Michał Soja and Róża Duda, I Am a Miner’s Son

The exhibition I Am a Miner’s Son oscillates around the state of contemporary subjectivity, suspended between the desire for self-determination, individuality, self-sufficiency, and the inevitable entanglement in the relations of exploitation, at the same time displaying the results of the self-contradictory position. The presented works relate to the notion of globalisation, the new identities emerging from it, and local reactions to a pandemic crisis. The authors of the exhibition are Róża Duda and Michał Soja, visual artists working with experimental film, installation and 3D graphics.

Michał Soja (b. 1994, Krakow) has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Zurich University of the Arts, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. He has presented his works at Polish and international festivals, and received a special mention in the Grey House Art Award in 2017 and the 10th Edition of IN OUT Festival in Gdańsk, and 2nd prizein the 4th Edition of O!PLA, Festival of Polish Animation. He has held three solo shows.

Soja primarily uses video, as well asexperimental animation and 3D graphics. In the recent project Gold Mine, he combines documentary film footage with computer-generated objects, creating an archaeological reconstruction of contemporaneity. In his practice he deals with the notion of collective memory, analyses contemporary visual culture, and refers to the far-going implications of capitalism’s relations with generating modern subjectivity.

Róża Duda (b. 1993, Lublin) has been studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and at Zurich University of the Arts. The artist’smain focusesare video art, 3D animation, documentary, and installation. Her solo exhibition was shown at Małopolski Ogród Sztuki in Krakow. Her works havealso been exhibitedin group shows in Poland and abroad. Since 2016 she has been working with Michał Soja. In 2017 their work Gold Minewas presented atthe Limited Access Festival in Tehran, Iran,as well as inthe 15th Art Review Survival in Wrocław. In November 2017, in collaboration with Michał Soja, she took part in the Młode Wilki Festival in Szczecin, Poland. Her work Structuralism was awarded a special mention in the 10th IN OUT International Festival of independent movies in Gdańsk. In 2016 she also participated in the Seismograph project organised by Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art in Krakow. In 2017 she receiveda Scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.