Praga, Czechy / Praha, Czech Republic
25–26.06.2025
Janusz Bałdyga
Performer and creator of objects, Bałdyga was born in 1954 in Lublin and studied at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He graduated in 1979 with a diploma from the atelier of Prof. Stefan Gierowski. He was a member and co-founder of the artistic group Pracownia Dziekanka (1976–1981) as well as a member of Akademia Ruchu since 1979. He currently teaches at the Department of Sculpture of the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Fine Arts in Poznań, where he runs the Performance Art Studio.
He has participated in numerous exhibitions, symposia, and artistic events in Poland and abroad, including Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Austria, Russia, Taiwan, Switzerland, Israel, Norway, Spain, Japan, Indonesia, Ukraine, China, and the USA. He has developed his original style by consistently reducing language and means of expression. The artist’s performance activities are built upon the body as a fundamental element, serving as both the medium and the object of his work. His practice is rooted in social, political, and philosophical contexts, yet it maintains a universal dimension of the artistic message.
Krzysztof Leon Dziemaszkiewicz
Performance artist, painter and creator of objects. Born in 1963 in Lipiany, from 1982 to 2014 he lived in Sopot, where he actively participated in the artistic and cultural life of the region, starting from the period of his studies at the University of Gdańsk, through his involvement in theaters: Teatr Ekspresji, SFINKS and Teatr Patrz Mi Na Usta, to his individual performances. At present he lives and works in Berlin.
Dziemaszkiewicz has also been creating paintings and objects for many years. He works using an original technique he calls “tape art,” in which the basic tool and material is adhesive tape. Tape and the artist’s body have always been important elements in his work, so tape art has been a natural consequence and evolution in the artist’s performances.
Dziemaszkiewicz’s transgenic and transsexual work is intended to connect opposites and raise questions about the boundaries between humanity and animalism. His work taps into premonitions, instincts and emotions, and its overriding principle is sincerity. His uncompromising stance in the face of social constraints results in a unique language of artistic expression. The artist is what he wants himself and his work to be – in the name of the freedom of every human being. Dziemaszkiewicz’s art has been shown in the USA, China, France, Germany, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Canada, among others. He fully identifies himself with his work.
Aleksandra Kubiak
Aleksandra Kubiak (b. 1978 in Lubań) is a visual and performance artist, creator of films and spatial forms, and a lecturer. Her work explores the social efficacy of art and its psychological dimensions.
Since 2014, she has been developing an autobiographical series that merges themes of mourning and trauma with formal experimentation in film, positioned at the intersection of performance, documentary, and theater. She collaborates with actors, writes screenplays, and directs her own productions. In parallel, since 2011, she has been creating empathetic, relational actions with invited participants, staging performances based on her own texts.
In 2023, BWA Zielona Góra published Zrobię serce / I’ll Make a Heart, edited by Anna Łazar. The book offers an in-depth reflection on Kubiak’s individual practice, accompanied by psychoanalytic commentary on her work.
From 2001 to 2013, she co-founded the influential performance duo Grupa Sędzia Główny with Karolina Wiktor. The group’s works are included in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw and the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, among others. Kubiak resumed her solo practice in 2010 with the film Dolce Vita (2011).
In 2016, she earned her Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Arts in Poznań under the supervision of Prof. Izabella Gustowska and in collaboration with Prof. Marek Wasilewski. Since 2017, she has taught at the Institute of Visual Arts at the University of Zielona Góra. She lives in Zielona Góra, where she collaborates with the Salony Foundation and the BWA Gallery.
Aurora Lubos
An independent artist from Gdańsk, Aurora Lubos has been active on both the Tri-City and British art scenes for over 25 years. Since 2000, she has been a performer with the UK-based Vincent Dance Theatre. Her original works include solo performances, installations, short animations, performative installations, video pieces, and both visual and verbal broadcasts.
Among her most significant works are: Akty (Acts), a performance based on true stories of domestic violence survivors; Z Wody (From the Water), performed on the beach in Sopot on Solidarity with Refugees Day; Witajcie / Welcome, a piece addressing the 2015 migration crisis, inspired by her time on the Slovenian-Austrian border and narratives from those who crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe; and Lament, a performance dedicated to the Gaza Strip, publicly mourning the visible destruction and loss.
