marta.ostajewska@gmail.com

Marta Ostajewska (born 1980) is a Polish visual artist, performer, and academic lecturer. She holds a PhD in Arts (Fine Arts) and graduated in Polish Philology from the University of Łódź as well as in Multimedia (Performance Art) from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent, Belgium. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the artistic and scholarly magazine Afterimages, published by the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź (2018–2021), and as Lead Editor of the book Kiwi from PL (University of Warsaw, 2019).

Her artistic practice focuses on performance art, site-specific activities, cultural revitalization, and documentary animation (including Księży Młyn, 2014 and City of Dream, 2016). She carries out artistic research projects, curates exhibitions, leads workshops, and lectures on contemporary art. She has participated in numerous international festivals, residencies, and conferences, including RIAP (Canada), IMAGINARIUS (Portugal), PAB OPEN (Bergen, Norway), Human Hotel (Copenhagen), BIO50 (Ljubljana), and streifen (Görlitz).

Education

2013–2018 PhD in Arts (Performance Art) Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (studies) and Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław (degree awarded)
2005–2010 Master of Arts (with Honors) in Multimedia Design (Performance Art and Theater), Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK), Ghent
1999–2004 Master of Arts (with Honors) in Polish Philology, University of Łódź

Selected residences, scholarships, and awards

2024 Artistic Residency in TREBNITZ, GERMANY – Empty suitcase, site-specific performance
2014 Artistic Scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (Poland) for the project FILL in
2014 Artistic Scholarship from the Mayor of Łódź (Poland) for the project Hard Shoulder – stories underfoot
2013 Cultural grant for the animation film and exhibition in Factory of Art in Łódź Księży Młyn
2013 Artistic Residency Human Hotel, Copenhagen, Denmark

Selected Festivals, Projects & Performances

2025 FERMENT ART FESTIVAL, ACADEMIC DESIGN CENTER, ŁÓDŹ – Kąpiołka, site-specific performance
2025 EINTOPF SITE-SPECIFIC FESTIVAL, ŁÓDŹ – video performance, installation and co-organization
2025 INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PERFORMANCE ART, TYCHY, POLAND – performance
2024 STREIFEN PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL, GÖRLITZ, GERMANY – I am Neisse, site-specific performance
2022 FESTIVAL PULS, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – great migration, site-specific performance
2021 FOTOFESTIVAL, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – Honey cubes in the summer, individual exhibition and performance, Portrait Studio Gallery
2021 INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PERFORMANCE ART, TYCHY, POLAND – White noise, performance
2020 INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PERFORMANCE ART INTERAKCJE, POLAND – Salt of Earth, performance
2017 PAB OPEN, BERGEN, NORWAY – besides, site-specific performance
2016 WIPAW – WARSAW INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEKEND – inside: diffusion, performance
2016 KSIĘŻY MŁYN, ŁÓDŹ – Balloon Gum, site-specific project
2016 FESTIVAL DOS CANAIS, AVEIRO, PORTUGAL – city-body, site-specific performance
2016 OLD WINE FACTORY, AGUEDA, PORTUGAL – Grand Opera, performance (co-direction & workshops)
2015 PAB OPEN, BERGEN, NORWAY – still/kill, site-specific performance
2015 KSIĘŻY MŁYN, ŁÓDŹ – migration, video-performance
2014 KSIĘŻY MŁYN, ŁÓDŹ – Gas lanterns and carp in breadcrumbs, soundwalk / direction
2014 RIAP – INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PERFORMANCE ART, QUEBEC CITY, CANADA – site-specific performance
2013 MANHATTAN GALLERY, ŁÓDŹ – [Pa-da], site-specific performance
2013 AOIA, ŁÓDŹ – RAn (Transit), performance
2011–2010 NTGENT (GHENT) / ROZENTHEATER (AMSTERDAM) – KAMER 303, theatre play (screenplay&direction)

