We are accustomed to the belief that a portrait is something that depicts our face, faithfully reproducing its likeness. I asked the participants of the "ONNA speaks" project, from Poland and Japan, to prepare some artifacts related to the experience of their everyday life. I wanted them to be objects accompanying their life routine, including favorites, especially beloved ones, which were associated with some particularly significant emotional experience and evoked it whenever one was in close proximity to them. A very important element of the project that built the later portrait was the stories we shared with each other about this objects. We met virtually and talked about pots, knives, embroideries, rice-eating sticks and teh other. The method I adopted was to draw on objects provided to me.
Since we live in different countries and cities, the objects and stories began to wander. In dialogue with the stories and objects of the Polish participants, the Ajnu women prepared their artifacts, which they sent from Japan to Poland. Having the objects of the Polish and Japanese participants in the project, I began the process of portraying their owners based on the stories I heard.
The project showed how what is everyday, on a micro scale in relation to the world, represents a vastness of experiences and emotions of the praticipants.
Beata Sosnowska
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