Since 2019, she has been a co-founder and member of the Arbuz Association, which supports refugees and individuals with limited access to education and the arts. Since 2021, she has volunteered – first with the Homo Faber Association and later with the Granica Group – providing humanitarian aid at the Polish-Belarusian border. These experiences resulted in a series of works addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis: Pocztówki znad granicy (Postcards from the Border), Granica (Border), and Schronienie (Shelter).
Tomasz Opania
He was born in 1970 in Gliwice. In 1994, he graduated in sculpture from the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław. In 1993, he received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and Art, and in the following year he was awarded a scholarship from the government of the Swiss Confederation for young artists. From 1994 to 1996, he pursued further studies at the École Supérieure d’Arts Visuels (ÉSAV) in Geneva. Since 1996, he has been employed at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, where he currently runs the Studio of Art in Public Space.
He engages in a variety of artistic practices, including sculpture, installation, performance, actions in public space, and the design and implementation of new formats of art presentation (such as “Chwilówka” and “Wrocław – Backyard Entrance”). He also uses various techniques or collaborates with professionals to build “participatory sculptures” – objects, inventions, “art tools,” machines, or other instruments that actively engage the viewer by forcing them to behave in a predetermined way. He also creates “attributes” that he uses in public appearances. He regards his works as a commentary on the current socio-political situation and the reality around him. He has had more than a dozen individual exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows in Poland and abroad.
Joanna Pawlik
She lives and works in Kraków, where she works across performance, painting, drawing, photography, and video.
She graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and in 2018 obtained a PhD in fine arts from the Faculty of Art at the University of the National Education Commission in Kraków.
Pawlik’s work navigates the intersection of social mechanisms of exclusion and intimate, personal spaces of perception. In her highly critical pieces – such as the video Balans (Balance) and the performance series Schody (Stairs) – she tests the limits of her own body, probes the notion of social norms, and frequently addresses disability in a provocative, subversive manner.
Through her artistic practice, she confronts enduring taboos around the bodies and sexuality of people with disabilities, or those who deviate from dominant standards of normativity.
She collaborates with leading contemporary art institutions in Poland, including the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków MOCAK, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Kraków, the Kronika Center for Contemporary Art in Bytom, the Arsenał Municipal Gallery in Poznań, and the Zamek Culture Center in Poznań.
Anna Steller
Performer, dancer and choreographer, mother of three children. Born in 1979 in Gdańsk, she began performing on stage in 1993 at the Dada von Bzdülow Theater. She has been creating performances and shows for many years. As a performer, she focuses mainly on the clarity and sincerity of her message using radical artistic solutions. She is interested in collaborating with artists with different interests and achieving a new and fresh quality through negotiation in the field of art. She has been exploring the interdisciplinary nature of dance and performance for years, trying to understand and communicate important contents and concepts to the public.
She is a member of Plenum Osób Opiekujących Się, which gathers people working in art and caring for others, with whom she won the main prize at the 7th Gdańsk Art Biennale in 2023. She has presented her works at the Łaźnia Center for Contemporary Art in Gdańsk, Galeria Miejska in Gdańsk, the Halo Kultura Gallery in Gdynia, the Kronika Center for Contemporary Art in Bytom, the State Art Gallery in Sopot, the Arts Station Foundation in Poznań, the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław, at the Maat Festival in Lublin, Malta Festival in Poznań, “Telling the Baltic” Festival in Karlskrona, Miami Performance International Festival, L1 Contemporary Dance Festival in Budapest, “Body-Mind” festivals in Warsaw, “Four Days” and Festival of Naked Form (both in Prague) and in Berlin.
She has received numerous grants and awards, including “Dance Web” at the Impulstanz dance festival in Vienna (2003), the Visegrad Fund scholarship (2014), the Special Award of the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship for outstanding merits in the field of artistic creativity, and the Award of the Mayor of Gdańsk for Young Creators for her performance Good Girl Killer. In addition, in 2014 she received a scholarship from the Alternative Dance Academy of the Art Station Foundation in Poznań. She has twice received a grant from the Minister of Culture and “National Heritage.
Born in 1985 in Toruń, Hubert Wińczyk has lived and worked in Poznań since 2005. He is a sound artist, performer, and composer of music and soundtracks for theater, film, and radio plays. He graduated in intermedia from the University of Arts in Poznań and also studied philosophy and cultural studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University (UMK) and Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM).
