ABOUT ME
KASIA OLEŚKIEWICZ
visual artist, art historian and researcher, animal rights activist, vegan
STATEMENT
I am a visual artist, art historian and activist, whose main research area is focused on nonhuman issue and animal studies.
Being characterised by total and idealistic thinking, my work usually takes the form of open and ongoing projects deeply exploring certain topics.
In 2020 I started working on The Farm Project, within the scope of which I commemorate nonhuman victims. It is focused on factory farming, but also further problems of speciesism and culture built on violence. I create animal memorials aiming to bring the hidden cruelty to light, as well as to mourn the mass death. I try to depict the endless and overwhelming tragedy from nonhuman point of view: with no understanding of the “point” or business behind the suffering, no hope for change, no sense of revenge – just the pure and constant tragedy experienced in the present moment.
Other open projects I currently work on are Truest Story of the Lamb. Towards Posthuman Utopia (visionary series where I focus on esigning an alternative cultural model) and Untamed (project on topics of coming back to the body and animal self).
So my interests concentrate around the animal (nonhuman and human), body, pain, violence, power, hierarchy and visions of the new.
The projects I work on currently will be shared soon on my Instagram Profile and new website. If you wish to see my previous artworks, check my portfolio here.
EDUCATION
2022/2023-2023/2024
MA in Contemporary Arts Practice, Bern University of the Arts, Switzerland
2023
Course "Queer Art in Queer Curating", Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin, Germany
2021/2022
MA in Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Italy
(Erasmus exchange)
2019 – 2022
BA in History of Art, University of Warsaw (graduation with honours for the thesis “A monument we do not want. Commemorating non-human animals” under the supervision of PhD Justyna Balisz-Schmelz)
2018 – 2023
MA in Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland
2014 – 2018
General fine arts education, Wladyslaw Hasior Fine Arts High School in Koszalin, Poland
(graduation with honours, graphic design speciality)