"Misie (Teddy Bears)" photo: Jacek Niegoda

Performance artist, author of happenings, diver. Lives and works in Gdansk; she was born 1 June 1971 in Gdańsk.

In 1991-1997 she studied in the department of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. She graduated under prof. Franciszek Duszenko.

In her works, Julita Wojcik makes use for the most part of simple, everyday home activities, usually attributed to women, and transforms them into artistic activities. On the one hand, she underlines their unquestionable charm, on the other however, in the artist's works, one can find the stereotypes connected with the so-called female roles. During the project "Marzenie prowincjonalnej dziewczyny" ("Dream of a Provincial Girl" - see photo), a gallery in a private apartment in Sopot, run by Wójcik together with Paulina Ołowska and Lucy McKenzie in February and March 2000, the artist presented "Misie" ("Teddy Bears") - 64 knitted teddy bears hung on a wall like a wallpaper, introducing an ironic commentary on the notions of needs and aspirations of women. In the same year, on the lawn area between the carriageways of Władyslaw IV Street in Gdynia, she constructed "Mój ogród" ("My Garden" - see photo), a flower bed of a few square meters, which she neatly tended, and where she organised picnics. In 2001, in the centre of Zielona Góra Wójcik created a little water reservoir - "Oczko wodne" ("Pond" - see photo).

"Obieranie ziemniakow (Peeling Potatoes)" photo: Jacek Niegoda

Her performance "Obieranie ziemniaków" ("Peeling Potatoes") in the Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw in 2001, has been widely discussed. During the performance, dressed in an apron, the artist peeled potatoes while engaging in conversation with gallery visitors, and in interviews with journalists. Her actions were legitimised and sanctified by the institution, which hosted the performance. With her action, Wojcik called attention to the situation of many women in Poland - the role of housewife they are reduced to.

The meaning of the artists' actions is ambivalent. Their undeniably critical undertone mingles with definite respect for everyday activities and little hobbies. For her exhibition "Komplety" ("Sets" - see photo) in 2005, in the Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok, she invited two embroideresses, who presented their craft together with the artist. The exhibition space was filled with fancywork and items that were bringing to mind the notion of province, disappearing into oblivion. At the same exhibition, the artist presented an embroidered model of the Arsenal Gallery. A similar object appeared at the exhibition "Palimpsest museum" (Palimpsest museum, as a part of the Łódź Biennial 2004) - an embroidered miniature of the Poznanski Palace in Łódź ("100% Bawełny" / "100% Cotton", 2004 - see photo). In a similar manner, though requiring a much greater amount of labour, "Falowiec" ("Waver", 2005-2006 - see photo) was made, a model of the longest apartment building in Poland, standing in Gdansk's Przymorze district.

"Piaskownica z widokiem (Sandbox with a view)" fot. Jacek Niegoda

Some of Julita Wojcik's performances take on a clearly socio-political character. In 2003, she swept in a former factory building in Lodz, pointing to the fate of many female textile workers after the closing down of the factories. The performance was documented on video and photographed ("Pozamiatać po włókniarkach" / "Sweeping after Textile Workers" - see photo). A year earlier, she tried to "Revitalise the Schopenhauer Park" ("Rewitalizacja Parku Schopenhauera", 2002 - see photo) in the notorious Orunia district in Gdansk, where, for a certain time, she brought three goats from the Oliwa Zoo. Eating the weeds, shearing the grass, and being an attraction for the children, the goats' purpose was to restore order in this corner of the city, long forgotten by the local authorities. On Gradowa Mountain in Gdansk in turn, the artist placed a blue sandbox with white clouds painted on it, as a contrast to the gigantic steel cross standing there ("Piaskownica z widokiem" / "Sandbox with a View", 2002).

"Waitresses" photo: Jacek Niegoda

During the action "Waitresses", performed twice (in Warsaw, 2002, and in Stockholm, 2003), Wojcik stood as a waitress next to a customers' table, dressed in an apron that served, at the same time, as the tablecloth, as if, with her obtrusive presence, she wanted to call attention to the labour of the people preparing and serving food.

In 2003, in Berlin the artist, while standing next to a traffic light post, informed the drivers about the current colour of the traffic light, wilfully guarding the order ("Czerwony, zolty, zielony" / "Red, Yellow, Green" - see photo). Not without irony was her performance "Z ziemi wloskiej do Polski... i z powrotem" ("From Italian Soil to Poland... and back" - see photo) in Rome, in 2005, during which she washed a Fiat 126p, the popular "Maluch" (midget), produced in Poland on an Italian license since the 1970s.

Despite its frequently critical undertone, Julita Wojcik's art has always been of cheerful character. During the performance "Dokarmiaj niebieskie ptaki" ("Feed the Heavenly Birds", 2003-2005 - see photo), she built and distributed bird feeders, the shape of which resembled that of the institutions she currently cooperated with. The video documenting the performance "Pust' Wsiegda budiet solnce" (2004, see photo) shows the artist flying a sun-shaped kite. In 2004, in Kostrzyn she reconstructed the local castle, currently in ruins, with the use of a few hundred accordingly placed balloons. However, it was an ephemeral structure - the castle flew away during the reconstruction ("Odbudowa zamku" / "Rebuilding the Castle" - see photo).

"Jazda figurowa (Figure Skating)", 2005 (photo: Jacek Niegoda) and "Figura pomnikowa (Monument Figure)", 2005 (photo: Anna Jagiello / Hanna Wroblewska)

In the last few years, Julita Wojcik has impersonated Gilala - a huge, black girl resembling a figure from a schematic pictograph on the door plates of women's toilets, formerly used by the artist as her two-dimensional logo. Dressed in a black sponge costume, the artist, as Gilala, skated on Sopot's ice rink ("Jazda Figurowa" / "Figure Skating", 2005), and in Prague, during the biennial, she tried to cover the figure of Saint Nepomucene on the Charles Bridge ("Figura pomnikowa" / "Monument Figure", 2005).

