AUT/ART – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

AUT/ART is an artistic project organised together with the SYNAPSIS Foundation, in which adults diagnosed on the autism spectrum were invited to participate in workshops. The result of this process is the creation of a sensory installation focusing on how they communicate.

• The project is the result of work carried out by the Education and Audience Development Department of Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art with children and adults diagnosed on the autism spectrum. AUT/ART was an opportunity to include them in the creative process. Through a series of workshops taking place from September to December 2020, the group selected in an open call was inspired to create an installation and a performative action that will premiere online on 22 December 2020.

Experiences with various groups of people on the autism spectrum have shown that entering the space of art can be extremely stimulating and helps overcome fear. An encounter with artworks, which can be highly unpredictable, is a safe experience within a changing environment, which allows us to better find ourselves in the real world. Importantly, people clearly interested in creativity and art have applied to participate in the project. Contact with artists participating in the project was a lesson in communication, social networking, as well as an opportunity to meet inspiring people open to otherness.

• The entire process was dynamic – there was no set theme for the installation, the workshops were conducted in such a way that the theme would emerge from interests and needs of the participants. Collectively it was decided that this theme would be communication.

Communication consists of many small components – a look, gesture, word, touch, and timbre of voice – and as it turns out, it is an extremely vast, imagination-inspiring matter. Through abstract forms, movement and music the designed installation explores communication between a group of 6 adult participants and 3 female artists, 1 male artist and 2 female curators / 4 artists and 2 curators. It also contains a universal meaning about

• The installation has a jointly developed title, This Room Wants, a sentence that anyone can complete in whichever way they like. On the one hand, it refers to the formal appearance of the installation, and on the other, it signals that each of the participants perceives the surrounding reality in a different way. When it comes to people diagnosed on the autism spectrum, this is very important because there are supposedly as many types of autism as there are people.

Stages of the project:

• 1. Workshops on contemporary art (September–October 2020) –  led by Aleksandra Rajska and Anna Szary

  • The workshops were carried out on a weekly basis and were aimed at integrating the participants, familiarizing them with fundamental concepts related to art, as well as issues related to the construction of an exhibition, techniques used by artists, and interpretating works of art. During the workshops, the participants could try out various artistic means and ways of expressing themselves, and as a result, a group was selected that declared their willingness to continue working on the installation.

• 2. Project meetings and work on objects – hosted by Matylda Halkowicz and Marta Szostek

  • The workshop was aimed at designing objects that would together build the installation. The designers relied on their experience and preferences of the participants. The starting point was their personal possessions, the shapes of which were transformed into abstract forms. An important element of the process was the selection of textures and colours. Participants chose them individually. Then the projects were realised and commissioned for production

• 3. Choreographic workshops and work on movement – led by Monika Kiwak

  • The choreographic workshops were an opportunity for participants to get to know each other, as well as to feel the space around them. By means of simple movement tasks, the group was able to register gestures or sequences of movements that will be used in a performative action in the installation space.

• 4. Music workshops and sound work – led by Patryk Zakrocki
  • The installation is accompanied by a sound designed by the group during music workshops.

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People involved in the project: Anna Szary, Aleksandra Rajska, Matylda Halkowicz, Marta Szostek, Monika Kiwak, Patryk Zakrocki.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund, obtained from subsidies established in games subject to state monopoly, in accordance with Art. 80 sect. 1 of the Gambling Act of 19 November 2009.

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