TENDER PARASITES
An artistic ecological workshop for young critical thinkers
1—2 October 2022, 11 a.m.—3 p.m.

Ages: 10 – 15 years
Location: Temporary Gallery
Register here: info@temporarygallery.org

How do we encounter our environment, how do we make contact with it? Does it touch us or do we touch it? In this two-day weekend workshop we would like to playfully explore these questions. Using artistic observation, drawing, and puzzle exercises, we will explore how our bodies have adapted to the environment and how plants continue to grow with it. Three different parasitic modalities: parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism inspire us to seek out new ways to connect with our host - the earth. In the works of other artists, including those from the Temporary Gallery, we discover parasitic strategies that show us ways to creatively transform our relationship with the environment, to enter into conversation with it, rich in ideas.

A project by Agata Szymanek and Nina Paszkowski
Agata Szymanek (*1990) lives and works in Mysłowice, Poland. She studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, where she also received her PhD. In her artistic and curatorial practice, she seeks various methods to engage with human-animal relationships, virtual animals, or environmental agents by dissecting linguistically and culturally produced images of nature. She seeks ways to engage viewers more deeply in her art practice through visual puzzles, conceptual games, self-publishing zines, and workshop scenarios. http://agataszymanek.com/

Nina Paszkowski (*1991) lives and works in Cologne and Krakow. She studied painting at Camberwell College of Arts in London and Bellas Artes Complutense in Madrid. She received her MA in Art Studies from Maastricht University in 2016. Her work has been exhibited internationally at Galerie Monopol Warsaw (2022), Cracow Art Week (2022), Tychy Municipal Museum (2022), and Kunstwerk Köln (2021), among others. In addition to her artistic activities, she works at the Museum Ludwig for the Museum Service Cologne and the Cologne Institute for Cultural Work, where she designs and conducts workshops with young people and adults. In 2017, she and friends founded the School of Political Hope, a grassroots initiative that uses artistic methods (e.g. storytelling events, organizing workshops, artistic-activist actions) to initiate political-social processes. http://ninapaszkowski.com/