Mattering

Artist: Tomasz Madajczak

Medium: Video

‘Mattering’ is an art film based on an installation which was forming in Uillinn West Cork Art Centre and simultaneously in Australia. The film combines the experiences of Pattie Beerens from Australia and Tomasz Madajczak based in Ireland. ‘Mattering’ is a way of involving clay in a diverse process of creating new, environmentally friendly, specious artwork. The film is a record of an art dialogue and two different art practices happening approximately at the same time in two different places around the world.

Biography

Tomasz Madajczak was born in 1979 in Gorzów Wielkopolski in Poland, studied Photography at the Fine Arts Academy in Poznań 1998-2003 completing an MAFA in the Intermedia Department. Tomasz emigrated to Ireland in 2003. He has exhibited in Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Pakistan, France and Ireland. His approach is often collaborative. His works are often site specific, involving multiple art media (photography, video, sound) the space, light, found objects and encountered situations. His art journey began through interactions with the vibrant art community in Gorzów. In 1999 Tomasz created the “Thought Space”, a room filled with his thoughts written continuously throughout the space for a duration of seven days. Photography stayed very present in Madajczak’s realizations, either as documentation (which further was incorporated into an art work, as a reinstalled element), or as a way of involving a recollection, an ephemeral projected image. After moving to Ireland, his art was strongly influenced by the introduction to Irish culture, new landscapes and ways of the people inhabiting them.

From 2005-2010 in Donegal, Madajczak was dedicated to refocusing and re-developing new ways of working with photography, video and community in rural settings. When Madajczak moved to West Cork in 2010, his practice focused strongly on installation and embodied interpretation of live choreography. The connection with the Uillinn West Cork Art Centre supported and strengthened his practice from 2012-2021. The Summer School organized by Create in 2018 has introduced Tomasz to new ways of thinking and approaching socially engaged practice and cultural diversity. His recent projects include NoSpace, Thought Space, The Dimension of Text, Beyond Sound Communication, Hybrid Identity and Areas of Presence.

Tomasz has worked with art and education for about 15 years. Practical use of film and filmmaking, photography, assemblage, drawing, painting, graffiti, have served as methodologies introduced by Tomasz’s workshops and art works for young audiences. The combination of art and education plays a crucial role in the development of deep interest. He creates education workshops which engage participants.