degree piece
minor degree
The piece Jackpot deals with the issue of disability, which is an aspect of humanity that we have displaced from our imaginarium. I was born without a hand and I wanted to play billiards as a child. It turned out I was not able to grasp the cue in a way allowing me to participate in a game on equal terms. This situation became the basis for the design of a performative spatial situation consisting of a green carpet referring to the surface of a pool table, the outfit of the ball no. 8, an advertising light-box with an X-ray of my deformed bone and a video with an evenly revolving wheel of fortune.
The light-box was provided courtesy of the Prokonstrukcje company.
Born 1992. Studies: Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam (2010–2011), Faculty of Journalism and Political Science of the University of Warsaw (2011–2014), Faculty of Media Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (2015–2020). Scholarship of the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts for artistic achievements. Fields of artistic activity: video, installation, performative actions. Solo exhibition: One armed bandit, Art Collection Point, Łódź (2019).
supervisor: Prof. Mirosław Bałka
Nadia Markiewicz’s degree piece is a set of very important reflections on social and political relations building the structure of the contemporary world, which – in spite of large corrective efforts – is still built on the lack of acceptance of the one who looks different.
The title of the piece – Jackpot – refers to a lottery, game, success, and a cumulative pool of prizes to be granted to the able-bodied. A video presenting the rolling wheel of fortune is an important part of the spatial arrangement. Introduced into the space of the room lined with green lining, referring to a billiard table, the recipient becomes a participant in a game and a helpless ball dependent on the capabilities of the player playing with us. We do not know who it is.
Nadia Markiewicz has created a space for reflection on the subject of full ability and disability, on the subject of exclusion.
It is a very important voice in the situation when, as she herself says: ‘Today the whole world is beginning to have the same limitations as the disabled do and is slowly starting to think about it.’
I hope that Jackpot will help to break down the barriers dividing people and will open up new possibilities of communication.
supervisor: Prof. Prot Jarnuszkiewicz
The minor degree Supernormal prepared in the Visual Relations Studio by Nadia Markiewicz is a project dealing with current social issues. It asks questions about the woman’s role in general culture, confronts the onlooker with disability and refers to the normalised standards of beauty. Nadia Markiewicz’s work is a video project based on the reproduction of shots from films presenting female characters. Each of them was directed by a man and presents the way in which women are perceived. Films are often treated as the canon and indicator of human and societies’ behaviours. For this reason, the artist chooses this form of dialogue and engages in a confrontation with the image imposed by culture. She juxtaposes her disability with a well-established cultural paradigm and puts key questions about the ways of understanding and learning the world before us – the onlookers.