Backwaters, beds

How to find solace and recover in nature? Instead of clenching our teeth and fists, can we try to understand our condition and needs? Are there alternative ways to communicate our thoughts and feelings?

We will look for answers to these questions through works of art. The title of the exhibition “Rozlewiska, lagowiska” refers to the name of the city of Legnica. It most likely originates from the humid meadows surrounding Legnica, wetlands, tributaries of rivers. It is also possible that the “leg-” itself refers to places to lie down, beds precisely. These two themes inspire us to create in the Art Gallery in Legnica a place for rest, regeneration and experience — for children, young people and their loved ones.

The gallery will create an interactive space inspired by elements of nature inviting you to “spill out”, gentleness, care. The works of Gosi Kępa, Patrycja Mastej and Kamila Wolszczak will create a landscape for immersion and experience in different ways — touching, lying down, listening, hugging, but also entering into relationships with others, peers or adults.

We want the exhibition to become a safe, soothing place, forming the habit of taking care of ourselves. We will show how valuable it is to spend free time in contact with nature and culture, moving away from screens and the stimulation they bring. We believe that looking at nature can serve to focus attention on ourselves — how we feel in our head, heart, and whole body. We want to consciously ask questions about our emotional and physical state, and then — look for sources of power that are good for us.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a free publication — a workbook, tips, inspirations, which will allow to continue the themes and practices proposed in the exhibition also outside the gallery.

Magdalena Kreis — curator, educator, cultural animator. For more than 15 years he has been creating his own activities in the field of contemporary art — exhibitions, workshops, programs and educational publications aimed at engaging audiences of all ages. The starting point for her practice is always the context. She also looks for ways to tell about art in a way that brings it closer to everyday experiences. She has realized a number of projects created with children and their loved ones in mind. Among them are, among others, the exhibition “Checkered” at the Central Textile Museum in Łódź and “Šerosvit” in the Lapidarium gallery in Broumov, the family space “Primo!” at the Krupa Art Foundation or educational and animation solutions at the permanent exhibition “Palace full of fairy tales” at the Museum of Cinematography in Łódź. In addition, she recently curated the exhibition “View from above” at BWA Olsztyn, she is also working on the autumn edition of Żyjna BWA Wrocław. It operates independently, locally and globally. He cooperates with cultural institutions and non-governmental organizations in Poland and abroad. Since 2019, he has been co-creating the independent exhibition initiative NOWY ZŁOTY, located in a kiosk in Wrocław's Ołbin. In the project “Rozlewiska, lagowiska” she plays the role of curator. She collaborated with the Art Gallery in Legnica, among others in 2021 on the exhibition “Przygodolub”, created with the youngest audience in mind.

Kamila Wolszczak — visual artist working with clay and walking practices. It combines somatic sensitivity with participatory activities, creating spaces of encounter and regeneration. For several years he has been implementing sensory and non-verbal projects with children up to 6 years old, treating them as co-creators and full participants of artistic activities. Her works, performances, installations and sensory structures made of clay and field materials such as earth, dust, shells — reinforce the sense of agency, mindfulness and contact with the environment.

She studied painting at UMCS Lublin, Art Education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and at Performing Public Space at Fontys Academy in Tilburg. Wolszczak's works have been presented, among others, in Poland, the Netherlands, USA, Germany. She recently created an installation, audio guide and participatory walk “Wandering Fingers” as part of the 25th Biennale of Art for Children in Poznań.

Patrycja Mastej — artist, painter and designer and assistant professor at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. He is active in the field of contemporary art and design.

She regularly carries out solo exhibitions, creates plush objects, paintings, drawings and installations, in which she studies the processes related to body awareness, using the creative method of Butoh dancers. In painting, opening up to the state of flow, he visualizes the experience of meditation in motion. It follows the sensations of the physical and emotional body, allowing itself gestures that are not subject to evaluation. He has many exhibitions to his credit, including the retrospective exhibition “Submission of Coal/La souplesse du charbon”, Sète (France). At the same time, he is engaged in the design of interactive spaces, graphics and illustrations. She is a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. In 2025, she was awarded the Marshal of Lower Silesian Voivodeship Award for outstanding achievements in culture and co-winner of the WaRT 2009 Cultural Award for the travelling project “Interactive Playground”, produced by WRO Art Center in 2012. In cooperation with Magdalena Skowrońska — she creates a series of interactive exhibitions entitled Exposition at the Wrocław Contemporary Museum color, allowing all the senses to experience the properties of colors (latest edition: “Indigo”, 2026)

Gosia Kępa — photographer, visual artist, graduate of Social Psychology at the SWPS University in Warsaw, as well as Photography at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Art in Poznań. She also studied at the University of Rijeka and the University of Lisbon.

In his work, he uses various media — photography, objects, drawing or performance. He is interested in broadly understood relativism, he deals with issues related to identity and coexistence. She is moved by nature, which is her greatest source of inspiration, besides she has a weakness for seeking delights in organic forms. In his works, he often returns to the subject of land and soil. Since 2022, he has been exploring aquatic themes with passion. As part of the Tell Me a River project (since 2023), she cooperates with rivers and conducts conversations with them. The project creates in the spirit of river democracy, giving voice to smaller streams.

Kamila Wolszczak — co-financing a trip to the exhibition in Legnica.

Co-financed from the funds of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for the Promotion of Culture — a state special purpose fund.