Kasia Kesicka

Kasia Kesicka’s project 238x504 / Po Horyzont is a battle against the domination of advertisements.  Having installed her work in cities throughout Poland, Kasia effectively eliminated billboards by working within the system of outdoor advertising.


Chief Magazine: You're from Poland?

Kasia Kesicka: That's right. But, I'm not from Warsaw or Cracow as everybody guesses all the time, not knowing names of other polish cities, I suppose. I grew up in the small post "sovkhoz-like" village in the middle of so-called “Recovered Lands.” Unusual place! Due to enforced repatriation Poles from other parts of Poland as well as from polish Parts of other countries in Eastern Bloc old village habitants still speaking with funny accents while younger generations speak the clearest Polish you can imagine. And, old boys still can't really get along with each other as they didn't while under supervision of… God knows how to translate that—national collective farm organization (PGR). Since, like in most villages created to support these farms, PGR was the only employer, and you can guess what happened when it went bankrupt. Although for my parents times were tough, I had purely idyllic childhood there.

And you're living in Ireland now?

Yes, I am. Temporary. Since my US holidays I always liked Irish and thought rather warm of the green island, I've never planned to move over here.  I came to meet up with my Boston friends, who grew up in this area and I ended up staying slightly longer than the planned two weeks. I live in the country and work somewhere between sheep and cow pastures and have the pleasure of enjoying that smell almost every morning. I'm not planning to stay much longer. Don't get me wrong, I like some things about Ireland, it's just time to move on. I've no foggiest idea what and where next. I'll see which direction the wind blows...

How did the idea for the billboards first come to you?

Honestly, I don’t remember... Was it while studying in Pennsylvania? In most of my projects from that time you probably could see the shadow of this idea: my relationship with advertising, the way I treated space, cityscape and imagery in general were in fact the same. But no, I don't think it was then… Maybe the very first time I thought of doing it was while in a cramped tram in Poznan, when I noticed that all I could see outside were billboards.  I've been always paying a lot of attention to the public visual zone and while in the States I used to think of Poland as place free of aggressive advertisements, irrationally idealizing it. Discovering otherwise was pretty shocking, no wonder it triggered a quick response in the form of my clear billboards.

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What was the process from idea to actually putting up the billboards?

Process? Almost half a year of hard work! From finding out how legally bring my subversive project to the street to long days of nonstop Photoshoping. Since I used this project as my master thesis I had to make sure it would all be out there on the day of my graduation and instead of hijacking the billboards I rented them, lying about why, to outdoor advertising companies. The toughest thing was finding the right locations, which would be available at this particular time. And that was close to impossible, as the presidential election was just about to happen most of billboards were taken by images of candidates. After having all the locations confirmed and booked—what took me 3 months—I was just shooting and putting things together. To make sure everything was 100% correct I was coming back to the same place to re-photograph the scene several times... It was fun, I was constantly on the road between Koszalin, Warsaw, and Poznan, and I loved that. It was like waking up in the North, going to Poznan to photograph the Solna Street billboard again, right next door to my school—therefore the most important one regarding my masters—and few hours later driving to Warsaw to process slides, scan it all and go to the movies.

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You work in photography, graphics, and video... what is your main passion?

A while ago I would probably say photography but it's not true now. I don't want to be tied to a particular medium. I don't think that what am I using to say things is important, unless the work is about the media or exploration of it. Drawing has the same importance to me as my interactive sound installations, though I don't draw much these days... At the moment I'm focused rather on activities transgressing gallery space than "framed art" but you never know, those things change with me.  I can see two different streams of ideas and it's really funny that they coexistent in one mind. On one side are my “hi-tech projects,” on the other… those projects running away from technology.

Sometimes I “photograph” only with use of computer, other times using light sensitive photo materials but without a camera or darkroom use. It's probably because even though I grew up very close to nature I’ve always had tons of cables and electronics around me.

And graphics? This is quite different story. Besides a huge passion for posters, graphic agitation, etc… something has to pay the bills...  Graphic design does it well and without costing me too much pain.

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What are you working on these days?

A question I didn't want to hear!  I don't like to admit it, but I'm not working on too many things at the moment. Well, not really... I do plenty of volunteer, meaningless design. Art wise, I plan a lot, I sketch the ideas and… I bring them nowhere. If that counts.  I’m working on 234 x 504 / Po Horyzont edition II in my hometown in Poland, which is started but not executed. I’m working as well on Swan Eaters series, in progress. And a good few other things which more likely will never leave my sketchbook.

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Trust me, I'm really not happy with that and I believe that this ineffectiveness is related to the place I happen to be at now. The fact of having a steady 9-6 job doesn't help either, especially because working hours are stretching dangerously into the night. Yes, I'm pretty burnt out. Time to move on!

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