The woman who thought she was a dog (vol. 2) | Sonia Rammer

The woman who thought she was a dog (vol. 2) | Sonia Rammer
Gallery Nowa Scena UAP, 28 Marcinkowskiego Ave.
Opening: 12.12.2023, 18:00
12.12.2023 – 11.01.2024

Title: Arctic Culture Lab Art Residency, Oqaatsut, Greenland, April 2022
Extracts from notes.
Oqaatsut is a small settlement nestled between Red Bay and Disco Bay. It is permanently inhabited by several hunters and their families. Twenty kilometres of Arctic wilderness separate the village from the nearest town, Ilulissat. At times weather conditions isolate Oqaatsut from the rest of the world. Until the end of April a thick blanket of snow homogenises the landscape, and the freezing temperature preserves both human and dog faeces. The bodies of the deceased rest peacefully in a small outdoor building – a charnel house – waiting for the ground to soften enough for a shovel to penetrate. The frozen bay stops the transport of any goods, leading to empty shelves in the one village store.
The Arctic polar day is approaching. The sky brightens, and the Easter moon hangs low over the surrounding hills, listening in to the whispers floating up from the wasteland below. The footpath from my living quarters to the studio gleams silver. An ice-cold wind stiffens the cheeks. Snow crunches underfoot. Just thirty meters, but covering them is a challenge. The dogs fall silent in the cold, conserving energy. They lie down, covering their muzzles with their tails. Sometimes they find cover in makeshift shelters. They rise when they see sleds approaching, which they associate with both the harness and with food. Tethered to the rocks by chains, they jump, stand on their hind legs, bark, whimper, squeal and use other expressions that I cannot recognise. Paw prints in the snow form rings that mark the extent of their freedom. Passing near the pack, I smell their shit, their sweat, their fur, possibly even their emotions.
The situation that these dogs find themselves in mirrors the complicated position of the Inuit. A people who after being subjected to a brutal colonisation are now trying to redefine their own identity.
Sonia Rammer: artist, traveler, psychologist. Professionally affiliated with M. Abakanowicz University of the Arts Poznan (Faculty of Art Education and Curatorship) where she heads the Intercultural Art Perspective Studio. Rammer has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions at various institutes across Poland.
(These include: BWA, Bielsko Biała; Wozownia, Toruń; BWA, Wrocław; Arsenal, Poznań; Art Station, Poznań; BWA, Bydgoszcz; AT, Poznań; MOS, Gorzów; BWA, Łódź; BWA, Leszno; Curators Lab, Poznań; DAP, Warsaw; and Pomeranian Dukes’ Castle, Szczecin). She has also exhibited internationally. (Locations include: Jerusalem, Israel; New York, USA; Berlin, Germany; Hofsos, Iceland; Marpha, Nepal; Brussels, Belgium). Her work is heavily influenced by intercultural experiences gained during art residencies abroad.
(For example: the Marpha Foundation, Nepal; Baer Art Centre, Iceland; and the Arctic Culture Lab, Greenland). Rammer constantly steps outside of her own comfort zone in both her personal and professional life, all the while nurturing interspecies relationships. She works in various media.
More information at: soniarammer.art
Translation: Paul Magee