Ana Rewakowicz
Artist, researcher (PL/CA)
A modern-day nomad who moves as she pleases
Keywords: inflatables, mobility, nomadism, home and comfort
A vision of stability and permanence is what created the greatness of all ancient civilizations we admire. It is the remains of their buildings and monuments we study and not the cultures of nomadic tribes we call 'barbarians'. We research how to build flexible yet durable buildings that will withstand earthquakes, storms and have all the technologically advanced light and sound features, but we do not analyze our cultural attitudes toward living. This paper through some artistic and historical examples addresses the question of mobility in modern-day culture and society and analyzes our understanding of a mobile lifestyle as well as technology and its role in future developments. How much comfort would we be willing to give up for the sake of mobility? Perhaps if it wouldn't be so comfortable or easy we wouldn't be so interested in mobility today? Perhaps before we start producing more technologically advanced and pleasing gadgets that we have to figure out then what to do and how to trash them, we should pause and think about our own attitudes towards the costs of a mobile lifestyle?
Ana Rewakowicz is a Polish-born, Ukrainian artist and researcher living in Montréal, Canada. She received her BFA from Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto and MFA from Concordia University, Montréal in 2001. She works with inflatables and explores relations between temporal, portable architecture, the body and the environment. Her inflatable clothes, site-specific installations and public interventions have been exhibited and experienced in Canada and abroad in Mexico, France, Belgium, Estonia, Scotland, Bulgaria, Germany, Netherlands and Finland. Recent solo exhibitions include Dressware and other inflatables at the Foreman Art Gallery at Bishop's University, Canada (2006), A modern-day nomad who moves as she pleases at Plein Sud, Canada (2005) and Ice Dome Project on the Lachine Canal in Montréal (2005). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, ISEA 2004 (Tallinn, Estonia), ALaPlage (Toulouse, France) and the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts (Montréal). Presently she is doing a residency at the Tapiola Guest Studio in Espoo (Finland) as part of the Conseil des art et des letters de Quebec (Canada) exchange program.