Inside Tree (l'arbre à l’intérieur), 2020

Marcelina Amelia   Emerging artists

Mammalia: Inside Tree — printed in 2024, photographed in 2020.

“Every time, you have to start from the state in which you are… Often, in situations of discomfort, something surprising emerges; for example, if you have a cold, let your mucus flow."

— Maria and Jan Peszek, Nak*rwiam Zen

The title of the project is a play on words and associations that I myself created around the term “papalia," popularized by Ryszard Zawadowski, president of the association “Memory of John Paul II," to designate the memories, trinkets, and commemorative objects related to “the unforgettable Father of the Nation," whose value increased after his canonization.

This title also refers to the current political context in Poland, particularly under the PiS party (Law and Justice), closely linked to the Catholic Church, which has participated in debates and policies concerning the control of women's bodies. It highlights the blatant absence of the voice and the capacity for action of women in this context.

Furthermore, in English, “mammal" means “mammal," and all mammals produce and release milk through their mammary glands to feed their young.

“My Mamalia" is a project that constitutes a chronicle of the beginnings of my motherhood, which coincided with a particularly turbulent period, marked by the isolation related to the pandemic and the National Women's Strike in Poland, in reaction to a controversial decision by the Constitutional Tribunal.

Mamalia gathers texts dedicated to motherhood, its creations, its inspirations, and its frustrations.

The idea for this project was particularly born from my obsessive and innate need to archive myself, a practice I have actively maintained since 1989. This need can also stem from a collective knowledge of the systemic erasure of women, the culture of violence, and medical misogyny.

There is a deep need to express oneself, to give a voice, to address subjects usually “kept under the rug" or reduced to silence—a story that no one wanted to hear and which I feel is not only mine, but also that of many other women.

My experience of a traumatic childbirth as well as a long solitary stay in the obstetrics department in Krakow has shown me how true the expression “women suffer in silence" is.