KASIA OLEŚKIEWICZ

visual artist & researcher

The Farm Project (2020-2022) is an artistic research series dedicated to the topic of nonhuman suffering: the violence against them, animal annihilation and the issues of commemoration, collective memory, public space and representation as tools of power and resistance.I create visual artworks functioning as forms of commemoration. I see it as both personal mourning over the loss and mass tragedy, and as bringing the hidden cruelty to light, accusing, rebuking.In my theoretical research I reflect on memory, public space, domestication and broadly defined subjection of the animal, as well as the enormous collective negation and oblivion of the suffering, pain and fear nonhuman animals experience.I believe traditional monuments and our way of commemorating are passive: they prevent us from noticing most cruel repetitions of history, and from acting upon them. I try to promote active memory: reflecting on the past and the present, thinking critically and bringing emotions into remembering.This series includes visual artworks and my concept of nonhuman commemoration, which functions as an essay and a spoken presentation.

• Website dedicated to The Farm Project

• SELECTED SCULPTURES

Monument to a Dairy Cow
From The Victims of Factory Farming
Metal, textiles, other
268x187x110 cm
2021

Monument to a Dairy Cow - sculpture details

Monument to a Dairy Cow II (small scale)
From The Victims of Factory Farming
Metal, textiles, wood, other
89x56x26 cm
2020/2021

Monument to a Dairy Cow - sketch for metal construction
From The Victims of Factory Farming
Wire, styrofoam
Approx. 30x20x15 cm
2021

Monument to a Dairy Cow - sketch for metal construction
From The Victims of Factory Farming
Wire, styrofoam
Approx. 30x20x15 cm
2021

Monument to a Pig
From The Victims of Factory Farming
Textiles
Approx. 10x17 cm
2020

Monument to Chickens
From The Victims of Factory Farming
Textiles
Dimensions variable
2020

Monument to a Calf
From The Victims of Factory Farming
Metal, textiles, wood, other
20x20x15 cm
2020

Feeding
Textiles, wire, other
Approx. 15x20 cm
2020

Animal
Textiles, wire, other
Approx. 10x18x8 cm
2020

About bodily pain
Textiles, wire, other
Approx. 13x15 cm
2021

Bones
Textiles, wire, other
Four objects of approx. 15x6x3 cm
2021

The Animal That Therefore I Am
Artist's book inspired by the oeuvre of Jacques Derrida
Sponge, animal skin*, thread
60x40x10 cm
2022*The animal skin was gathered from waste. I avoid using the word "leather" as I believe it is part of the language that erases the presence of animals from products.

Regarding the pain of others
Sponge, analogue pictures, textiles soaked in a photosensitive emulsion, other
Six objects, dimensions variable
2021The work uses found footage -pictures from industrial farms and animal sanctuaries, taken by Andrew Skowron and Open Cages Poland.
Inspired by the thought of Susan Sontag.

Regarding the pain of others - sculpture details

Commemoration of a Fish
Silicone, textiles, other
Approx. 3x12x5 cm
2022Memorial to a Fish who suffered and died in the ecological disaster in the Odra River in 2022.
At the same time, I dedicate it to all fish killed in the name of profit, entertainment or tradition.

• SELECTED DRAWINGS/PAINTINGS

Pieta/Maternity
Oil on paper
A5
2022Influenced by the investigation of a dairy farm carried by the organization Essere Animali. It documented brutal violence against cows and calves.

Massacre of the Innocents
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022Influenced by the investigation of a dairy farm carried by the organization Essere Animali. It documented brutal violence against cows and calves.

Untitled
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil and lead on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil on paper
A5
2022

Untitled
oil on paper
A5
2022

Maternity
oil on paper
A4
2021

• PUBLIC SPACE

Project of a social campaign in central Warsaw, Poland

Industrial farming - project of a social campaign in central Warsaw, Poland
Digital collages
2021

Industrial farming - project of a social campaign in central Warsaw, Poland
Mock-ups
Dimensions variable
2021

Industrial farming - project of a social campaign in central Warsaw, Poland
Digital collages
2021

Industrial farming - project of a social campaign in central Warsaw, Poland
Mock-ups
Dimensions variable
2021

Interventions in public space, various locations

Selected stickers I placed in various cities and countries while travelling. They contain images from The Farm Project and information about the cruelty of industrial farming.

Small scale street art intervention
Sponge, sticker
Venice, Italy
2022

• THEORETICAL RESEARCH

My concept of nonhuman commemorarrion - slides
2022

My concept of nonhuman commemorarrion - written essay
Realised as BA in Art History, University of Warsaw
2022For now only Polish version available. For receiving the PDF version contact me via email.

• Video - presentation at the symposium Ecocide/Speciesism

• Video - short presentation at the conference Anthrozoology as International Practice

• SELECTED EARLY SKETCHES

Untitled
One of the first sketches for the research
Textiles on paper, glue
A4
2020

Untitled
Textiles and wire on paper, glue
A3
2020

Untitled
Textiles on paper, glue
A3
2020

Early sketches for the research
Digital collages
2020

Early sketch for the research
Digital collage
2020

• OTHER

Selected frames from the working process, 2021

With the sculpture
At a group exhibition, Czapski Palace, Warsaw
Photo by Justyna Dąbkowska
2022

With the works
At a group exhibition, Punkty Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2021

Selected bibliography:
Assmann A., Formen des Vergessens, Gottingen 2016
Domańska E., Piotrowski P., Can Memorials Create Responsible Utopias? , in: Memorials in the Age of the Anthropocene, ed. by M. Praczyk, Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Poznan 2017
Gzyra D., Jak opłakiwać masową śmierć?, https://krytykapolityczna.pl/nauka/psychologia/jakoplakiwac-masowa-smierc/ [access: 16.11.2022]
Jameson F., Utopia as Method, or the Uses of the Future, in: Utopia/Dystopia: Conditions of Historical Possibility, ed. by Michael D. Gordin, Helen Tilley and Gyan Prakash, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011
Musil R., Monuments, in: Posthumous Papers of a Living Author, trans. Peter Wortsman (New York:Archipelago Books, 2006)
Palmer C., Animal Ethics in Context, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010
Patterson C., Eternal Trebinka, Lantern Books, New York 2002
Patterson C., Wieczna Treblinka, tr. R. Rupowski, Vega!POL, Opole 2003
Rosen Kaplan L., foreward to Eternal Treblinka by C. Patterson, Lantern Books, New York 2002
Singer P., Animal Liberation, Open Road Integrated Media, New York 2015
Singer P., Wyzwolenie Zwierząt, Marginesy, Warsaw 2018
Young J.E., Memory and Counter-Memory: The End of the Monument in Germany, „Harvard Design Magazine”, No.9, https://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/9/memory-and-counter-memory [access: 21.12.2022}

• RELATED WORKS

Works exploring the intersections between nonhuman rghts and feminism, inspired by Carol J. Adams' The Sexual Politics of Meat

Sketch for the Centre of Commemoration
Printed picture documenting the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, tracing paper, oil pastel, other
A4
2023

Sketch for the Centre of Commemoration
Printed picture of "Stara Rzeźnia" (Old Slaughterhouse) in Poznań, Poland, tracing paper, oil paint, other
A4
2023

Sketch for the Centre of Commemoration
Printed picture of "Stara Rzeźnia" (Old Slaughterhouse) in Poznań, Poland, tracing paper, oil paint, other
A4
2023

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