Sun was out and The Universal Sea was ready for an intense programme. The Grand Opening, which took place on Sunday 22 April 2018 at The Center of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, celebrated the start of The Universal Sea tour exhibition, which is running until 10th Juni 2018, as well as the international Earth day.
Artists exhibited
The focus point of this weekend was meeting our great clique of international finalists! Full of motivation and enthusiasm, the artists came from all over the globe to present artworks and miniatures of their art proposition together with their actions with the public. So who are our five wonder-women entering the artist-in-residency program?
Ewa Markiewicz – Scheme that will survive ages
Ewa is a young Polish artist, who works with plastic bottles collected from student accommodation. Based on her local textile industry tradition she is planning to organize a workshop to create a fabric made out of plastic bags.
Frankie Moughton-Small – The Plastic Sea
Frankie is a jewelry designer, freshly graduated from Central Saint Martin in London. Her incredible graduation work consists of jewelry made out of colorful plastic debris and up-cycled fishnets. Regarding the public action, she plans on collecting waste of all sorts to then create ornaments out of it. The result will be stunning!
Julia Vegh and Erika Kapronczai – Plastic Cube Labyrinth
The Hungarian duo (Julia is a multimedia artist – Erika is a filmmaker) is not afraid of shocking the public. Under the motto “think big” they are planning to build a life-size labyrinth made out of plastic waste cubes on one of the main squares in Budapest.
Liina Klauss (DE) – Broken Dreams No.1
Living since 12 years in Asia, Liina takes at the core the safeguard of the Asian beaches. Fed up with seeing the huge quantity of garbage left ashore, she decided to act against it. Liina creates massive colorful compositions with waste collected on the beaches. Moreover, she includes in her actions children from local schools, students, and adults. For The Universal Sea, she plans on bringing her model forward and involving more and more people, while giving insightful explanations on each object found such as the decay time.
Robertina Šebjanič – Aquatocene
Robertina works already for quite a while with marine biologists. Her audible work denounces the unstoppable human traffic on waters that dramatically affects the marine life. In her actions, she brings people on boats and makes them listen with the help of hydrophones to what aquatic fauna is continuously subject to.
At 1 pm the crowd gathered in front of the chapel in the idyllic setting of the museum’s sculpture park for the opening of the show and the introduction speeches. The scientific back up of the exhibition was done by the European Coastal Union Germany (EUCC-D), who organized an educative presentation on marine litter and the catastrophic consequences.
In the chapel, visitors find the TOP 100 submissions and the five selected art projects of the open call. The curiosity and interest in the artworks from the public were great and the presence of the artists made the event even more exciting.
Right after the opening, each of the artists had the chance to present individually their work and their involvement with the public. Afterward, Kinga Gradowska, art manager and up-cycling designer, and Daria Wartalska, sustainable product designer, and entrepreneur took over, participating in the panel discussion on “New business models for artists” followed by a public co-creation workshop.
The event ended up with a beautiful sunset and people were enjoying the evening twilight sitting on the grass or by taking part in the various workshops.
The Universal Sea is delighted to collaborate with such inspiring and powerful creatives. This weekend we had the proof that art can definitely be a means to provoke a positive response and bring forward change. Keep posted for the next steps, it’s going to be exciting!