Jasmine Bakalarz, 17 October – 6 November 2014

Warsaw Portraits Series
 

Within the project conducted during the artist-in-residence period, the photographer created a series of portraits of contemporary Warsaw Jews wishing to show what they identify with today and how diverse a community they create.

Every person who was interested could participate, yet those were mainly women who responded to the invitation forwarded by the artist and the Museum. Bakalarz who is the author of a series of photos documenting lives of children in different social environments was obviously most interested in that age group as well as in young women who appear in her works with a similar frequency. Hence, in the group of nineteen people participating in the project women and children are in majority.

The photographs were taken by medium format analogue camera, mostly in the places of residence of the portrayed people. The cycle realised in this way and entitled “The Warsaw Portraits” was presented in the public space – on billboards located in the vicinity of the POLIN Museum. Selected photographs will become a part of the Museum’s collection.

Bakalarz whose grandparents come from Southern Poland has also travelled to the places where they once lived (Pacanów and Klimontów). She took a series of photographs there which constitute a more personal, and partly autobiographical, supplement to the Warsaw cycle.

The conclusion of the artist's residency at the museum was a meeting led by Iwona Kurz, the author of >>"Growing into the moment. On the portraits of Jasmine Bakalarz".

More about the artist

Jasmine Bakalarz completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Concordia University in Montréal. She was instructed by such photographers as: Mary Ellen Mark, Marcos López, Hellen Van Meene and Alessandra Sanguinetti (Magnum Photography). She received the Magenta Foundation Flash Forward award twice (2011 and 2012) and won the Banco Ciudad prize.

She won Fondo Nacional de las Artes and Ontario Arts Council grants. Her works have been presented in the McCord Museum, Montreal; Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires; Museo Emilio Caraffa; Córdoba as well as at the New York Photo Festival and at the ArteBA fair.

She works in Centro Cultural de la Memoria Haroldo Conti in Buenos Aires (Haroldo Conti Cultural Centre for Memory), located on the former site of ESMA – The Navy School of Mechanics, where the junta organised a camp for those suspected of opposition activities. Today the place is devoted to memory and education. Bakalarz works in the photography section and develops the archive, prepares exhibitions and runs workshops.

More information please visit www.jasminebakalarz.com. 

>> Learn more about artist-in-residence programmes

The activity “Open Museum – Education in Action” is carried out within the project “Jewish Cultural Heritage”, component “Faces of Diversity”. Supported from the Norway and EEA Grants by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

www.eeagrants.org, www.norwaygrants.org
More about "Jewish Cultural Heritage" project