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Wiola Ujazdowska

@wiola.ujazdowska

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NO HOPE/NO PAIN
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Ph.D candidate @aspgdansk
Now
Residency @ceac_1999
Member @beyondthepostsoviet

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Julia Woronowicz, Wiola Ujazdowska „WYtwórczynie”
Kuratorki: Karolina Majewska-Güde, Agnieszka Rayzacher

Wystawa „WYtwórczynie” łączy dwa projekty: „Malarki. Herstoria włocławskiego fajansu 1945–1991” Wioli Ujazdowskiej oraz „Wełnogłowe. Kultura mazońska w nowożytnej Polsce” Julii Woronowicz. Oba podejmują refleksję nad tradycjami kobiecej pracy twórczej – malarskiej, tkackiej i rzemieślniczej – przywracając pamięć o wspólnotach kobiet, które poprzez codzienną praktykę współtworzyły materialną i symboliczną kulturę Polski.

Wystawę można oglądać do 24 lipca i w pierwszych dniach września (2-4.09). Zapraszamy!

Fot. Bartosz Górka @bartos2gorka by @wiola.ujazdowska

‘Melancholia a concept found throughout ancient, medieval, and premodern medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly depressed mood, bodily complaints, and sometimes hallucinations and delusions.’

My next upcoming solo show at Slaturhusið this summer circulates around hauntology as articulated by Mark Fisher, but also around the psychological condition of a human being living through simultaneous catastrophes.

This is a kind of modern alchemical dissertation. It works through symbols — echoes from the past — as Fisher suggested, that perhaps all that remains for our generation is to recycle what has already been. A study of a broken human that is learning to step into it own shadow just before everything collapses.
Melancholia is a slowing down of time. A space to look inward — into what is uncanny, difficult, and unresolved within us. It is not about position of a victim but about confrontation. About allowing difficult emotions and truths about ourselves instead of escaping them.
It moves through self-isolation, speculation, nihilism and freezing — understood as forms of resistance against broken intimacy. And still, at its core, it holds a longing for honest, pure love and happiness accepting that both may never arrive. Or perhaps, to begin believing in a dead God and find a new form of spirituality based on Peter Wessel Zapffe’s essay The Last Messaiah.
 This journey is shaped by many voices and influences but most importantly, by collaboration with extraordinary people:
Filmmaker Grzegorz Kaźmierski @grzegorz_kazmierski  Photographer Katarzyna Mikita @kasiamikita author of this image) Rafał Kołacki @arwidas_sabonis — with whom I am creating a vinyl record functioning as an exhibition catalogue
Guidance in understanding the human psyche at the edge of hopelessness comes from Dr. Miglė Marcinkevičiūtė(Univeristy of Vilnius)
Curated and produced by Ragnhildur Ásvaldsdottir @rasvalds
Supported by Icelandic Art Center, Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Kujavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship artistic scholarship, Uppbyggingarsjóður Austurlands. by @wiola.ujazdowska

WIOLA UJAZDOWSKA
Melancholia 17.06 - 31.08

EN
It all started with Derrida’s phrase, “I moan, therefore I am,” and with footage of a dying deer recorded on a found VHS camera by my friends—a tape that was later destroyed by a leak in the mechanism.
What is presented in this exhibition is a bizarre interpretation of the phenomenon of melancholia. Melancholia is a concept found in ancient, medieval, and premodern medicine, used to describe a condition resembling depression, often accompanied by hallucinations and delusions. It was also considered one of the fundamental human temperaments.

In this exhibition, I want to stop time and allow myself to feel hopeless. Through the modes of perceptions of the weird and the eerie, described by Mark Fisher, I invite both myself and the viewer to confront a world suspended between the past and the present. The weird emerges when something does not belong in the world in which it appears; the eerie concerns unsettling absences and presences.
(Un)Finished works, bizarre organic forms, and looped VHS footage of a woodpecker choosing to drill into a metal cord rather than a tree all contribute to the construction of a melancholic world. It is a space in which we can pause for a moment amid a capitalist reality that constantly demands the optimisation of time and productivity, and instead confront the more nostalgic, vulnerable, and contemplative aspects of our nature.

IS
Þetta byrjaði allt með orðum Derrida, „Ég kveina, þess vegna er ég til,” og með upptökum af deyjandi dádýri sem vinir mínir tóku á fundna VHS—videóvél sem síðar eyðilagðist vegna leka í vélbúnaðinum.

Það sem birtist á þessari sýningu er sérstæð túlkun á fyrirbærinu melankólíu. Melankólía er hugtak sem finnst í fornri, miðalda- og for-módernískri læknisfræði, notað til að lýsa ástandi sem líkist þunglyndi, oft í fylgd með ofskynjunum og ranghugmyndum. Hún var einnig talin eitt af grundvallar skapgerðareinkennum mannsins. by @wiola.ujazdowska

Untitled ( the empty hearted), ceramic, 2026

📸@jessica.auer by @wiola.ujazdowska

Working on my solo show @ceac_1999 that will open next month but also learning new ceramic techniques from @xiaoxinjo that is what I have been doing for the past few weeks.
Works are continuing topic of melancholia and feeling of longing to stop time look into the past in fear of pending doom.
Using tools from psychoanalysis I am diving into my own subconscious of a human being in times of simultaneous catastrophes.
Especially into possible extinction of our own species. by @wiola.ujazdowska

Sea, ceramic sculpture, 2026
As a part of melancholia exhibition @slaturhusid
📸@jessica.auer by @wiola.ujazdowska

Head of Medea is a sculpture made in ceramic. Medea is the main character in a play by Euripides, in which she is abandoned by her lover, Jason, because he decides to replace her with a younger princess, also in order to gain political power.
Medea is also considered one of the first immigrant women characters in European literature.