Selected Curatorial Work

2019 KINOTEKA, WARSAW, POLAND – in our own words, curator of the exhibition
2017 KAZIMIERZOWSKI PALACE & BUW, WARSAW, POLAND – Language diversity around the world, curator of photo exhibitions
2017 WOZOWNIA ART GALLERY, TORUŃ, POLAND – Black Hole, co-curator of the exhibition
2016 GALLERY SZARA KAMIENICA, KRAKÓW, POLAND – full stop, curator of the exhibition
2014 GALLERY SZARA, CIESZYN, POLAND – …after the rain, co-curator of the exhibition
2014 ART FACTORY, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – Like mushrooms…, co-curator of the exhibition

Selected Group Exhibitions

2025 THE CENTER OF THE WORLD IS HERE, PRZEMYŚL, POLAND – international interdisciplinary project in urban space
2022 FOTOFESTIVAL, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – city+body=dream city, video performance (during the group exhibition The (non)human community, Frakcja)
2017 TEXTILE MUSEUM, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – Final result. A store of sewn designs, video trailer of video-performance Migration
2017 MANHATTAN TRANSFER GALLERY, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – Women who sit in Łódź, video-performance Red rag
2013 KOBRO GALLERY, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – installation Breath
2013 FACTORY OF ART, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – House Translocation, chart (2005–2012)
2012 BOOK ART MUSEUM, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – The end of the world – eat me!
2012 MANHATTAN GALLERY, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – I, Lodzermensz!
2012 FREE SPACE GALLERY, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND – The place of an artist
2009 CROXHAPOX GALLERY, GHENT, BELGIUM – The tales have been found – the wander. Aalst: Day/Night 2008/2009, installation and video presentation

Artistic co-operations, group performances:

X 2017 MUSEUM OF TEXTILES in Lodz, animation Workshop of machine embroidery (with Justyna Apolinarzak)
VIII 2017 MUSEUM OF CINEMATOGRAPHY in Lodz, animation Dream city (with Justyna Apolinarzak)
II 2017 O!PLA 2017, animation Dream City (Apolinarzak and Ostajewska) on the 5th National Festival of Polish Animation in the Off and Go category (main Competition O!PLA 2017)
XII 2016 BOOK ART MUSEUM in Lodz, animation Dream city (with Justyna Apolinarzak)
X 2016 KSIĘŻY MŁYN in Lodz, group performance Stop-motion 3.1.
IV 2016 THE OLD TRADING HOUSE MAGDA in Lodz, Poland, squeal (the group performance)
XI 2014 BOOK ART MUSEUM in Lodz, group performance Stop-motion 2.1.
XI 2013 THE MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF POLISH JEWS in Warsaw, performance inside and outside (with the Association of Art New)
X 2012 LODZ KALISKA RAILWAY STATION, performance with the international collective from Berlin Das Ist Doch Keine Art!
X 2012 POSIADŁO KSIĘŻY MŁYN in Lodz, creation and coordination of the group performance art STOP-MOTION
XII 2011 BAJKONUR in Lodz, video and performance Liaisons Dengereuses (with Marcelo Zammenhoff, Maria Apoleika)
VI 2009 THE POLISH CULTURAL INSTITUTE in Brussels, participation in the performance of Pawel Althamer Common case
VI 2009 MAYDAY MAYDAY, CAMPO VICTORIA in Gent, POSE – the surrealist house with Veerle Michiels, performance art
XII 2008 S.M.A.K in Gent, International Colloquim Skin/Huid/Peau/Hada, group performance
V 2008 MAYDAY MAYDAY, NIEUWPOORTTHEATER in Gent, De houtzee/Drewniane morze (by Rene Van Gijsegem), group performance
III 2007 THEATER MINARDSCHOUWBURG in Gent, video with Diederick Nuyttens for the performance/theater play: Obsessive stories 7.1, directed by Alvaro Guimaraes
I 2006 CROMBEEN INSTITUTE in Gent, The process in Crombeen with Michael de Schaetzen, documentary

