Artist
Bartosh Zimniak (b. 1991) is an interdisciplinary artist, art curator and cultural animator who combines performance, installation and socially engaged activities in his work.
He graduated in philosophy and social communication from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in 2013. He obtained his master’s degree in fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, majoring in Intermedia, under the supervision of Katarzyna Krakowiak, PhD.
In 2017, he founded the art and comunnity engaded MEWKA Foundation in the seaside district of Gdańsk-Nowy Port. Together with the local community and artists, he organizes exhibitions, workshops and meetings with authors. Since 2021, he organises in MEWKA Foundation the “Port Artistic Residency” program, which has so far hosted artistic people from Polish, Ukraine and Tenerife.
He is currently a Goethe-Institute fellow in the Culture Moves Europe programme, during which he will carry out a project in the Canary Islands in cooperation with the University of La Laguna in Tenerife upcoming winter 2024/25.
The photos below offer a glimpse into Bartosh’s Zimniak visit to The Seal Sanctuary in Hel (Fokarium w Helu).
During this visit, he took teenagers from the Gdańsk Health Centre on a memorable trip, which included a cruise on a stunning 1981 boat across the Baltic Sea from Gdańsk to the small town of Hel at the end of October 2024.
There are also photos from a workshop held at Bartosh’s MEWKA Foundation in Nowy Port with the same group of teenagers. The workshop featured expert Blanka Byrwa, who specialises in sea-based biomaterials.
Blanka provided valuable insights that inspired the group to create ‘Postcards for the Baltic Sea’, with poetic messages from the group/humans to the Nature/Baltic Sea.
*Photos from the visit and workshop were captured by Rafał Mroziński. Bartosh’s portrait was taken by Piotr Kulas.
