Edition 4

A project by the State High School of Fine Arts in Bydgoszcz entitled “Human Rights Are in me/interdisciplinary workshop”, which will be implemented under the artistic curatorship of Viola Kuś, an experienced artist and researcher, involves a broad theoretical concept of deepening students’ awareness in the scope of Human Rights and a technological workshop of unconventional photography.

 

The implementation of the project includes an educational screening accompanied by an in-depth discussion of the Watch Docs Festival film repertoire. The practical work will involve the creation of spatial objects based on models of the human body, with the introduction of performative elements intended to stimulate in the workshop participants the factor of compassion and empathy towards those situations and human fates where the basic principles of the equal right to life are violated. These objects will be created by hand-scanning and 3D printing. The resulting miniature forms of human figures will be used to create dioramas (mock-ups) for studio photography. The resulting photographs will then be transferred onto wooden everyday objects (tables and chairs of classroom equipment). The final activity will be video documentation of the entire project, showing the individual processes of creation and discourse related to young people’s attitudes towards human rights violations caused by changes in the current world.
A workshop group of twenty people created a “Personal Manifesto”, which they described and recorded on camera.

 

 

 

PERSONAL MANIFESTO

 

ALL OF US HAVE THE RIGHT TO:

• dream,
• freedom of thought and religion,
• equality,
• privacy,
• inviolability and personal freedom,
• freedom of expression,
• interpret one’s own art,
• decide one’s own future,
• physical and mental integrity, individuality, dignity
• asylum and a sense of security,
• express one’s gender according to one’s wishes,
• express oneself through clothing,
• satisfy one’s physiological needs,
• show love,
• decide about one’s own body,
• bodily autonomy,
• possibility to marry and have children in the future,
• free healthcare,
• ask for help,
• decent living conditions,
• mobility,
• voluntary work,
• universal access to education,
• fair judgment and respect.

 

WE DO NOT CONSENT TO:

• being punished with silence,
• being unnoticed and overlooked,
• hurting others through fanaticism,
• having our family lives decided for us,
• discrimination because of religion, race, culture, sex, being transgender, genderfluid, non-binary, or expressing any other gender,
• obstruction of personal fulfilment,
• indoctrination of students by the system,
• prejudice and inhumane treatment towards those seeking refuge in our country,
• persecution for a differing opinion, appearance, or material status,
• fraud,
• manipulation by decision-makers,
• making our body a pawn in a political game.

 

EPILOGUE

Violation of human rights is cruel. My rights have been violated by Russia’s aggression. My right to life, education, freedom of expression, freedom to choose where I live has been threatened. It hurts to be in a situation where nothing else belongs to you.... Except for a piece of bread in your bag, your winter jacket, and shoes. You lose everything you once had.... We cannot allow anyone to take our humanity! We are all human and deserve to be treated humanely!

 

 

Moreover, visualisations were recorded to present issues from different regions of the world, and the following global issue was selected through a survey of workshop participants: “Global resistance to refugees and migrants – inhumane treatment of ethnic minorities”.

 

The school did not obtain free licences for the “Watch Docs” film screenings. The attending teacher, Viola Kuś, substituted this element of the project with an in-person meeting in the school’s photography studio with Marcin Kundera, a graduate of the school, filmmaker, photographer, traveller, and activist. It involved a discussion, as well as photography and a film presentation from regions suffering from humanitarian crises.

 

The project team encountered technical problems with the implementation of a 3D printer and scanner, which were supposed to help with composing the art photography. This year, it is planned to conduct a workshop focused on technical skills necessary to work with these tools, after the project has been completed, while ensuring its sustainability.

 

The project was concluded on 26 October 2023, and its finale took place in the photography studio of the Bydgoszcz High School of Fine Arts on 11 December 2023, on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, which falls on 10 December. During the finale, the text of the “Personal Manifesto” was transferred to the tables in the photography studio’s classroom, a mini exhibition was held (which is still on display at the school), and the film entitled “Personal Manifesto” was screened.

 

 

 

 

Film pt. "Manifest Osobisty"

 

 

The Bydgoszcz project officially concluded the 4th edition of the “Wena” Grant Programme Competition. It was a spectacular project as it was the first in the history of the Programme Competitions to deal with the subject of Human Rights, and the first to be implemented in the current wave of artistic research, the effects of which were expressed through the art of photography and film.

 

The students were supervised by Viola Kuś, a teacher of the basics of photography and film, who engages in unconventional photography and research projects as part of her own foundation. The students collected a wealth of material on human rights violations, not only local but global, on every continent. They raised the audience’s awareness of the scale of the problem, but certain aspects were clearly the focus, such as: freedom rights, social and gender discrimination, migration in the context of refugees.

 

 

 

Analogue photography workshop

 

 

 

A frame from the film entitled “Personal Manifesto”

 

 

The project creates AWARENESS and SENSITIVITY to the pressing issue of violations of Human Rights and may trigger a broad discussion within the community. The work of these sensitive young people, photographers, filmmakers, and performers impressed us greatly. We want to thank you for this message, and we encourage the audience to share their own thoughts, triggered by the International Human Rights Day.

 

Project outcomes: a series of photographs and frames from the film can be viewed in the school’s “Upstairs Gallery”, located on the highest floor of the High School of Fine Arts, next to the Photography Studio of Viola Kuś, the project coordinator. The film also serves as an appropriate educational resource on Human Rights and their violations. The teachers working on the project – Viola Kuś and Dorota Lipowska – decided to include the film in the syllabus for the form period. In connection to the theme of the project, along with the school, we encourage you to support organisations that act at the sites of humanitarian crises Store Without Borders.

 

 

 

Photography and film workshops

 

 

 

 

Fragments of the “Personal Manifesto”, framed and displayed in the school gallery

 

 

 

Results of the survey on global issues 

 

 

 

Young people received gifts and thanks from the Starak Family Foundation

 

 

  

Fragment of the “Personal Manifesto” in the Starak Family Foundation office in Warsaw
- a souvenir from the project team

 

 

QR code redirecting to the materials illustrating the project implementation

 

 

Viola Kuś – project coordinator, runs a photography and film studio, contemporary artist, researcher, and photographer. In 1993, she graduated from the Leon Wyczółkowski State High School of Fine Arts in Bydgoszcz. Graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, where in 2000 she defended her diploma in painting under Prof. Mieczysław Wiśniewski, with an annex on creative photography and a written work entitled “Kołtryna” – the history of wall upholstery fabrics of Gołuchów Castle under the supervision of Bogusław Mansfeld, PhD. Member of the World Photography Organisation. She is President of the Artistic and Research Foundation om – organisms and machines in culture (FUNom). The foundation develops projects in the field of science and art, situated at the intersection of laboratory research and innovative technologies with creative experimentation.