{"id":590287,"date":"2026-04-07T01:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T01:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590287\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T01:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T01:40:19","slug":"karolina-wiktor-traces-post-stroke-motherhood-in-warsaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590287\/","title":{"rendered":"karolina wiktor traces post-stroke motherhood in warsaw"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karolina Wiktor creates a new language born from absence<\/p>\n

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Karolina Wiktor\u2019s Cartography of Motherhood at the Zach\u0119ta \u2013 National Gallery of Art in Warsaw brings together drawing, gesture, and sound to trace the artist\u2019s experience of post-stroke aphasia through the lens of motherhood. Following a ruptured aneurysm and strokes in 2009, Wiktor rebuilt her practice around visual and concrete poetry, developing the Czcionka Braku (Font of Absence), a typographic system<\/a> born of incomplete, illegible letters recorded during acute aphasia.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Stroke and aphasia are highly complex conditions, and aphasia is among the most challenging disabilities overall. Rehabilitation must be holistic,\u2019 the artist tells designboom<\/a>, affecting not only speech but also writing, reading, counting, concentration, attention, and spatial understanding. At the heart of the exhibition <\/a>lies the intimate bond between Wiktor and her daughter Iga: domestic rituals, gestures, drawings, and rhythms that became, at once, acts of communication and of rehabilitation. The show marks the first time in Wiktor\u2019s practice that motherhood is addressed as a direct subject and as a survival method<\/a>. The central argument of the exhibition is that agency, authorship, and voice are not lost with language but transformed.<\/p>\n

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Exhibition Karolina Wiktor. Cartography of Motherhood, Zach\u0119ta \u2013 National Gallery of Art, 20.02-03.05.2026 | all images by Daniel Rumiancew \/ Zach\u0119ta archive, CC BY-SA<\/p>\n

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the body as territory at Zach\u0119ta National Gallery of Art<\/p>\n

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Curated by Katarzyna Ko\u0142odziej-Podsiad\u0142o with exhibition architecture by Maciej Sierpie\u0144 of Kibera Studio, the spatial design gives form to the central metaphor of the exhibition. The body is presented as territory to be navigated after a neurological crisis.\u2018The hands are one of the key areas, as they are directly connected to the brain and cognitive functions. Post-stroke aphasia is not only the inability to speak, but also difficulties with writing, reading, counting, as well as problems with concentration, attention, and spatial understanding,\u2019 the Polish artist<\/a> shares with us. \u2018Drawing and writing are among the methods used in neurological speech therapy,\u2019 This is how her book, Wo\u0142g\u0105 przez Afazj\u0119 (Volga Through Aphasia) came into being. Wiktor recorded herself reading it aloud, since reading to her daughter was itself a form of therapy.<\/p>\n

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The exhibition also includes two games that support recovery beyond speech, addressing the broader range of post-stroke impairments. Sound appears in the film, where the artist walks through Warsaw and, as she puts it, \u2018explains how we can support ourselves,\u2019 noting that \u2018the best and most proven form of rehabilitation is simply walking.\u2019<\/p>\n

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in the middle: Karolina Wiktor: Table with Font of Abscence<\/p>\n

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a map no single person can complete alone<\/p>\n

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Cartography of Motherhood extends beyond the gallery through the NeuroU\u017cyteczna (NeuroUseful) project, a platform Wiktor has developed over fifteen years to support social participation among people with diverse neurological abilities. Workshops, actions, and meetings are an integral part of Cartography of Motherhood, and Wiktor is clear about what makes this collective format matter. \u2018The first and perhaps most important aspect is social rehabilitation,\u2019 which she describes as social design. In practice, this means that someone further along in recovery works alongside someone only months post-stroke. \u2018In this way, we help each other, because I know how closeness, emotions, and the possibility of participation are invaluable \u2014 for everyone: healthy or ill, artist or audience,\u2019 she explains. Children\u2019s drawings function as directions on a map that no single person can complete alone. Developed in partnership with the Center of Inclusive Art \/ Theater 21, Cartography of Motherhood runs at Zach\u0119ta through May 3rd, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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in the middle: Karolina Wiktor: Table with Font of Abscence<\/p>\n

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at the heart of the exhibition lies the intimate bond between Wiktor and her daughter Iga | image \u00a9 designboom<\/p>\n

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a typographic system born of incomplete letters recorded during acute aphasia<\/p>\n

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agency, authorship, and voice are not lost with language but transformed<\/p>\n

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following a ruptured aneurysm and strokes in 2009, Wiktor rebuilt her practice<\/p>\n

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motherhood is addressed as a direct subject and as a survival method<\/p>\n