Selected Conferences & Research Presentations

2024 IFTR 2024: Our States of Emergency: Theatres and Performances of Tragedy, Manila, Philippines – presentation: Place as an equal partner of trauma and memory (international conference)
2024 UNIVERSITY OF PELOPONNESE, Performing Space 2024, Nauplion, Greece – presentation: Indigenous artistic collectives as a radical place of resistance (international conference)
2022 UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, CRASSH, UK – Indigenous studies in the United Kingdom and Europe: pasts, presents and futures (international conference)
2021 UNIVERSITY OF LISBON (FBAUL), Portugal – Ciclo de Conferências sobre Investigação Artística – presentation: Holes, Theatre and Performance: An Artistic Research Conversation (international conference)
2020 UNIVERSITY OF LISBON (FBAUL), Portugal – Artistic Research. Experimentation, temporality, radical doubt – presentation: Księży Młyn – a performance of meetings (international conference)
2019 ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS IN LODZ, Poland – Chiado, Carmo, and the Heart of Darkness. Arts in the Public Sphere – presentation: Abandoned factories – site-specific performances (international conference)
2018 IFTR 2018: Theatre and Migration. Theatre, nation and identity, Belgrade, Serbia – presentation: Migration video performance (international conference)
2017 BERGEN KUNSTHALL, Norway – Reality in Art: Do We Want to Differentiate? – keynote speaker (seminar)
2014 ESAP, Porto, Portugal – Dramatic Architectures. Places of drama for places – presentation: Performative street’s tales in the context of phenomenology of space (international conference)
2014 ART CENTER LE LIEU, Quebec City, Canada – International seminar – presentation: Women performer artists in Poland (70s/80s) (international conference)
2014 MUSEUM OF CINEMATOGRAPHY, Łódź, Poland – Workers’ housing estates. Cultural traces and ciphers – presentation and discussion (international conference)

Publications – Editorship

2021–2022 Afterimages No. 6 (Eco Design), Editor-in-Chief, ISSN: 2657-652X, Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź
2021 Afterimages No. 5 (New Media), Editor-in-Chief, ISSN: 2657-652X, Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź
2020 Afterimages No. 4 (Waves), Editor-in-Chief, ISSN: 2657-652X, Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź
2020 Afterimages No. 3 (Space), Editor-in-Chief, ISSN: 2657-652X, Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź
2019 Afterimages No. 2 (Re-constructivism), Editor-in-Chief, ISSN: 2657-652X, Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź
2019 Afterimages No. 1 (Fashion), Editor-in-Chief, ISSN: 2657-652X, Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź
2019 Kiwi from PL. Tales of Performers, idea & main editor, ISBN: 978-83-63636-83-8, University of Warsaw
2016 Woof Woof Arf Arf No. 3 (Black Hole), Co-Editor-in-Chief, ISSN: 2391-8896
2015 Woof Woof Arf Arf No. 2 (Canis Vertigus), Co-Editor-in-Chief, ISSN: 2391-8896
2014 Woof Woof Arf Arf No. 1 (Cordyceps), Co-Editor-in-Chief, ISBN: 978-83-64448-28-7

Publications – Research Journals

2021 RIACT, No. 2 (ISSN 2184-8459), Holes, Theatre and Performance: An Artistic Research Conversation, co-authored with Verónica Rodríguez
2020 RIACT, No. 1 (ISSN 2184-8459), Księży Młyn — a performance of meetings
2020 Literaturoznawstwo (DOI: 10.25312/2451-1595), There is no there there—Urban Indians and the New Contemporary in Indigenous American Art
2017 Angelaki. Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, v.22 nr 2, Routledge, Blurred
2015 Art & Documentation, No. 12, FILLin project – artistic activities in Księży Młyn

Publications – Chapters in Anthologies

2022 Soirée chez lui. Chiado, Carmo, and Arts in the Public Sphere, Intermedia meetings — weave of sounds, images and bodies
2021 Un Ballo in Maschera. Chiado, Carmo, and Arts in the Public Sphere, Mask or transforming place of transition
2020 Janotas and Flaneurs Suspended in a Smartphone, The city as a mise-en-scene of artistic urban travels, ISBN: 978-83-66037-57-1
2019 Chiado, Carmo, and the Heart of Darkness. Arts in the Public Sphere, Abandoned factories – site-specific performances in Joseph Conrad’s ‘promised land’, ISBN: 978-83-66037-25-0

