From Ground To Horizon

Creating collaborative situations, processes and actions underpins Alicja Rogalska’s artistic practice. She often works with people who live in precarious economic and political contexts, activists and researchers: migrant workers, people who have been stripped of their citizenship, care workers, street musicians, asylum seekers trained as lawyers, young farmers, folk singing groups or feminist and queer activists. What emerges from these interactions are temporary collectives formed on the basis of a shared life situation, class, political beliefs or a commitment to social change. The videos, images and objects created through the collective processes foreground moments of agency, rebellion and solidarity. Questioning the logic of capitalism, the works attempt to carve a space for imagining other, more just possibilities. Curated by Aneta Rostkowska, the exhibition at the Temporary Gallery, Centre for Contemporary Art in Cologne, is Rogalska’s first solo show in Germany, gathering artworks made between 2011 and 2021. It sits within an immersive, landscape-like exhibition design by Mateusz Okoński and is accompanied by a rich public programme, ncluding an action in public space, an artist talk, a guided tour, a reading session, a lecture on socially engaged art and a wellness day for Cologne city activists. Alicja Rogalska is a Polish-born interdisciplinary artist based in London and Berlin and working internationally. Her practice is research-led and focuses on social structures and the political subtext of the everyday. She works mostly in specific contexts making situations, performances, videos and installations in collaboration with other people to collectively search for emancipatory ideas for the future. Rogalska graduated with an MA in Cultural Studies from Warsaw University and an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, where she is currently a PhD researcher in the Art Department.