I have always been fascinated by this character, and especially by her portrayal by Maria Callas in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film Medea (1969)
I decided to make this portrait as part of Melancholia because Medea has become a powerful symbol of the betrayed imigrant woman in European culture — a woman who takes revenge, and becomes a threat to both society and men because of her pain.

What was also an important inspiration was the music of @lingua_ignota , an amazing American artist who transformed traumatic experiences into her art.

Understanding anger or loss is a part of understanding our nature, and state of melancholy allows us to do so.

I am also really happy to say that the Melancholia project will continue in the form of an art book, with the support of @myndstef_myndhofundasamtok.

Funded by Uppbyggingarsjóði Austurlands, Menningarsjóður Múlaþings, Myndlistarsjóður and Artists’ Scholarship of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship

Zrealizowano w ramach stypendium Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego.
Photo @jessica.auer by @wiola.ujazdowska

W środę 2 września ponownie otwieramy wystawę “WYtwórczynie” Wioli Ujazdowskiej i Julii Woronowicz. Ale tylko na trzy dni, do 4 września. Dobra wiadomość jest taka, że 3 września o 17.30 serdecznie zapraszamy na nasze wspólne artystyczno-kuratorskie oprowadzanie. Przybywajcie! by @wiola.ujazdowska

Artist in Residence | Wiola Ujazdowska | The Modern Melancholia

Meet @wiola.ujazdowska, a visual artist and PhD candidate currently dividing her time between Włocławek, Poland, and Egilsstaðir, Iceland. Working across visual art, academic research, and cultural organizing, she explores themes of history, social structures, and the human condition. Her work has been presented internationally at venues including the National Gallery of Iceland, the Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń, the OSTRALE Biennale in Dresden, Nýlistasafnið in Reykjavík, and Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

During her residency at the Chinese European Art Center (CEAC), she will focus on developing her ongoing art project, Melancholia. The project re-examines the historical concept of melancholia—once understood as a medical condition and human temperament—as a lens to address modern existence amidst simultaneous global crises, drawing on the philosophical writings of Slavoj Žižek, Mark Fisher, Timothy Morton, and Peter Wessel Zapffe.

Throughout the residency, she aims to create a series of ceramic works using Blanc de Chine, a traditional porcelain from Dehua, China. These works respond to Zapffe’s 1933 essay The Last Messiah, translating its themes of existential pessimism and the unique burden of human consciousness into material form.

Scroll through to get a closer look at her work and stay tuned for what’s coming next!

(The residency was carried out as part of a scholarship awarded by the Minister of
Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland/ Zrealizowano w ramach
stypendium Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego.

The residency is also supported by Muggur traveling fund and the Icelandic Art Center. ）
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cover page by @terry_xiee by @wiola.ujazdowska

MELANCHOLIA is a concept found in ancient, medieval, and premodern medicine, used to
describe a condition resembling depression, often accompanied by hallucinations and delusions. It
was also considered one of the fundamental human temperaments.
Melancholia is also the title of my solo exhibition, which opened in June @slaturhusid in
Egilsstaðir.
I finally have some time to share photographs of the works and tell the stories behind them here on
Instagram.
WHAT IS PRESENTED IN THIS EXHIBITION IS A BIZARRE INTERPRETATION OF THE
PHENOMENON OF MELANCHOLIA.
Today, the sources of melancholia can be found in our experience of living through simultaneous
catastrophes: ecological collapse, wars, and economic instability.
The aim of this exhibition is to represent hopelessness as a form of resistance. According to the
philosopher Slavoj Žižek, hope can sometimes make us believe that someone else will do what we
ourselves are responsible for doing. We wait for a saviour, or trust that time alone will improve
things. But what if the saviour brings even greater despair? What if, as in the figure of the “last
messiah” described by Peter Wessel Zapffe, salvation ultimately leads us toward annihilation?
My aim with Melancholia was to stop time and allow myself to feel hopeless.
Through the modes of perception of the weird and the eerie, described by Mark Fisher, I invite both
myself and the viewer to confront a world suspended between the past and the present, while
fearing the future.
The weird emerges when something does not belong in the world in which it appears; the eerie
concerns unsettling absences and presences.

📸@jessica.auer

Zrealizowano w ramach stypendium Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego
Funded also by Menningarstyrkur Múlaþings. Uppbyggingasjóður Austurlands, Myndlistarsjóður,
stypendium artystyczne wojewodztwa kujawsko -pomorskiego by @wiola.ujazdowska

Julia Woronowicz, Wiola Ujazdowska „WYtwórczynie”
Kuratorki: Karolina Majewska-Güde, Agnieszka Rayzacher

Wystawa „WYtwórczynie” łączy dwa projekty: „Malarki. Herstoria włocławskiego fajansu 1945–1991” Wioli Ujazdowskiej oraz „Wełnogłowe. Kultura mazońska w nowożytnej Polsce” Julii Woronowicz. Oba podejmują refleksję nad tradycjami kobiecej pracy twórczej – malarskiej, tkackiej i rzemieślniczej – przywracając pamięć o wspólnotach kobiet, które poprzez codzienną praktykę współtworzyły materialną i symboliczną kulturę Polski.

Dziś ostatni dzień na oglądanie wystawy przed wakacyjną przerwą🌞Zapraszamy ponownie 2 września!

Fot. Bartosz Górka @bartos2gorka by @wiola.ujazdowska

W środę 22 lipca o godzinie 16.00 serdecznie zapraszamy na ostatnie przed przerwą wakacyjną oprowadzenie po wystawie “WYtworczynie” Wioli Ujazdowskiej i Julii Woronowicz. Będą z nami obydwie artystki! by @wiola.ujazdowska