Publications – Post-Conference

2017 University of Gdańsk, Zombie body: an interactive sculpture..., ISBN: 978-83-7865-489-6
2014 Modern and Postmodern Body Adventures, Metamorphic body – body transformations and hybrids in contemporary art, ISBN: 978-83-7784-403-8

Publications – Other

2014 Ultra Feminism, comic/collage The ideology of the shoe, Rotterdam
2014 Teatralia, online journal, The festival born from desperation — Homo Novus in Riga

Workshops:

X 2014 THE DESIGN FESTIVAL in Lodz, leading workshop Synesthesia
X 2013 THE THEATER FESTIVAL LIVE!, leading performance workshops in Crimea and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kharkov, Ukraine
IX 2013 SHARED SPACE at Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw, participation in the international workshop SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics 2013 / 2016 (Prague Quadrennial / Theater Institute Warsaw / ProHelvetia)
IX 2013 HOMO NOVUS in Riga, participation in the international workshop Open Circle Lab related to site-specificity, during the Festival Theatre Homo Novus in Riga, Latvia (selected 16 artists from Latvia, Polish and Swiss)
I 2013 PREXER THE CITY POINT OF CULTURE in Lodz, Education at the gates organized by the Goethe Institute and the Topography Association in Lodz. The art actions: Inflate culture and The general rehearsal
IX 2012-IV 2013 LODZ-MILAN, Intermediary Seminar I, Here and Now in Milan with the students from The Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, participation and coordination

COLING (RISE)

COLING promotes and develops sustainable measures for language revitalization and maintenance. The project provides researchers and non-academic stakeholders with opportunities to exchange knowledge and collaborate in implementing sustainable strategies for language revitalization and maintenance.

III–IX 2022 The secondment in ARENET (Mexico City) and in the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC, USA) — extensive research related to: First Nations Contemporary Art and horizontal decolonization strategies in the context of the methodology Performance as Research.

IV–IX 2019 The secondment in the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC, USA) — extensive research related to: The Body as Archive in the Museum Context.

ENGHUM

The Twinning Project Engaged humanities in Europe: Capacity building for participatory research in linguistic-cultural heritage (ENGHUM)
VIII 2017 The field school in the Nahua-speaking community of San Miguel Xaltipan (Tlaxcala, Mexico)
VI 2017 Leiden summer school Language, Heritage and Transdisciplinarity in Leiden University
III 2017 Workshop Developing practical skills for transforming documentation into multi-dimensional materials for transdisciplinary humanistic research in the University of Warsaw
IX 2016 The Field School of revitalization and language documentation in Wilamowice
VI 2016 The summer school Transdisciplinarity in Language Documentation and Revitalisation in School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London
V 2016 Training session Teaching minority languages, methodology and curriculum development. Practical applications, understanding societal and cultural challenges
III 2016 Training session Capacity building in methodology and theory of transdisciplinary research on cultural and linguistic heritage

Reference:

„Marta worked with different media: mixed media, photography, installation, drawing and especially site specific activated space and performance in which she showed an outspoken sense of strong visualisation, and personal view on bodies in action. She showed her talent and skills in several theaterplays (De Houtzee) and actions at among others Campo Nieuwpoort in Ghent. I admire her strong motivation, working power and talent. I hereby strongly wish to recommend Marta Ostajewska as a promissing visual artist with international potention. We all should permit her to improve her skills and develop her promissing carreer.”

Sjoerd Paridaen, artist/teacher at KASK

„As a mentor at School of Arts (KASK) in Ghent (Belgium) I had the pleasure of working with Marta. From the first meeting it was clear that she is very talented. Her sensibility towards language (writing, bring language on stage) is exceptional. She has also the talent of creating a strong, intelligent image. She knows that every ‘place’ has its own psychology and she knows how to show that to the spectator: very important for a performer. I’m sure that she can add something new and special to the great tradition of Polish theatre/performance. You can always contact me for a further information.”

Peter Verhelst, writer/director at NTGent