BWA – Bureau of Worthwhile Activities

BWA – Bureau of Worthwhile Activities 

BWA is a project with a special status within Naked Nerve – it lays bare the institution’s nerves and gets on them. Its task is to activate reflection concerning the art institution as an exhibition machine, to question the routine activity in the field of communication and dissemination, to castigate overproduction, but also to refresh the audience’s expectations in this respect. The idea was originated during the artistic residency in the BWA Municipal Gallery in Bydgoszcz and is a result of the artists’ critical personal reflections resulting from their earlier collaboration with institutions which aim to popularize artists without giving them much space for creativity ami

d organizational mechanisms. As the artists themselves say: “We feel like parts of a production machine, we function within existing patterns of promoting and reproducing art, but we want to expose the good practices, especially those connected with production in the field of art. We wish to build a module out of wastepaper retrieved from cultural institutions, by means of which exhibition architecture could be created. It might also be used as a construction el

ement of alternative space dedicated to socially committed artistic activity. What we want to find in our new, recycled space is a platform of inter-institutional co-operation leading to potential, necessary changes.

In co-operation with the Faculty of Architecture of Wrocław University of Science and Technology, as well as support of Wrocław’s specialist in emergency architecture, Dr Jerzy Łatka and his Working Group, an architectural module is to be made out of wastepaper recycled from the storage rooms of BWA Wrocław, CWS Łaźnia, GM Arsenal in Poznań, GM BWA in Bydgoszcz and MS in Łódź. 

The Working Group: Martyna Apczyńska, Agata Drwal, Karolina Malicka, Borys Oleński, Aleksandra Wasilenko, Jagoda Gromek, Aleksandra Jodłowska

Paweł Błęcki graduated from the University of the Arts in Poznań, Department of Intermedia, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Department of Photography. He earned his degree at the Intermedia and Photography Studio under prof. Piotr Kurka. He also studied Archaeology and Cultural Studies at the University of Gdańsk, as well as Photography at FAMU in Prague within the frame of the Erasmus programme. His works were presented, among others, at Cracow’s Photomonth Festival, Lokal_30 Gallery in Warsaw, Gdańsk City Gallery, Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsk, Arsenal Municipal Gallery in Poznań, CSW Łaźnia in Gdańsk, bwa Municipal Gallery in Bydgoszcz. In his work, he recycles both things and meanings, creating objects and installations by means of which he addresses issues connected with ecology, sociology and politics. He is a member of the Zbiór Pusty art collective, which focuses its activities on man’s multidirectional relationship with nature. He co-creates the Interspecies Alliance, aiming to protect every manifestation of life on Earth.    

Pamela Bożek is a socially committed artist, feminist, founder of the Notesy z Łukowa micro-brand.