In his sonic practice, Wińczyk works with field recordings, voice, toys, alternative sound sources, waste materials, electronics, resonance phenomena, and extreme frequencies – both very low and very high – often manipulating associative narratives. Whether performing live or creating sound installations, he emphasizes space, found objects, breath, movement, impermanence, and the continual transformation of being. His work explores the symbolism of transformation, the dynamics of rising and falling, and the presence of the macrocosm within the microcosm.
Social, ecological, and futuristic themes often surface in his collaborative projects, particularly with Monika Wińczyk, his life partner. Together, they form the duo MHW, active since 2011. His solo practice, by contrast, leans more toward metaphysical reflections on reality and phenomena on a cosmic scale. In both performance and daily life, he gravitates toward dynamic movement and spatial exploration.
Since 2009, Wińczyk has collaborated with numerous cultural institutions, leading workshops for children and adults focused on active listening, field recording, and sound ecology. He has played in a wide range of experimental bands and collectives, including kakofoNIKT, Monster Hurricane Wihajster, Das Zastawa Trio, Revue Svazu Českých Architektů, Nova Reperta, Palanci, eXtraNerves, and WW Duo. He is the creator of music and sound design for dozens of theatrical productions, radio plays, and animated films, and has performed as both a musician and performer at festivals in Poland and abroad.
Monika „Mona” Wińczyk
Artist and activist from Poznań, born in 1977. She works individually, in duos (Monster Hurricane Wihajster, Mellin &Wińczyk) and in other personal constellations. Her work is focused on empathy and emancipation of all beings/phenomena and widely understood nature; it is often accompanied by pain, lack of self-acceptance, generational conflict, instability, longing for worship and violence.
She was co-curator of the “Dragon odBity – 8 bitów” Festival of Performance and Sound Experiment (2011) as well as “DIE FENSTER” – Art Movements: Performance, Sound, Movement Festival (2014); she also initiated the following events: Performance Art Jam Session, MHW Recommends and Monoformance in Poznań. She took part in the following festivals and competitions: Spectra of Malingrad, CBL, Urban Observatory (Toruń), Friv (Poznań), V-Day – Days of Excluded Bodies (Poznań), NSK, Sopot Non-Fiction, Queer Fest, OFF:premieres (Poznań), ShakespeareOFF (Gdańsk), Anima Mundi #2, and in projects supporting refugees: Adopt a Vest, Homeless Gallery, Po_sąsiedzku. She has performed in productions of Ofelia_remix, Nomadka, Re_wolta, Ostatnia wieczerza, Wina Pramatki, Stoję na brzegu rzeki, Stormy protest song, and the opera Napój miłosny. She has also directed productions of mono czy stereo? and Try Walking in my Shoes; she is currently working on another play, TEKKK-Ło spada na Ziemię, whose script won the OFF: premiere competition of TeatrÓsmego Dnia.
She co-organized the “black protest” and Manifa – protests in defense of women’s rights in Poznań, as well as the Poland under Construction exhibitions. She is a member of the BVP project of the Caldodecultivo collective and the Climate Camp. In 2022–2023 she participated in Interaction in Culture, a project organized by the Zamek Cultural Center in Poznań. She collaborated with the composer Rafal Zapała on the opera Operka o mizofinii and with the band KakofoNIKT and Jacek Halas on the concert Wszystkie końce świata.
Marta Ziółek
A pleasure activist, artist, body lover, and life-hungry beast.
I work as an embodiment coach in the field of somatic sexology. I believe in the alchemy of the body and the power of sensitivity. I help ignite the inner fire.
Art, Movement, and Emancipation.
In my artistic practice, I explore diverse forms of expression and embodiment. My current work delves into eroticism as both a spiritual and political force. I believe it’s not just about what we do – but how deeply we can feel it.
I recently initiated Warsaw Mermaids – a project that conjures up urban rebels, seductresses, and emancipated women whose voices and bodies break through what is forbidden.
I lead individual sessions and group processes centered on the body, pleasure, and energetic transformation. I completed Body Therapy Training focused on sexual health and stress-release techniques, including breathwork, somatic trauma therapy, Taoist practices, sexual gymnastics, intimacy healing, and pelvic floor work.
I hold certifications in Dance and Movement Therapy (DMT), TRE (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises), Sacred Womb Movement, and traditional Tantra and Kundalini Yoga.
Currently, I am deepening my knowledge through certification in Sexological Bodywork in the UK – a path of professional development and personal expansion, supporting others on their journey toward erotic sovereignty and embodied healing.
