In Roses We Trust 

For performance artist, researcher, choreographer, political activist and queer witch Vala Foltyn art and life are one inseparable process. As a contemporary witch, she works in magic, poetry and choreography – which she calls strategies of subtle resistance.

In 2016, she founded a Lamella – The House of Queer Arts that curated queer and feminist art in Kraków. Lamella was located in Kraków Art House – a 110 year old villa, art venue and living space. The venue was closed down due to the gentrification process and Vala was evicted and she to Copenhagen due to rising violence against LGTBQ+. 

Vala makes a reference to her political, artistic and activist experiences in the multimedia installation presented in the form of an altar that engages with notions of witchcraft, queer elegy and loss on the one hand, and strategies of resistance and empowerment on the other. As the artist herself explained: “My research aims to enhance the queer voice of resistance and sabotage the narratives of national histories. The continuous work on the archive includes the reminiscences of the house and its tenants, friends and family members, as well as ghosts, spirits, dreams, hallucinations and also non-human beings and creatures.”