[Soft Spot]
Michalina Kacperak grew up with her sisters in a home marked by alcoholism and absence, “a constant battle against loneliness and lack of affection” in which, in her own words, adults behaved childishly and the girls had to act like adults ahead of their time. Soft Spot started as a photo documentation project of her little sister Zosia’s room, and became an emotional healing process for the whole family.
Childhood memories, shared experiences or questions that are difficult to answer are shown metaphorically in installations of dolls, balloon walls, drawings on the wall or dressing-up games in which, sometimes, the parents also participate. The series, made entirely in Zosia’s room over three years, is a visual chronicle of healing through play because, as the artist states, “there are times when fantasy is the only form of resistance”. And yet it is also a reflection on the situation of girls and boys in a society that overwhelms them with toys but does not always meet their emotional needs.
***
Michalina was born in 1993 in Poland. She holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy and is currently studying Photography at the National Film School in Łódź, Poland. She took part in the Canon Student Development Programme of Visa pour l’Image in 2019 and 2020 and in 2022 she won the 12th edition of the Circulation(s) festival in Paris. Her work has been exhibited at the Interphoto Festival in Bialystok (2021), Photomonth in Krakow (2022), Frames of Sopot Festival (2022) or Titanikas Exhibition Halls in Vilnius (2022). Her project Soft Spot has been exhibited at the NEXT Photography Biennial in Riga (2023) and has been published in the OVER Journal Magazine (2022). Her artistic practice focuses on complex personal storytelling that raises issues of childhood, memory, social exclusion and identity in a broad sense.
