Karolina Michalik
perpendicular parallels
Perpendicular Parallels raises questions about labour migration within the agricultural sector and the connections that arise between different places as a result. Karolina Michalik takes the mushroom farms in Flanders as her starting point. Like many companies in the agricultural sector, these farms rely on seasonal workers, often recruited in Eastern European countries such as Poland, Karolina's country of birth. In Poland, picking wild mushrooms is also an important rural tradition.
There is an interesting tension between this large-scale economy and the rural tradition. In one country, it is a national hobby that celebrates an idealised rural image, while in the other, it is a business transaction between employer and (temporary) employee. Yet both are linked by the cultural background of the workers and by the actions and movements associated with picking. In this research into two connected places, Karolina is guided by questions about individual and collective (embodied) knowledge, hobbies, myths, and our complex relationship with the landscape.
BIO
Karolina Michalik (born 1991, Poland/US) graduated in 2018 from the Master's programme in Social Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven with a background in architecture. She is interested in undermining the unwritten rules, codes and hierarchies of modern society by exposing and dismantling their visual and spatial embodiments. In the autumn of 2019, she participated in the NeverNever school and the resulting publication with Spolka collective in Kosice, Slovakia, where she continued her focus and field research on informal building practices and their disruptive potential. She is also part of the Seasonal Neighbours collective, where she is setting up a project on modern Polish rural identity. She currently lives in Brussels, where she reconstructs second-hand greenhouses for use by local agricultural organisations.
