Berlin Contribution by Ola Kozioł

Misplaced Women? Workshop Contribution by Ola Kozioł

„Golden Pillow”

Location: Karl-Marx Platz, Berlin

Duration: 45 minutes

Ola Kozioł: „Golden pillow” January 2018, „Misplaced Women?“ Workshop, Berlin. Photo: Ruth Biene

 

In the frame of „Misplaced Women?“ workshop lead by Tanja Ostojić, hosted by Kunsthalle Berlin Weißensee, in January 2018, I came across the following thoughts and have realised the following performative intervention:

At the beginning of the workshops I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to accomplish the performative task. I knew Berlin from the art-tourist perspective only, so to say: museums, exhibitions, etc. I had to find myself in a completely new context, new country, new city and about whose local problems I didn’t know anything, So just 3 days seemed to me as not much time to delve into any topic. Suddenly, I was shocked when I discovered during discussions with Tanja, that half of the people sleeping roughs in Berlin’s streets and parks are estimated to be Polish citizens. I decided to focus in my work on this problem. I was wandering why some of Polish people choose this „lifestyle“? Is Poland more desperate place for them to live in, and is a makeshift tent in the German capital currently the best option they have?

 

Ola Kozioł: „Golden pillow” January 2018, „Misplaced Women?“ Workshop, Berlin. Photo: Ruth Biene

 

The thoughts were overwhelming. Do the Polish homeless people find life in the presumably rich west easier because of collecting bottles, begging and because of the amount of charities and places where they can get help?                                                                                                                                                                  

With all those questions and confusion I did my action during which I was sleeping on the bench on the Karl-Marx square and in the park nearby under a sleeping bag and on a golden-like pillow. Mostly people just past by me, but there were as well several reactions where people stopped with some of those questions in their mind, similar to mine.

 

Ola Kozioł: „Golden pillow” January 2018, „Misplaced Women?“ Workshop, Berlin. Photo: Ruth Biene

 

Post Scriptum: Did you know that half of the people sleeping roughs in Berlin’s streets and parks are estimated to be Polish citizens…? There are no systemic solutions to the problem of homelessness in our country. We have a mild winter and the harvest of death is already great – more than 50 people died of hypothermia this year. There is no shortage of empty communal flats. There is a lack of heart, empathy, humanity. Homeless people are also people who once led a prosperous, successful life. They are people with higher education, some of them were entrepreneurs, in positions that failed at some point. Bankruptcy, flat auction, loss of salary, illness… It can meet each of us. The border is very thin.

Thank you Tanja Ostojic for your work and for sharing.

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Donate to Berliner Kaeltehilfe

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Text written by Ola Kozioł

Photo of the public intervention: Ruth Biene

Edited and first published by Tanja Ostojić, 2018/19 on the Misplaced Women? project blog

Ola Kozioł: „Golden pillow” January 2018, „Misplaced Women?“ Workshop, Berlin. Photo: Ruth Biene

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Ola Kozioł is multidisciplinary artist based in Łódź, Poland. She graduated in painting at the Strzemiński Academy of Art in Łódź, where she currently works. Her performances are mostly exploring the technique of the so-called “white voice” singing typical for Central, East and South-East European folk music culture. Musical projects: Mutant Goat (released Yonder album), 18 rivers, Miejskie Darcie Pierza, Strzemiński Choir. Since 2015 together with Suavas Lewy forms a group PRZEPRASZAM, since 2017 a member of a women’s artistists group FRAKCJA. Sings to everything, loves walking, treating “pilgrimage” as an artistic gesture, went “consciously” almost 2000 km. Conducts workshops for children and with voice for the women, is involved in the realisation of numerous artistic and social projects, with the aim of activating people around. Most of her works touch upon topics of women’s rights, respect for the surrounding nature, the world of animals and people, combine ecology with post-humanism, pacifism.

Ola Kozioł Blog

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Please visit as well other contributions and posts from the same workshops:

Contribution by Rhea Ramjohn

Contribution by Татьяна Bogacheva

Contribution by Hoang Tran Hieu Hanh

Contribution by LADY GABY

Public Presentation of the Misplaced Women? Workshop in Berlin, January 24, 2018