In this podcast, Polish artist Patrycja Rozwora engages in insightful conversations with fellow artists, curators, and researchers about their visual and socially engaged work, all connected to the vibrant and diverse region known as 'Eastern Europe.' Each episode offers an easy-going yet thought-provoking dialogue, exploring topics like art, politics, and food, all through a rich tapestry of accents and perspectives. New episodes are released every four weeks, on Monday.
Episodes
4 days ago
4 days ago
# 60 - in conversation with Belarusian filmmaker and writer, Vladimir Kozlov.
Born in Mogilev, an industrial city in what is now Belarus, Vladimir Kozlov grew up amidst the unraveling of the Soviet Union. His formative years in the suburbs were marked by the chaos of the early 1990s—a time of unbridled freedom, wild capitalism, and rampant crime. Moving from Mogilev to Minsk and eventually to Moscow, Vladimir has dedicated his life to unpacking the legacy of the Soviet past.
Through his writing and cinematographic work, he delves deep into the cultural and social fabric of Russian and Belarusian society, asking pressing questions: Where did we go wrong? What did we overlook, leading us back to a totalitarian and authoritarian reality?
References:
Belarusian Filmmakers' Network (BFN) https://belfilmnet.work/en/
Vladimir Kozlov YouTube https://www.youtube.com/vkozlov
Films we speak about:
Number 10 (2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WpAKih8Ak0
Whatever We Want (2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REZpHrzQH0o&t=10s
Three Comrades (2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chU-CDMLSz4&t=649s
Summer of '89 (2022) https://vodblisk.northernlightsff.com/summer_of_89
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Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper
![[ENG] Kitchen Conversations with Open Group](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog8430230/OpenGroup_thumb_300x300.jpg){kind=logo}
Monday Nov 18, 2024
Monday Nov 18, 2024
#59 [overdubbed] - in conversation with Open Group - a Ukrainian art collective representing Poland at the 60th La Biennale di Venezia.
In this episode, Patrycja sits down with Yuriy Biley and Anton Varga, two members of Open Group, to explore their thought-provoking audiovisual installation, Repeat after Me II.
This powerful work serves as a collective portrait of civilian witnesses to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Featuring two videos created in 2022 and 2024, the installation presents refugee stories through the haunting sounds of weaponry they recall. Using a unique karaoke format, the piece invites viewers to mimic these sounds, teaching them to identify weapons by ear—a skill that could, in a dystopian future, be the key to survival.
References:
Open Group website http://open-group.org.ua/en/about-us
Polish Pavillion in Venice https://labiennale.art.pl/en/
Repeat after Me II publication https://zacheta.art.pl/en/e-sklep/katalog/repeat-after-me-ii
Yuriy Biley https://www.instagram.com/yuriy.biley/
Anton Varga https://www.instagram.com/anton.varga/
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Podcast thumbnail: (from the left) Pavlo Kovach, Yuriy Biley, Anton Varga at the opening of the 60th La Biennale di Venezia.
Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora
Transcription & overdubbing: Patrycja Rozwora
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper
Monday Nov 18, 2024
Monday Nov 18, 2024
# 59 [original] - in conversation with Open Group - a Ukrainian art collective representing Poland at the 60th La Biennale di Venezia.
In this episode, Patrycja sits down with Yuriy Biley and Anton Varga, two members of Open Group, to explore their thought-provoking audiovisual installation, Repeat after Me II.
This powerful work serves as a collective portrait of civilian witnesses to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Featuring two videos created in 2022 and 2024, the installation presents refugee stories through the haunting sounds of weaponry they recall. Using a unique karaoke format, the piece invites viewers to mimic these sounds, teaching them to identify weapons by ear—a skill that could, in a dystopian future, be the key to survival.
References:
Open Group website http://open-group.org.ua/en/about-us
Polish Pavillion in Venice https://labiennale.art.pl/en/
Repeat after Me II publication https://zacheta.art.pl/en/e-sklep/katalog/repeat-after-me-ii
Yuriy Biley https://www.instagram.com/yuriy.biley/
Anton Varga https://www.instagram.com/anton.varga/
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Podcast thumbnail: (from the left) Pavlo Kovach, Yuriy Biley, Anton Varga at the opening of the 60th La Biennale di Venezia.
Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper
Monday Sep 23, 2024
Monday Sep 23, 2024
# 58 - in conversation with The Neighbours - an artist collective representing Bulgarian at the 60th La Biennale di Venezia.
Speaking to artists: Krasimira Butseva, Julian Chehirian, Lilia Topouzova and curator: Vasil Vladimirov.
The Neighbours explores the silenced memories of survivors of political violence during Bulgaria’s communist era (1945 to 1989). Employing found objects, video, and sound design, the installation conveys the stories of those who endured Bulgarian Gulag camps and prisons. This multidisciplinary project, rooted in extensive scholarly research and more than 40 interviews conducted by the practitioners, reimagines the survivors‘ homes —the spaces where the interviews occurred—inviting audiences to inhabit them and bear witness.
References:
https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2024/bulgaria
https://www.bulgarianpavilionvenice.art/en
https://www.instagram.com/bulgariavenicebiennale/
Favourite home food: Chicken with Rice, Gris-Halva, Katschamak, Mish-mash
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Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper
Monday Aug 26, 2024
Monday Aug 26, 2024
# 57 - in conversation with artist and researcher from Ukraine and Germany, Marija Petrovic.
In her artistic practice, Marija is interested in situations of fragile contact and interaction, as well as in the multi-layered complexities of memory and representation.
