Bio
Małgorzata Szandała born in Gliwice in 1977. She is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice (2002).
She also completed interdisciplinary post-diploma studies at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities (“Art, public space, democracy – relations and possibilities”) and Prof. Andrzej Leder’s seminar “Post-war. The surfacing trauma” at the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw. Received her Ph.D. degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice in 2016 where she currently works as an assistant professor.
She also completed interdisciplinary post-diploma studies at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities (“Art, public space, democracy – relations and possibilities”) and Prof. Andrzej Leder’s seminar “Post-war. The surfacing trauma” at the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw. Received her Ph.D. degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice in 2016 where she currently works as an assistant professor.
She took part in residency programmes, incl. of Artist in Residence of The Brno House of Arts in Czech Republic, Residency at Künstlerhaus Lukas in Ahrenshoop in Germany, Imprimerie – atelier pour arts et sciences in Basel (Switzerland), Artist-in-Residence in Harlech in Wales, and Honefoss in Norway. Her works have been shown nationally and internationally (incl. Galeria Działań in Warsaw, Centre for Contemporary Art Kronika in Bytom, Field Projects Gallery in New York, Chelsea College of Arts in London, Vienna Künstlerhaus, Museum fur Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, MuseumsQuartier quartier 21 in Vienna, Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Korea Foundation Cultural Center in Seoul, Museum of Art in Timisoara).
An important part of her art practice is research through art. She studies the cognitive role of art, explores the principles and different forms of narration, and is interested in the borders between documentaries, factual records of reality and fiction, or the reflections of reality through subjective experience. The outcomes are typically site-specific installations and objects, and she often employs subversive or challenging strategies.
She is a co-founder of the Travel Agency Art Collective together with Paweł Mendrek and Ewa Zasada, effecting nomadic exhibitions and activities.