Following the first literary residency carried out in collaboration with Ivan Davydenko, the “Culture at Work” („Kultura w pracy”) project is entering its next stage. The second artistic residency will begin on the 14th of May, developed in partnership with Medisept and Tarasol.
This time, visual art, performance and practices based on the observation of everyday relationships are entering the workplace. The next artist-in-residence is Barbara Gryka – a visual artist from Końskowola, living and working in Lublin. In her practice, she explores the ways we function together; she examines social rituals, mechanisms of norm construction and tensions between the private and the public. In her works, she blurs the boundaries between the past and the present, seeking to imagine new forms of community and relationships in the context of Eastern Europe.
Her work is rooted in performance, embroidery, installation, and video. In one of her projects, she visited the residents of the LSM housing estate in Lublin, knocking on doors and inviting people to talk. In the “`Motorcycles Dance” project („Taniec Motocykli”), she led a group of eight men on motorcycles performing a Lublin folk dance. In a different one, called “Dance at Hights” („Taniec na Wysokości”), she collaborated with women practicing high-altitude climbing, leading them in the rhythm of a folk dance along the walls of a former bunker. In her work, she also reaches back into historical archives, addressing women’s issues, memory and systemic violence. Her projects often begin with encounters and the careful observation of people and places.
Barbara Gryka’s works have been presented, among others, at the Museum of Modern Art and Zachęta in Warsaw, during Manifesta 14, at Galeria Labirynt in Lublin and at the Kaunas Biennial. The artist has also completed residencies in Barcelona, Athens and Ostrava. In 2026, she received a Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
Her project works develop the idea of art functioning close to everyday life – not as an addition to the workplace, but as an impulse for conversation, pause and looking at familiar spaces from a different perspective. The residency will be based on contact with employees, the rhythm of everyday activities and the relationships built within the organization. The next artistic activities will emerge precisely from these encounters.
The “Culture at Work” („Kultura w pracy”) project, implemented as part of European Capital of Culture Lublin 2029, develops the format of artistic residencies in workplaces, inviting artists to carry out activities directly within professional environments.
