Title
The Existential and Economic Dimensions of the ‘Activitation’ (‘czynnościowanie‘) of Zofia Kulik and her Mother Helena
https://miejsce.asp.waw.pl/en/egzystencjalne-i-ekonomiczne-wymiary-czynnosciowania-zofii-kulik-i-jej-matki-heleny-2/
Abstract
The text analyses Zofia Kulik’s two films that form the cycle ”Cultivating the Archive: How the Sum Total of Small Actions Builds the Archive” (2016) and ”A Sum of Rags and an Archive Next Door, the Kingdom of Helena Kulik, Zofia’s Mother, in which the Archivist Grew Up” (2017). Both interweave two themes: work and the mother – daughter relation.
The artist shows that her connection with her mother runs through ‘activitation’ (‘czynnościowanie‘, Zofia Kulik’s term) – an inner urge to constantly ‘do something’ and the resulting ongoing performance of a range of activities that are (or at least Kulik and her mother believe them to be) necessary for the maintenance of the collection and the surrounding environment. However, their activities are not identical and, above all, they function differently in the social order. The films do not raise the question of labour division in a straightforward way, but it resonates more strongly in statements concerning the mother’s significance in the development of the artist’s career. I also highlight a different economic aspect of ‘activitation’: the failure to satisfy the neoliberal demand of productivity.
This article is only available as an abstract in the English version of our magazine.
Agata Jakubowska
Sorry, this entry is only available in Polish.
Historyczka sztuki, profesorka w Instytucie Historii Sztuki UAM w Poznaniu, gdzie kieruje Zakładem Historii Sztuki Nowoczesnej. Autorka m.in. książek Na marginesach lustra. Ciało kobiece w pracach polskich artystek (2004), Portret wielokrotny dzieła Aliny Szapocznikow (2008); redaktorka pracy Artystki polskie (2011) i współredaktorka (z Katy Deepwell) All-Women Art Spaces in Europe in the Long 1970s (Liverpool University Press, 2018), Opublikowała liczne teksty poświęcone twórczości kobiet i problematyce gender w sztuce współczesnej. Obecnie prowadzi badania nad historią wystaw sztuki kobiet w Polsce i przygotowuje monografię Marii Pinińskiej-Bereś.
