2025
installation

The installation speaks of memory inscribed in the body – of the fact that we inherit not only our ancestors’ genes, but also their emotions, fears and experiences. Małgorzata Kalinowska refers to the concept of intergenerational trauma, showing that the body functions as a tissue of collective memory, shaped by what is inherited, often unspoken and unhealed. Transgenerational Body is a composition of three human torsos connected by a deformed ‘tissue’, symbolically evoking both the weight and the strength of trauma ‘suspended’ between generations and left unresolved.

Created in the festival context of the Aniołki district – in the vicinity of former hospitals and care institutions – Kalinowska’s installation becomes a gesture of healing the past. The artist shows that working with the body here and now can become a symbolic way of closing old wounds and restoring continuity between generations.

trigger warning: body disformation

MAŁGORZATA KALINOWSKA is a visual artist, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. She creates paintings, textile objects, artistic fabrics, collages and photographs, which have been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Poland. In her work, she addresses universal themes of femininity, intimacy, pain and trauma, grounding them above all in her own experience. For several years she has been exploring techniques of hand-dyeing textiles, both in artistic and functional contexts. She also leads creative workshops for children, young people and adults, and is the author of the podcast Conversations with the Body.