Black Strike, 2020

Marcelina Amelia   Emerging artists

Mamalia series : Black Strike printed 2024. photographed in 2020

“Each time to take from the state in which one finds oneself... often, in situations of discomfort, something surprising emerges; for example, if you have a cold, let the snot drop."
-Maria and Jan Peszek, “Nak*rwiam Zen"
The title of the project is my own creation of wordplay and associations with the term “papalia," popularized by Ryszard Zawadowski, the president of the “Memory of John Paul II" Association, referring to souvenirs, gadgets, and memories of the “Unforgettable Father of the Nation" that gained additional value after canonisation. (This title serves as a nod to the current political climate in Poland, particularly under the rule of the PiS (Law and Justice) party, closely aligned with the Catholic Church, which has been involved in censoring and policing women's bodies. It reflects the glaring absence of women's voices and agency in this context.)
Additionally, in English, “Mammal" refers to a mammal, and all mammals produce and release milk from mammary glands to feed their offspring.
“My Mamalia" is a project, a chronicle of the beginnings of my motherhood that coincided with an exceptionally turbulent time of pandemic isolation and the All-Poland Women's Strike, a reaction to the controversial ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal.
“Mamalia" includes essays about motherhood, its creations, inspirations, and frustrations.
The idea for the project arose, among other things, from my innate obsessive need for self-archiving, which I have been actively engaged in since 1989. This need may also stem from collective knowledge about the systemic erasure of women, the culture of violence, and medical misogyny.
A strong need for expression, giving a voice, addressing topics that are usually “swept under the rug" or silenced—a history that no one wanted to hear, and I feel that this history is not only mine but that of many others.
My experience of traumatic childbirth and a long, solitary stay in the pregnancy pathology ward in Krakow showed me how true the statement “women suffer in silence" is.