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proud to be supported by the Statens Kunstfond Denmark
VI LEVER PÅ POLSK is an artist-run gallery and platform founded in November 2020 by two Polish visual artists based in Copenhagen: Magda Buczek and Bartek Arobal Kociemba. The team consists also of Alicja Peszkowska - Copenhagen based social strategist.
VI LEVER PÅ POLSK a phrase in Danish refering to the Polish rural emigration that had come to Denmark in the XIX century and could not get legally married in Denmark due to their catholic religion. Therefore to live Polish way means to live without formal marriage. The gallery’s program interprets it as investigating the states outside of the comfort zone and Danish hygge: non-normativity, migration, and otherness.
VI LEVER PÅ POLSK presents artists, activists and writers that for different reasons and despite the quality of their work are not represented in the artistic mainstream. The reasons can be for example either long break caused by health issues, parenthood or migration, or the lack of local networking and the command of local language. VI LEVER PÅ POLSK wants to bridge the renowned local curators and artists with the voices outside the main stage.
The team:
Magda Buczek is Warsaw and Copenhagen-based Polish multidisciplinary artist and the founder of SURPLUS, a platform addressing material and symbolic overproduction. Her projects are collaborative, often involve texts, and engage public space. She makes art books, installations, performance, and runs a disruptive fashion brand. She studied interdisciplinary art and electronic media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Jagiellonian University in Cracow and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. She has been an artist in residence in SOMA Mexico City, Nida Art Colony Lithuania, Das Weisse Haust Vienna and Danish Art Workshops in Copenhagen. Her works were exhibited among others in Calvert 22 Foundation and Camden Art Centre in London, WANTED Design in New York, Soma in Mexico City, Berlin Fashion Week and Warsaw Biennale.
Bartek Arobal Kociemba is Copenhagen and Warsaw-based Polish visual artist and Buddhist teacher. His works revolve around notions of connection to oneself, other, and the environment. His self-taught technique uses poetic narratives of highly aesthetic and detailed drawings and paper installations to convey journeys into experiences with a longing for healing and re establishing harmony.
He studied political science at the University of Wroclaw, christian philosophy at the University of Stefan Wyszynski in Warsaw, and buddhist philosophy at various retreat centres in Europe and North America. Since 2005 he has been illustrating books, magazines, collaborating with theatre, opera, and various institutions. Since 20012 he has been teaching retreats in France, Germany, Netherlands and Poland. His works were exhibited among others in 16th Illustration Biennale - Berlin Cracow, Silesian Museum Katowice, WANTED Design New York, Arsenal Poznan, MOMA Warsaw.