Prototypes 03: Carolina Caycedo & Zofia Rydet. Care Report

Care Report celebrated women’s engagement in various spheres of life, but above all, in defending the natural environment. At stake in this battle are the global commons: water, air, land. The call to action is motivated, however, by specific problems which local communities face in relation to health and security. For it is women, as with other vulnerable social groups (such as migrants, refugees, children, people with disabilities and elders), who are affected most by environmental degradation. At the same time, it is often women who are organising themselves and protesting against the exploitation of people and the world around them. In many situations, women activists are not victims, but instead positive and resourceful organisers.

This exhibition was prepared by Aleksandra Jach (Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź) and Carolina Caycedo. Caycedo has for many years investigated environmental issues, as well as women’s roles in the organisation of social life, in her creative practices. One of her best-known artistic projects is Be Dammed (a play on words: dam and to be damned). Here, the Colombian artist created objects, films, drawings, books and performances that probed the effect of dam and river regulation on local communities. It is her interest in rivers that has brought Caycedo into contact with women activists who are fighting for social justice in diverse parts of the world. In searching for her own "feminine lineage", Caycedo began to draw individual and group portraits of women environmental activists.

The exhibition Carolina Caycedo & Zofia Rydet. Care Report was the third component of a larger series within the Prototypes project, through which different artists had been working with the collection of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. Carolina Caycedo presented her work in context with that of the Polish photographer Zofia Rydet. Caycedo was particularly inspired by the series Sociological Record (1978-1990), in which Rydet documented traditional ways of life that were disappearing as Poland underwent modernisation. In Rydet's images, Carolina found resemblances to Colombia and its own places given over in the name of development. We know little about Rydet’s protagonists. We see them in the intimate spaces of kitchens or bedrooms, busy with their household chores or occupational duties. These private worlds, however, are politically charged. Zofia Rydet’s photos has revealed the foundations of civic engagement, which is caring for one’s immediate surroundings.

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