Fragments of vulenrability
14 – hour screening at Narrations 16, Art review
21-22.11.2025, Narrations 16, Gdańska, Poland
5-channel video installation view in the disused ambulance entrance of the clinical hospital in Gadansk, Aniołki.
Further information
The Artists are present
Group show
13.09 – 19.10 Solo Gallery, Radom, Poland
Works on display: Soul 5:0. Fragments of vulnerability series (pit-fired porcalain, a tent). Gaza. Fragment (gouche on canvas 100 x 70 cm). Camouflage. Therapeutic lamp object (ceramic).
Further information
Fragments of vulenrability
34 – hour screening at gallery windows,
sound inside
12.2024, SOLO Gallery, Radom, Poland.
Installation view, SOLO Gallery.
The video installation was on view from inside and outside.
Come home
A Film premiere
Harris Lecture Theatre, King’s College London, Guy’s Campus, Great Maze Pond, London, SE1 1UL, United Kingdom
Mon, 8 November 2021, 19:00 – 20:30 GMT
Exploring core themes of young motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship, ‘Come Home’ is the story of a young Polish mother. The film follows 16-year-old Victoria’s journey into motherhood, documenting her turbulent relationship with her own mother and her experiences as her infant son is removed to foster care and she is unable to visit him.
What happens to a mother who is deprived of her motherhood? Set against the background of the Polish juvenile re-socialisation programme, 'Come Home’ engages with significant and urgent discussions around maternal mental health, universal access to childcare and social support, adoption practice and birth control. The film’s narrative is accompanied by Victoria’s music and songs, in which the girl skillfully translates her feelings and action into the language of rap. Her lyrics carry a huge emotional load and allow us to get to know her, and her story better.
After the film screening, Marta Stysiak will be joined for a Q & A session with Dr Elsa Montgomery and Professor Louise Howard from King’s College, London.
Further information
The film was produced by Marta Stysiak & Birth Rites Collection with support from Arts Council England
As part of the residency awarded to Marta Stysiak for winning the 2020 BRC Biennial Competition for New Work, Stysiak has extended her video installation BADLAND (which was acquired by BRC in 2020) into a feature length documentary called ‘Come Home’. Birth Rites Collection was granted an Arts Council England award to cover the cost of Stysiak spending time in-situ with the midwifery department at KCL online, attending relevant classes, holding workshops with students and interviewing and filming members of staff and students around the subject of young mothers / mental health / incarceration. Stysiak carried out workshops with students to show them a draft of the documentary film ‘Come Home’ (50 minutes) to receive feedback as it was being made. She used this feedback to shape the film and also interviewed key academic members of staff to ask questions like: The problem of early motherhood: is it really a problem?
Do social institutions work properly?
Who should help young mothers?
What could the social youth center or a foster home offer instead? Can they really offer anything, or is it just an illusion? What is the relation between early motherhood and social development in general?
Exploring core themes of young motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship, ‘Come Home’ is the story of a young Polish mother. The film follows 16-year-old Victoria’s journey into motherhood, documenting her turbulent relationship with her own mother and her experiences as her infant son is removed to foster care and she is unable to visit him.
What happens to a mother who is deprived of her motherhood? Set against the background of the Polish juvenile re-socialisation programme, 'Come Home’ engages with significant and urgent discussions around maternal mental health, universal access to childcare and social support, adoption practice and birth control.
The film’s narrative is accompanied by Victoria’s music and songs, in which the girl skillfully translates her feelings and action into the language of rap. Her lyrics carry a huge emotional load and allow us to get to know her, and her story better.
The film was produced by Marta Stysiak & Birth Rites Collection with support from Arts Council England
Badland
Residency
2020
Birth Rites Collection, the Department of Midwifery, the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King’s College London.
Stysiak will be extending the video installation Badland into a feature length documentary, co-produced by Birth Rites Collection. She will be working with KCL’s Midwifery Department to develop the final cut of the film. Stysiak has applied to the Polish Film Fund for completion funding.
Badland wins BIRTH RITES BIENNIAL COMPETITION BRIEF 2020
and is an permament part of BRC collection housed by the Department of Midwifery, part of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King’s College London and Birth Rites Collection, Salford University. The collection is displayed across Guy’s Campus in New Hunt’s House, the Chantler SaIL Clinical Skills Centre, the Henriette Raphael Building and the Hodgkin Building..
The prize winner, Marta Stysiak, will also be awarded a residency at The Departement of Midwifery, King’s College London.
Further information
Image: Badland, 2021 Video Installation, video in loop, 4 mins, mp4, cell phone with a power cable and earphones, a table, a bowl, a spoon, a Chinese instant soup.