Zakole group joined the reparative explorations that are taking place through Testing Ground project, contributing with their interdisciplinary remedial strategies against the advancing climate disaster presented through the case of wetland Zakole Wawerskie (Wawer Bend).

Artist and researcher Olga Roszkowska, visual artist and biologist Krystyna Jędrzejewska-Szmek, artist, curator and climate activist Zuzia Derlacz and a designer Pola Salicka are joined by artist and poet Maja Demska, curator and researcher Aleksandra Knychalska and researcher and cultural policies advisor Igor Stokfiszewski.

During the Repair Shack Zakole in Warsaw Krystyna, Olga and Maja shared some thoughts and feelings about Zakole and the impact it has on them.

What significance does Zakole hold for you?

Krystyna: We were talking about how it gives us a feeling of being high and approaching something being weird and touches some kind of emotional part of being and that it helps to feel / odčuvanje / sensing the complexity and entanglement of the world and Zuzia also said that it the sense … Olga: the meaning of life… Krystyna: yes, working and being here.  

Olga: At equal parts it brings calm and chaos. It brings those qualities together. And we can find both – every visit here is bringing relaxation but at the same time so much stimuli and chaotic way of operating and noticing things is also extremely chaotic. So we are relaxed and drained all at the same time.

Maja: …and also abundance – it’s very abundant place. All the plants although they are familiar they seem bigger or denser.

or greener here.

 Probably because of all the water. 

What brings you fear and what brings you hope in relation to Zakole?

Maja: When I first came here I had a fear of the mud and the bog and thanks to Olga I was able to overcome this fear because I found out that water in the puddles is not mud that is gonna swallow me whole but it’s actually very clean water and it’s nothing to be afraid – there are no snakes, monsters … K: or lions… M: or lions. This water looks dangerous and you try to avoid it but if you decide just to go into it very slowly so you can see how deep it is – it was actually very liberating. I think I’m no longer afraid of the bodies of water where I can’t see the bottom, thanks to this experience. But it was very hard and it took me two hours until I decided to take off  my shoes and relax. I thought it was something super disgusting, slimy and ugly at the bottom but it’s a nice spongy feeling. 

Krystyna: I think relationships give me hope – relationships with this place and observing how it changes and being a part of it at least for some period of time, hopefully for as long as possible. Yesterday we were talking with Igor that in a way even if we don’t manage to do anything this place has been existing before us and somehow it will exist after us. We can just see ourselves as small particles that try to influence the situation but it’s not that we have to put so much pressure on ourselves to save the world. So I guess that’s something that gives hope. And fear… O: I think it is also relationships – inability to communicate different groups that are influencing this site. We saw that just a couple of days ago how difficult it is to communicate, empathise and understand different interests. All can be managed but communication is so difficult in it. Those interests that are being somehow prioritized and than put against each other, are bringing me fear. Inability to communicate beyond those initial interests. 

What are your favourite sounds here?

Olga: Any sound of water. It’s not often that we can hear it – there is a little spring. Most of the sounds are very dry – twigs being broken when I walk, the wind or the city, all have sharpness, so any watery sounds are really satisfying and calming. Any sort of visible and hearable water brings a lot of joy and hope. Also, whenever we can hear an animal, a beaver. We don’t really see them – we saw a beaver maybe once because they hide from us. But we can hear them every now and then and that is very satisfying. 

Or if you are in tune with a little bug and if you can hear it when it’s silent enough around. 

Krystyna: I really like the poplar leaves how they hit one another and how it makes you cut off the other sounds when the wind is stronger – very organic but also a white noise at the same time.

Even the small sounds can become strong here. I become used to the fact that you hear the city so strongly here, and from inside the city you don’t hear it that much. In a way it is nice because you are more aware of sound pollution your body feels but you aren’t really consciously aware of it at the same time. So, here you are most of the time aware of the noise that we live in. 

Experimetal film Of Water conveys the subtle and organic connection this group formed with this wetlands.