ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Farm Project (2020-ongoing) is an art series dedicated to the topic of non-human 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 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 the animals experience.
I believe traditional monuments and our way of commemorating is passive: it prevents us from noticing most cruel repetitions of history and acting upon it. I try to promote active memory: reflecting on the past and the present, critical thinking and bringing emotions into remembering.
Farm (polish "Hodowla")
How it started
Having been an activist in an animal rights organization, I was constantly exposed to information about unbearable suffering, cruelty and violence (especially against farmed animals). I couldn’t cope with that, so I started creating art – functioning as sort of a scream: letting it out and raising awareness. It was also a way of personal therapy. I was expressing the pain of others and how it hurt me.
The name is “The Farm Project” as at first it was focused on factory farming in particular. This sector violates the greatest amount of beings. We kill over 70 billion land animals annually – the amount does not include fish and marine life. Yet, their pain is not about death only. The greatest suffering is about how they are forced to live and function everyday: not being able to move or turn around, not ever experiencing sunshine, grass or fresh air, living in bodies genetically modified so that they cannot even stand or breathe, being exposed to both physical and mental issues due to such amount of stress, being separated from their mothers/babies immediately after birth – and terrifyingly much more.
So The Farm Project is an attempt to tell their stories. In as subjective way as I can. I use art in order to awaken our reflection, compassion, sadness.
Because it does not need to look like this – if we decide to change our habits and question the culture we live in.
Basic aims:
showing the tragedy and pain of an individual; expressing the suffering that's impossible to depict; move from the overwhelming number which can make us feel powerless towards seeing a particular being, someone who needs help
raising awareness about factory farming and non-human annihilation
bringing the connotations back – juxtaposing the two “identities” of an animal: meat/products and a living, sentient being
showing a body, flesh – the same when it comes to all animals (human and nonhuman)
commemorating: mourning over the suffering of billions – also personally, trying to cope with the information – just out of the authentic need
commemorating: reminding, blaming us, society, making us feel discomfort, responsibility, guilt; making us see we actually repeat the worst past
challenging our collective memory and its habits; we do not usually commemorate non-humans (especially farmed ones) as we assume their lives do not matter
revising history/herstory - seeking non-human presence and identity
artivism (art with activistic aims) – using art to inspire creative, courageous and critical thinking, provoke ideas for change; I wouldn't like to tell solutions, but rather move our emotions and compassion, open interpretations other than mine – so that it makes us think in a critical way; creating space for sadness, mourning