Author: Karol Sienkiewicz, November 2006

Selected individual projects and exhibitions:

• 2000 - "Pranie mozgu / Brainwashing" - Mozg, Bydgoszcz;
  
• 2000/2001 - "Mój ogród / My Garden" - Wladyslaw IV Street, Gdynia;
  
• 2001 - "Obieranie ziemniaków / Peeling Potatoes" - Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; "Oczko wodne" - BWA, Zielona Gora; "Akwarele / Watercolours" - lake Ukiel, Olsztyn;
  
• 2002 - "Rewitalizacja Parku Schopenhauera / Revitalisation of the Schopenhauer Park" - Gdynia Orunia; "Piaskownica z widokiem / Sandbox with a View" - Gradowa Mountain, Gdansk;
  
• 2003 - "Tit's Bathouse" - Konstakuten Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden; Cacka / Bijous/Gems/Knickknacks - Platán Gallery, Budapest, Hungary;
  
• 2005 - "Komplety / Sets" - Arsenal Galery, Bialystok; "Dokarmiaj niebieskie ptaki / Feed the Heavenly Birds" - garden of the Ministry of Art and Culture, Warsaw; "Z ziemi wloskiej do Polski... i z powrotem / From Italian Soil to Poland... and Back" - Polish Institute, Rome, Italy; "Ćwiczenia w różach / Excercises in Roses" - garden at Sobotka Street, Gdansk;
  
• 2006 - "Z nadzieją i niecierpliwością / With Hope and Impatiency" - Kordegarda Gallery, Warsaw; Uwaga: akcja! / Ready, set, Action! - as a part of the project "At the very Centre of Attention", Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw.

Selected group exhibitions:

• 2000 - "Principium" - Spiz 7 Gallery, Gdansk; "Scena 2000 / Scene 2000" - Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; "Warkocze / Braids" - Centre for Contemporary Art, Cracow;
  
• 2001 - "Maskarady / Mascarades" - Centre for Contemporary Art Inner Spaces, Poznan; "Relaks / Relax" - Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok; "Pop Elita / Pop Elite" - Bunkier Sztuki, Cracow; "Poza postmodernizm / Beyond Postmodernism" - Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw;
  
• 2002 - "Sposob na zycie / A Way of Life" - Centre for Contemporary Art Laznia, Gdansk; "Rzeczywiscie, młodzi sa realistami / The Young are Realists, Really" - Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; "Pomaluj swój plener / Paint Your Plein-air" - Ponton Gallery, Hamburg;
  
• 2003 - "Architectures of Gender" - Sculpture Center, New York, USA; "Stockholm Art Fair" - Stockholm, Sweden; "Öffentliche Rituale. Kunst / Videos aus Polen" - Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria; "Balet zurawi / Crane Ballet" - Artists' Colony, Gdansk-Stocznia (shipyard); "Kobieta ma duszę / The Woman has a Soul" - Manhattan Gallery, Lodz; "Piętra Sztuki / Floors of Art" - Program Gallery, Warsaw; "Spojrzenia 2003 / Views 2003" - Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok (2004);
  
• 2004 - "Palimpsest muzeum / Palimpsest Museum" - Lodz Biennial, Museum of History of the City of Lodz; "Dialog Loci" - Kostrzyn nad Odrą; "Biały mazur / The White Mazurka" - Bunkier Sztuki, Cracow; "Nowa fabryka / New Factory" - Paris, France (Festival); "Meeting point 'Prawie nic' ('Almost Nothing')" - Bytom; "Krzątanina II / Hustle and Bustle II" - BWA Awangarda, Wroclaw; "Shake Gdansk" - Centre for Contemporary Art Laznia, Gdansk; "Far West, Near East" - Kunst & Architektur, Essen, Germany; "Breakthrough" - Grote Kerk, The Hague;
  
• 2005 - Prague Biennale 2 - Prague, Czech; "Beograd Naked i Sad" - Galerija Beograd, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro; "Egocentryczne, niemoralne, przestarzałe / Egocentric, Immoral, Outdated" - Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw;
  
• 2006 - "How to Do Things? - In the Middle of (No)where" - Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany; "Sense in Place" - Riga, Latvia; "Inhabitancy" - Motorenhalle, Dresden, Germany; "Powrót do ogrodu. Rośliny i zwierzeta / Return to the Garden. Plants and Animals" - Tielt, Belgium; "Policja / Police" - Bunkier Sztuki, Cracow; "Mentality - Łódź Biennial, Łódź Art Centre.

Photos are published courtesy of the artist.

"Dream of a Provincial Girl", "Pond" (photo: Jacek Niegoda) and "My Garden" (photo: Jacek Niegoda) back to text

"100% Cotton" (photo: Julita Wojcik), "Sets" (photo: Jacek Niegoda) and "Waver" 2005-2006 (photo: Jacek Niegoda) back to text

"Sweeping After Textile Workers" and "Revitalise the Schopenhauer Park" back to text

"Red, Yellow, Green" (photo: Ewa Kozanecka) and "From Italian Soil to Poland... and Back" (photo: Jacek Niegoda) back to text

"Feed the Heavenly Birds" (2003-2005) (photo: Julita Wojcik), "Pust' wsiegda budiet solnce" (2004) (photo: Jacek Niegoda) oraz "Rebuilding the Castle" (photo: Jacek Niegoda) back to text

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