(b. 1979, lives in Kraków) earned her master’s and doctor’s degrees from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. An embroideress, activist, and visual artist, she is interested in language, which she explores through hand embroidery on textiles. In the Biennale, she is showing the series Female Friends and the object Halina Wojtarowicz.
Piłsudski’s Female Friends, 2018, hand embroidery, cotton cloth, courtesy of the artist
Jesus’s Female Friends, 2017, hand embroidery, cotton cloth, courtesy of the artist
Rabin’s Female Friends, 2018, hand embroidery, cotton cloth, courtesy of the artist
Matejko’s Female Friends, 2018, hand embroidery, cotton cloth, courtesy of the artist
Female Friends is a series of embroidery works devoted to the memory of women whose names have not been preserved in history. They comprise the first names of women (associated with the Women’s League or Solidarity, for example) who were behind the success of iconic male heroes. Drożyńska “lists” actual historical figures alongside invented ones. Manipulating facts, she exposes the way history is written, using the same tools as politicians and historians.
Halina Wojtarowicz, 2019, hand embroidery on cotton cloth
The work relates to the identity of the artist’s grandmother, who began to experience gradual memory loss due to a disease. She practiced her signature, “Daniela Mucha”, everyday, and managed to preserve her subjectivity until the end of her life. Drożyńska transfers the woman’s handwriting to cloth using embroidery. She says it is a medium that connects her with the women who brought her up: her mother, grandmother, aunt. The work’s title comprises the name of the latter, who took care both of the sick grandmother and of Drożyńska herself. Halina Wojtarowicz deals with the theme of the absence of the artist’s mother and the presence of other women in her life, supporting each other in need and nourishing their identity.
Jesus’s Female Friends, 2017, hand embroidery, cotton cloth, courtesy of the artist
Venues:
BWA Zielona Góra, Al. Niepodległości 19
Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej, Al. Niepodległości 15