In the podcast she talks about her publication 'Silver', which examines the silverware collection looted by the Nazis from Jewish-German communities in Hamburg. Marija also shares the first results of her doctoral research on vulnerability and the past and present of Ukraine from a decolonial perspective.
References:
Silver by Marija Petrovic and Ofri Lapid https://material-verlag.hfbk-hamburg.de/en/material/440-silver
HFBK Hamburg https://www.hfbk-hamburg.de/en/
Museum fur Kunst & Gewerbe Hamburg https://www.mkg-hamburg.de/en
Timothy Snyder https://timothysnyder.org/
Marija's favourite home food: Ukrainian potato pancakes - Deruny, and Crimean street food - Chebureki
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Thumbnail: Silverware - vitrine view in the Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg (MK&G), photo: Ofri Lapid
Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper
Monday Jul 29, 2024
Monday Jul 29, 2024
# 56 - in conversation about Secondary Archive (Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation).
Speaking with foundation's president Katarzyna Kozyra and foundation's director Iga Maria Szczepańska.
Katarzyna Kozyra is one of Poland's most famous conceptual artists, working internationally since the 90s. In 2012, she founded the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation to help women artists and cultural workers from Central and Eastern Europe promote their work.
Secondary Archive tells the history of non-Western — primarily Central and Eastern European — art through the lens of gender, covering the period after WWII through the present. This archive is composed of artistic statements and unknown pages of the biographies and practices of female artists, where one can see the names of those who have been marginalized, neglected, forgotten, or remain little known to the general public alongside artifacts from key female figures of non-Western art.
References:
Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation http://katarzynakozyrafoundation.pl/en/
Pyramid of Animals http://katarzynakozyra.pl/en/projekty/the-pyramid-of-animals/
Iga's favourite home food: Meatballs in Dill Sauce, Thai Roti with Banana, Condensed Milk and Egg
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Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper
Monday Jul 08, 2024
Monday Jul 08, 2024
# 55 - in conversation with visual artist representing Romania at the 60th La Biennale di Venezia, Șerban Savu.
The exhibition in the Romanian Pavilion, What Work Is, revisits the iconography of labour, drawing inspiration from historical realism and the propaganda art of the Eastern Bloc. Instead of challenging these discourses directly, Șerban challenges them by rearranging their tropes. His aim is to capture and portray moments of pause and inactivity, of indistinction between work and leisure, as reflections of broader societal changes or crises.
The Romanian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2024 is curated by Ciprian Mureșan. The exhibition will take place in both the Giardini della Biennale and at The New Gallery of the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice from April 20 till November 24, 2024.
Favourite home food: Ciorba de loboda, Stinging Nettle Salad
References:
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Podcast thumbnail: Șerban Savu by Paul Stoie / courtesy of Galeria Plan B
Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper
Monday Jun 17, 2024
Monday Jun 17, 2024
EP. 54 - about an exhibition, Franciszka Themerson: Walking Backwards in Tate Britain.
In conversations with:
Dr Hilary Floe, Senior Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain
Saskia Flower, Assistant Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain
Weronika Gertig - Burgess, Themerson Estate London
Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988) was a Polish, later British, painter, illustrator, filmmaker and set designer. Together with her husband Stefan Themerson, she was one of the most important experimental filmmakers in interwar Poland. Her film work, as well as her paintings and drawings, challenged social conformity and revealed her belief in individual freedom. During and after the Second World War, Francziszka Themerson created humorous works that dealt profoundly with the complex themes of trauma and loss.
The one-room display at Tate Britain is free and open to all till the 30th of March 2025.
References:
The Themerson Archive Catalogue
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This episode was created for Contemporary LYNX and with support of Polish Cultural Institute London
Podcast thumbnail:
Copyrights Themerson Estate
Franciszka Themerson (1907 – 1988)
Comme la vie est lente et comme l'espérance est violente
Painted in 1959
Oil paint on canvas
101.5 x 151 cm
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Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora,
get in touch: www.patrycjarozwora.com
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper
Monday May 13, 2024
Monday May 13, 2024
EP. 53 - in conversation with Krystyna Kacpura - President of the Polish women's rights foundation FEDERA.
The Foundation for Women and Family Planning FEDERA is a non-governmental organization fighting for reproductive health and rights, established in Poland in 1991.
On the podcast, you will learn about the history of the Foundation and its current projects and actions in light of Poland's regressive politics over the past decade. Krystyna Kacupra describes in detail the changes in Polish abortion law from communist times to 1993, 2022, and today.
Favourite home food: Polish sweets
References:
ARTE Tracks East - Alles neu? Polen nach dem Regierungswechsel
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Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper
Monday Apr 15, 2024
Monday Apr 15, 2024
EP. 52 - in conversations with Belarusian film director and screenwriter, Aliaksei Paluyan.
Aliaksei's debut documentary film COURAGE, about the mass protests in Belarus in 2020/2021, had its world premiere at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival, has been screened at major documentary film festivals and has been longlisted for the 2022 Oscars.
In the podcast, Aliaksei talks about his experiences making COURAGE and how it feels to look back on the Belarusian uprising 3 years later. Listeners will also get a glimpse of Aliaksei's current screenplay and his new film about the polarisation of Belarusian society.
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Films:
Favourite home food: Mashed potatoes and Cold Beet Soup with Kefir
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Buying the Kitchen Conversations Cookbook
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Recording & editing: Patrycja Rozwora
Mix & master: Jonas Kröper