Anna GODZINA

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Anna GODZINA

Participating Project	Exchange Residency Program (Creators from abroad)
Activity Based	Antwerp
City	Tokyo
Period	2023.9 - 2023.11

Purpose of the residency

My work is heavily rooted in material culture, I approach matter as an active, meaningful, and intelligent substance, relating my subject of thought to notions of New Materialism. Animistic in character, the installations I produce bring with them an inherent discourse on value systems, employing methods of contemporary archaeology.
I intend to explore new surroundings, the potential of the city of Tokyo, being attentive to what makes itself manifest to me by making extensive derives and observations; looking into the urban environment and what stories are carried by the encountered objects and materials. Proceeding with collecting and exploring such objects and materials inside a studio space.

Plan during the residency

• Explore and research materials specific to the locations encountered.
  
• Obtain advice/guidance from fellow colleagues.
  
• Create sound maps by monitoring and documenting a specific location and for a specific time span.
• Process and collect materials. 　
• Conduct continuously thorough literature review to identify appropriate content and experts in the field, potentially create a collaboration.

Activities during the residency

During the months I resided in Japan, I have been working on a project that brought together numerous fascinations that served as a start for an artistically and philosophically grounded project. I have researched ways of activating the network of entangled connections and narratives present inside the Ryōanji Zen Garden, its influence on the work of John Cage and the potential to create work today that would investigate its concepts. Looking into ways of representing landscape, focusing on the potential of materials, I have reproduced certain aspects of the garden, in my own interpretation, by exploring interactions between magnetized objects. The dynamic between these elements recreates in number and form the stones present at the Ryōanji, animated with movement and sound, I have been working on a sculptural installation.

Outcome of the residency

I can firmly declare that my most precious finding during the stay in Japan has been the encounter with the Zen Gardens. Not only had it opened a vast field of knowledge that I have discovered and continue to research, it had also brought me insights into my previous practice, as it corresponded to my fascination with ways of representing landscapes. Besides the numerous writings and sketches, I have made an 8 mm film at the Ryoanji that will be successfully shown during a solo exhibition planned for September 2024, at the Z33 in Hasselt, Belgium. I conceive the entire show at the museum being majorly influenced by my research in Japan.

Creator Information