We would like to warmly invite you to the third instalment of the Happy Family educational and research project initiated in 2020 by Karolina Balcer. 

Happy Family is a family project, and the impulse for its creation was the situation in which the artist’s older brother Filip repeatedly found himself. Although nothing was lacking in the family home, he periodically experienced homelessness. The problem of homelessness is so complex that it is often difficult to unequivocally identify its causes. Among the most common are social exclusion caused by illnesses or mental disorders, including addictions or long-term incarceration, misdiagnosis or lack of diagnosis, stigmatisation of the mentally ill, lack of access to help or the inability to use it by the sick and their relatives. Through personal experience, the artist is able to tell a true story and perhaps break the taboo surrounding the subject of mental health. In this story, her brother is no longer just a family member – he becomes a representative of society.

So far, the exhibitions has been held at the Zachęta Project Place and at the Arsenal City Gallery

The third instalment has been expanded to include further issues accompanying Karolina. This time it will be the situation of trying to have a baby through IVF and the states that go with it. The whole process is physically, mentally and economically draining. It also shows the inadequate care and support provided by the state in this area. 

The featured works indirectly refer to issues connected with the area of mental health. The starting point was “sweeping problems under the carpet” – a harmful process that only compounds problems. To create the works, the artist used tufting and other textile techniques. The exhibition consists of paintings and objects with textual elements that refer to everyday items associated with domestic space, such as carpets, doormats, a lamp, towels, a curtain or a TV cabinet. The artist wanted to create a friendly space, conducive to discussions on difficult topics. 

The designed spaces are intended to create a friendly atmosphere, conducive to discussing difficult topics. The exhibitions are accompanied by the book Happy Family – poradnik zdrowia psychicznego [Happy Family – a guide to mental health], co-created by people invited by Karolina to answer some of the questions preoccupying her. They include streetworker Wojtek Skibicki, Marta Ciułkowicz – a doctor specialising in psychiatry, psychotherapist Magdalena Peron-Szott and Maria Maćkowiak, a graduate in psychology and Polish philology. Together, they aim to raise awareness of mental health and, hopefully, to demystify some of the problems so that substantive discussion becomes less embarrassing. 

During the third edition, we are inviting Institutions / Foundations / Organisations dealing with any of the subjects raised in the Happy Family project to use the exhibition space to organise meetings that normally take place at their premises. 

Please direct all enquiries, including the possibility to book a date, to natalia.barczynska@krupaartfoundation.pl.

More information about the schedule will be provided soon.