I ask "What are the limits of human adaptation?" and deep-dive into different aspects of it: relationships, singlehood, loss,rapid urban shift or imbalance between civilization and nature.
Magdalena Gacek is a Visual Artist currently based in Singapore. Born in Poland to architect parents, she resided in Warsaw, Porto, Zurich, Paris, Milan and Lausanne before moving to Asia in 2015. She holds an M.A. in Design from the Creative Academy in Milan and a B.A. in Design and Visual Communications from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
“ADAPT OR PERISH, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.” The quote from H.G.Wells captures the overarching inspiration of her artistic proceedings.
Her work is an exploration into ADAPTATION struggles and triumphs that come in the face of uncontrollable CHANGE. Especially that from a hyper-civilization – overpopulated, overdeveloped, and tech-aggressive.
Growing up in communist Poland, and living through a political shift that effectively limited her from pursuing her plans to grow or travelling freely, she needed to adapt early on. When Poland joined the EU in 2004, she jumped at the opportunity to study abroad, and have never looked back. After residing in several Western European countries, she followed a lifelong dream of living in Asia and moved to Singapore in 2015.
Every project is a deep-dive into different aspects of ADAPTATION: relationships, singlehood, loss, rapid urban shift, an imbalance between civilization and nature, to mention a few.
She predominantly uses the slow medium of film photography to dissect tension between the desire for change and the fear of it. When in everyday life we’re forced to rapidly adjust under the threat of lagging behind, she finds solace and comfort in having full control over her images. The process is enriched by archival negatives, prints and objects, as well as darkroom techniques.