Nature was Michal Kern’s art studio; it was within the surrounding landscape that he created ephemeral interventions, leaving behind sensitive, fleeting traces of co-existence. He spent most of his life in the mountains of northern Slovakia, where he was raised and to which he returned, consciously choosing to live outside the city. It was there that he closely watched the relations between the human being and nature, seeking subtle modes of recording and representing them.

As part of the workshop accompanying Kern’s exhibition, we will draw upon his artistic trajectory and creative strategies. Taking on Kern’s shoes, as it were, we will produce temporary drawings-as-traces among his works within the gallery space. Our subsequent steps will lead us beyond the institutional walls. Kern operated within the landscape around him. Following into his footsteps, we will traverse our everyday urban environment which, although shaped and dominated by human activity, remains a living tissue in which human and non-human forms of existence intertwine. We will observe this interpenetration, trace its marks, and consider how the natural world adapts to the environment transformed by us. We will respond to these plant and animal strategies and behaviours by collectively replicating them, referring to them, or enacting subtle interventions within urban space, while these ephemeral micro-actions will be recorded through photographic documentation. In this way, adapting Kern’s strategy to our local context, we will reflect on the ethical and ecological dimensions of our relations with nature.

moderation: Aleksandra Polerowicz – a curator, artist, and cultural practitioner who has been associated with Poznań since birth. Her interests include environmental humanities, contemporary critical theory, and art in the social sphere. She actively engages in collective initiatives aimed at fostering equality and social justice. She is a graduate in curating and art theory, sculpture and spatial practices, and interior architecture at the University of the Arts in Poznań. She has co-founded various, more or less temporary, artistic, feminist, and eco-climate collectives. She is particularly fond of spheres, most of all the terrestrial one.

registration: kinga.mistrzak@arsenal.art.pl