body as a space of presence, experience and individual history. She is interested not only in the way the female body is depicted, but also in the very act of looking and the possibility of constructing one’s own self-image beyond imposed norms.
Another key element of the exhibition is a series of objects created by combining used prosthetic components with glass, metal and other materials. Transformed from everyday objects into autonomous artistic and design forms, they become vessels for experience and the individual history of the body.
In Pawlik’s works, the prosthesis ceases to be merely a functional tool and becomes a testament to the relationship between the body, technology and experience.
Joanna Pawlik’s work invites us to view the body as a space of constant transformation – capable of coexisting with otherness, transcending limitations and constructing new forms of presence in the world.
Author: Joanna Pawlik
Curator: Magdalena Komborska-Łączna
Visual identity: Mariusz Andryszczyk
Set design: Monika Staniec
Opening: 6 July, 6.00 pm
Exhibition dates: 6 July – 31 August 2026
Venue: Academic Design Centre, 13/15 Księży Młyn Street, Łódź
Organiser: W. Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź
See also: Exhibition | Łódź | Art | Recommended | whiteMAD on Instagram
