She studied art history at Jagiellonian University in Kraków and at Painting Department of Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in studio of professor Jerzy Nowosielski. She took Studio Semester Program at State University of New York. Rajkowska is the author of famous “Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue” at de Gaulle Place in Warsaw. She participated in the Berlin Biennale and Busan Biennale in Korea. She was granted Paszporty “Polityki” award and Great Award of the Polish Culture Foundation for lifetime achievement. Her works can be found in collections of Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, and MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków.
“The Light of the Lodge”, 2012
video, 04’12’’
Joanna Rajkowska deals with sculpture, photography, object, and video. A major part of her work are projects in public space. Her projects often evoke strong emotions and reactions from the viewers. An important element of Rajkowska’s work is interaction and game understood as a relationship, interaction of various elements. It can be a symbiosis with a place, an indication of human relations with space, nature, matter or a reference to relationships between people themselves or organisms more generally. In “The Light of the Lodge” the artist refers to the Masonic lodges, extremely popular in the era of enlightenment in Europe as organisations that were specific and diagnostic basically for their time. The title of the work is a word game, which contains a reference to reason and rationality. On the other hand, it brings to mind rituality, hierarchy and is characterised by the unique and unusual nature of the Masonic lodge. In the video, there is a women’s night march on the streets of Copenhagen. Women manifest their presence in the city dressed in black coats, characteristic pointed hats, carrying burning torches and rattles in their hands. Masonic lodges with strictly abided hierarchy, organisation, ideas of self-improvement, uniqueness, and missionary approach to reality constitute an interesting reference point for reflection on the principles and reasons associating people in various places and historical moments.
