As the inaugural artist-in-residence at The Cosmic House, Marysia Lewandowska undertook detailed archival research, resulting in a site-specific sound installation. Lewandowska’s work acknowledges Maggie Keswick Jencks’ contribution as a designer and intellectual, employing spoken voice recordings and written texts. For this seminar, Lewandowska will reflect on the process of making the artwork in relation to research undertaken during her year-long residency, as she connects this project to her ongoing interest in recovering women’s histories. She will introduce the work of Maggie Keswick Jencks, including her role in the transformation of The Cosmic House, which has been mostly associated with her husband, the architectural historian Charles Jencks.
She will be in conversation with Catherine Grant, Reader in Modern and Contemporary Art at the Courtauld, as they explore the uses and politics of the voice in feminist artistic practices, including Lewandowska’s work. The intimate and feminist possibilities offered by her research into Maggie Jencks’ voice and archive, will open up into a wider discussion, thinking about voice and “voicing” as a form of portraiture that challenges the hegemony of the visual. Lily Jencks, Director of the Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House will introduce the seminar.
Biographies:
Marysia Lewandowska is a Polish born artist based in London since 1985. She has been exploring the public functions of archives often resulting in conceptually driven works reflecting on the social and immaterial public realm. Amongst them are the Women’s Audio Archive 2009, Undoing Property? 2013, It’s About Time, 2019 occupied the V&A Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw holds Enthusiasts Archive, in their permanent collection. In 2021/22 she was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence of Jencks Foundation at the Cosmic House, London. She is currently preparing projects with Kunsthalle Baden Baden and Kestner Gesselshaft in Hannover.
Lily Jencks, Director of the Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House, www.jencksfoundation.org
Organised by Catherine Grant as part of The Gender and Sexuality Group.
