I lift my lamp beside the golden door
Concert by Agata Wąsik

  • I lift my lamp beside the golden door

The second concert of the evening - Agata Wąsik's recital titled “Podnoszę lampę w stronę złotych drzwi” (“I raise a lamp towards the golden door”) - is the effect of the vocalist's collaboration with the artist Joanna Pawlik.

The recital's repertoire selection is an attempt to search the history of music for works that embark on the issues of social injustices, exclusion, war and senseless death.

The recital will be held together by the “Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti” (parts 1, 2 and 3) by Ennio Morricone, originally sung by Joan Baez. The ballad tells the story of Italian immigrants who came to the US at the beginning of the 20th century, fought for the rights of workers, and were wrongfully sentenced to death.

Other pieces performed by Agata Wąsik will include: a Lemko song of war and fear of senseless death, used as a protest song at the Maidan; "Strange Fruit”, a song originally sung by Billie Holiday which became an African American anthem in the fight against racism; and “Never Let Me Go” by Florence Welsh, inspired by the tragic death of the writer Virginia Wolf.

Agata Wąsik's concert will be preceded by a performance by Wiktor Okrój. Both concerts are the result of a collaboration between the Cracow visual artist Joanna Pawlik and her outsider friends - Wiktor Okrój and Agata Wąsik. Agata Wąsik's concert will start at 7:00 PM, Wiktor Okrój's at 6:00 PM.
 

Agata Wąsik

born in 1993 in Warsaw. She has been engaged in music since she was a child. She sings, plays the guitar and the piano. She graduated from 1st level music school in classical guitar and is currently continuing her musical education at the vocal department of Józef Elsner's 2nd level State Music School in Warsaw. Her interests encompass a wide variety of music: from opera, through folk, rock, pop, gospel and symphonic metal, to sung poetry. In 2014, as part of a school concert, together with her teacher Magdalena Schabowska and accompanist Olga Ternovyh, she prepared a “Mini-recital” during which the audience could hear Agata in an opera context. In her musical journey she also came in contact with Sephardic music and became a member of Anna Jagielska-Riviero's group “Los Bilbilicos”. She studied Ukrainian philology, which is why she is interested in Ukrainian and Russian music. For the last five years she has been collaborating on theater projects with director and choreographer Rafał Urbacki. Their work could be seen in:

- “W Przechlapanem” (2012) at Instytut Teatralny im. Z. Raszewskiego in Warsaw, presented during the 32nd Warszawskie Spotkania Teatralne festival in Warsaw

- “Stypa” (2012), first performed at Teatr Ósmego Dnia in Poznań and at Instytut Teatralny im. Z. Raszewskiego in Warsaw. In November 2013 the solo "Stypa” with a guest performance by Agata Wąsik was presented as part of the 20th International Meeting of Live Arts “Crossroads” in Warsaw.

- “Niech nigdy w tym dniu słońce nie świeci” (2014) - a piece prepared at the Aleksander Fredra Theater in Gniezno, which was the round up of the “5 zmysłów. Ekspresja” project.

Agata Wąsik also eagerly takes part in other musical or artistic initiatives and workshops. One example is the “Myślę, że jesteś dziwny i bardzo cię lubię” exhibition (2015) at Małopolski Ogród Sztuki in Cracow by artist Joanna Pawlik.

Joanna Pawlik

born in 1974, lives and works in Cracow. PhD student at the Pedagogical University of Cracow's Art Department. She graduated from Cracows’ Academy of Fine Arts (she studied painting in 1994-1999, graduate project completed in professor Leszek Misiak's workshop). She is interested in painting, drawing, photography and video. Joanna Pawlik's art balances between the issues of social mechanisms of exclusion and personal spaces of feeling. In her works, including the videos “Balans” or “Schody”, she examines the boundaries of her own body, working out the notion of “social norm” and - often in an unexpected way - attacks “disability”. In recent years Joanna Pawlik has been working with amateur artists on projects such as the “Myślę, że jesteś dziwny i bardzo cię lubię” exhibition at Małopolski Ogród Sztuki in Cracow. She has had numerous individual exhibitions (including “Balans” at Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Cracow; “Ekonomia Utraty” at Galleri 69 in Oslo; “Spacer” at Galeria Czarna in Warsaw, 2009; “Bez Śladu” at Otwarta Pracownia in Cracow, 2006). Joanna Pawlik's works have also been presented as part of group exhibition - recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cracow; Fotogalerie WUK, Vienna; DOX Contemporary Art Center, Prague. She is the recipient of awards, prizes and scholarships. She was awarded at the 37th Biennial Bielska Jesień in 2005, received the grand prix at the Biennale Sztuki Młodych Rybie Oko 5 in 2008, a scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in 2013, the “Młoda Polska” Scholarship in 2010, a residence at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California in 2010. Joanna Pawlik's works are in both private and public collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cracow, the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery collection in Cracow and Piotr Bazylka's collection.

Marcin Mycka

Guitar player mainly interested in classical music, but also connected with sung poetry performers. He is a student at the Józef Elsner 2nd level music school in Warsaw. He has taken part in numerous international competitions. He is a pedagogy student.

 

See also:

Exhibition and other events connected: