2024
video installation

2025
sound installation

Fragments of Vulnerability consists of two interconnected works: a video installation and a sound installation. Together, they form a manifesto affirming every child’s fundamental right to a safe space in which they can dream, grow, and simply exist. The work portrays children in various vulnerable states – fleeing the war in Ukraine, experiencing crisis, or sleeping peacefully in their ordinary domestic surroundings. Crucially, the child is not presented within a political context: the installation consistently upholds the idea of childhood as a space free from political interpretation.

In each of the films that make up the video installation, we hear a mother’s voice employing elements of ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) – whispering and gentle narration. This technique is known for its calming, stress-relieving qualities and its ability to aid sleep. In this work, ASMR becomes a therapeutic gesture: a way of nurturing a sense of safety and self-worth in the delicate, developing mind of a child.

Stysiak regards the voice as a free and universally accessible instrument of healing. On the way to the video installation, located in a former ambulance depot on the grounds of the Smoluchowskiego Medical Centre, visitors encounter audio pieces that emit the artist’s soothing voice. This is Stysiak’s invitation to begin a shared journey and dialogue. She extends this invitation not only to the festival audience, but also to teachers, doctors, nurses and carers. Through her work, she opens a conversation about mental health, self-care and the cultivation of self-esteem among children from diverse backgrounds. The installation functions as a living manifesto and a resource for developing good practices in times of crisis.

trigger warning: the project is located in a hospital

MARTA STYSIAK is a visual artist, a graduate of the Polish National Film School in Łódź and a member of the Female Directors of Photography Collective (FDOP). She works with film, video and objects, and has created cinematography for documentary and experimental films, video installations and photographic series. In her practice, she draws inspiration from her surroundings and focuses on individuals and their stories, believing that everyone has a unique narrative which, in a poetic way, transcends the understanding of life as such. Stysiak has taken part in numerous film projects in Poland and across Europe. She lives in Warsaw.