KASIA OLEŚKIEWICZ

visual artist & researcher

The project Manifestos for Regaining Space explores the topics of violence and unsafety in shared spaces through the lens of intersectional critical animal studies. In particular, I have looked into the parallels between feminism and nonhuman rights. In my work, I reflect on the fear of violence and the power dynamics that shape our encounters, while also expressing the dream of feeling at home anywhere we go. I extend these concerns to all sentient bodies—human and nonhuman alike—through my antispeciesist perspective on the world.This series includes visual artworks, objects combining sculpture and painting, an artist’s zine, and a catalogue with writings.

• Read about the project - my interwiew for Tique

Manifestos for Regaining Space - exhibition view, St Margaret’s House, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2025

Exhibition text by the artist
The exhibition “Manifestos for Regaining Space” presents works I created during an artist residency organised by the Hugo Burge Foundation and Summerhall in the summer of 2024 under the theme “Art as Activism”.
During this time, I delved into my passion for intersectional critical animal studies – a theoretical discipline that explores the relationship between speciesism (discrimination against nonhuman animals) and various other forms of social oppression. In this project, inspired by Carol J. Adams’ book “The Sexual Politics of Meat”, I looked mainly at the parallels between nonhuman rights and feminism.
I became interested in these academic fields because they allow us to see the rights and protection of human and nonhuman beings as deeply related and going hand in hand. This research has led my artistic practice to hybrid forms. I work with such “creatures” so that I am no longer talking about “humans” and “nonhumans”, but an “animal” that encompasses both. At the same time, I work with language and try to reclaim the term “animal” as inclusive and carrying inspiring qualities – instead of being used to support human superiority as is the case when it is only used for nonhuman animals or to describe negative human characteristics.
In the works presented, I explored these issues (the intersections of sexism and speciesism, feminism and nonhuman rights) in relation to the topic of (un)safety in shared spaces. I was motivated by the shared fear of violence happening on daily basis and its omnipresence in media (sexual violence, harassment, domestic violence, industrial exploitation, road accidents, wars, climate disasters..). All these events are personal tragedies. Just like humans, nonhuman animals are their victims and witnesses. Yet, their presence remains unnoticed and dismissed by the media, narrative, compassion, commemoration and mourning.
I reflect on that lack of safety, which is a basic need, and explore the utopian dream of a reality in which all bodies are and feel safe. Inspired by Frederic Jameson’s concept of “utopia as method”, I see this not as a disconnected dream, but as imagining alternatives and giving them visual forms – a constructive activity that can help us imagine a different reality, make our compassion more inclusive, help build safer communities.
One of the objects is about this fear, the paralysing experience of unsafety and the processing of “the pain of others” (S. Sontag).
One is a memorial to victims of violence in shared spaces – victims of all kinds.
One is a “Manifesto for Regaining Space”. In the pose of a reclining Venus, the sculpture reclaims her body from the “male gaze” and narratives. She lies comfortably in the space. I have surrounded her with “homely” paraphernalia – a blanket, slippers – to depict the feeling of being “home” in a slightly too literal or satirical way. The object is designed for a simple interaction: you are invited to sit down and feel at home with her.
Another work I created during the residency is the Artist’s Zine. In addition to this, I am presenting several other works that address related issues.

The lack of safety
Oil on linen, other
210x106x17 cm
2024

Memorial to the victims of violence in shared spaces
Metal, textiles, oil paint, other
75x40x15 cm (the object), dimensions variable (the fabric)
2024

Manifesto for Regaining Space
Metal, textiles, oil paint, ready objects, other
330x70x55 cm - the sculpture, dimensions variable - props around
2024

Manifestos for Regaining Space
- selected pages from the project catalogue
2025

Manifestos for Regaining Space
- selected pages from the interactive zine
2024/2025

One of the early sketches for the research
Mixed media on paper
30x21 cm
2024

One of the early sketches for the research
Mixed media on paper
21x15 cm
2024

Artworks and working process at my residence studio, Hugo Burge Foundation, Marchmont Estate, Scotland, 2024

Project supported by: Hugo Burge Foundation, Summerhall Arts, Scot-ART

Bibliography:
Adams C.J., The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (20TH Anniversary Edition), The Continuum International Publishing Group, London/New York 2010
Barcz A., Animal War Monuments and their role in the Anthropocene, in: Memorials in the Age of the Anthropocene, eds. M. Praczyk, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan 2017
Beauvoir S., The Second Sex, Vintage Books, New York 2011
Butler J., The Force Of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind, Verso, London/New York 2020
Derrida J., The Animal That Therefore I Am, eds. M. Mallet, translated by D. Wills, Fordham University Press, New York 2008
Irigaray L., This Sex Which Is Not One, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1985
Jameson F., Utopia as Method or the Uses of the Future, in: Utopia/Dystopia: Conditions of Historical Possisbility, eds. M.D. Gordin, H. Tilley, G. Prakash, US: Princeton University Press, Princeton 2010
Solnit R., Men Explain Things to Me, Haymarket Books, Chicago/Illinois 2014
Taylor S., Beasts of Burden. Animal and Disability Liberation, Filtry, Warsaw 2021

• RELATED WORKS

Works exploring the intersections between nonhuman rghts and feminism, inspired by Carol J. Adams' The Sexual Politics of Meat

Meatification (The Sexual Politics of Meat)
Linocut on textiles
Dimensions variable
2023

Jeune Femme
Mixed media
15x12x18 cm
2023

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© Copyright Kasia Oleśkiewicz 2025. All rights reserved.