Soon_

The ROOTS project is an invitation to a reflection on the identity of the residents of the capital city of Poland. More than a half of the inhabitants of Warsaw are people who have moved there, whose past is associated with other places. The need to assimilate pushes their origin and identity of the place to the background, thus making them less significant.

The inspiration for the project is the plants present in space of the building, which have been introduced to the context of the place from other environments and became its inherent element. Integrated with the surroundings, they can be, however, explored only partly. When you look at them, you ask: What is deeper, what do they hide under the ground? What do their roots, which are directly connected with the building, look like? The element inaccessible to the viewer’s eyes gives rise to conjectures, unleashes your imagination, lets its shape assume countless forms and colours.

Monika Smyła – born in 1985; a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts (ASP) in Krakow, a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Art, the Pedagogical University of Cracow. Combines her interest in plants with contemporary art. Works in painting and embroidery, creates objects and installations. A participant of individual and collective exhibitions, such as “A change of position” SOKÓŁ Małopolska Culture Centre, BWA SOKÓŁ, Nowy Sącz; “It is hard to say” Grey House Gallery, Kraków; Fish Eye Young Art Biennial, Small Gallery, Słupsk; “Clouds on nails” Knoll Gallery, Vienna, Austria. Lives and works in Nowy Sącz.