Alicja Bielawska examines the choreographic capabilities of her works during her performances with the participation of dancers. The first one took place during her residence in the Nida Art Colony in Lithuania in 2016. In the clear, white space delineated on the floor, with the aid of colorful lines of the drawing, the dancer struggles with the movement determined by one of the works. The blanket folded in a cube is the eponymous soft ground under her feet. A small rectangular piece of material becomes a base on which the dancer carries out a sequence of moves taken from everyday situations. At the same time every change of the blanket’s position is followed by a change in the positioning of the body and, what follows, a change in the space surrounding it.

Anna Szary

(excerpts from the catalogue Alicja Bielawska, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, 2017)

 

The basis of my creative process is the drawing as a means of visualizing ideas. For me, it is not a sketch but rather an autonomous work made concurrently with the sculpture, often a reflection on them. Sometimes things that are impossible in physical space can be encapsulated in a drawing. In …and an indescribable outline I wanted to use blankets made on the basis of my drawings. All my works are highly intuitive, being also the result of collaborations, in this case, with a weaving mill in Białystok.
At some point, I no longer have a total control over the final effect of my project, how the project will be translated in the production process.
In fact, I’m not interested in its exact replication. Technological limitations, contact with persons specialising in a particular material or technology, offering their suggestions on the subject — all this results in a very interesting process. I accept that chance, or other people’s knowledge, can contribute to my work, sometimes in surprising or unplanned ways. What proved inspiring this time was the aspect of machine weaving, where my handmade drawing was first interpreted by a designer at the factory and then by a machine. When I started working on this project,
I was wondering how the textile could be made and I decided I was decided in machine waving rather than manual weaving. The fact that the textile (though made by a machine) won’t be put into serial production and won’t become functional (even if it has such potential) means that it is something ‘in between’. The fabric the blanket is to be made of is a semiproduct, ‘almost a blanket’.

Lines and shapes on a walk, 2014
pencil, coloured pencil on paper
40 x 40 cm

Four colors on gray background are four curtains designed for the auditorium located in the center of the temporary seat of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
Work in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.