The Gesture of Cutting, the Art of (Re)Construction
On the first day of the Nobody Reads This: Art Book Fair, Friday 22 May 2026, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, Magdalena Sobolska will lead an open collage workshop centred around the idea of the (re)construction of the image.
What appears to be finished can become a starting point for change, cutting, tearing, and shifting. The gesture of collage-making is about uncovering new meanings and creating different contexts. Together, we will look at collage as an artistic technique of transformation and disruption of the existing order. Workshop participants will be able to use archival albums published by the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in their collage works, reintroducing them into circulation within a new context. We will explore how selection and composition can help uncover personal narratives and develop an individual visual language.
- Magdalena Sobolska
- visual artist. Collage plays a central role in her artistic practice, which she approaches as a way of capturing the distinctive fragmentary nature of the world — a quality that becomes the binding force of subjective experience. Her main areas of interest include examining the gaze as a culturally constructed tool (used both for surveillance and for expressing care), the social position of women, and issues related to mental health. She is the author of the book (Re)konstrukcje. Rzecz o współczesnym kolażu w Polsce (self-published, 2026). Together with the collective Inne Towarzystwo and Agata Groszek, she curated the exhibition Stan złożenia — the first extensive survey presentation of contemporary Polish collage (2026).
