Our Sound Artist in Residence for Hilary term is Katarzyna Krakowiak

Katarzyna Krakowiak is a sculptor who uses sound to explore the limits of architecture and create large-scale sound installations with existing buildings or structures. 

Krakowiak’s works have been presented at numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw, the Bunkier Sztuki in Cracow, the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo, the Performance Biennial PERFORMA 13 in New York, and the Architecture Triennale in Lisbon. For her project Making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers, Krakowiak received honourable mention at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. Her work was exhibited in The House of Dust by Alison Knowles, at the James Gallery, NYC (2016) and at Cneai, Paris (2017).  

In her artistic practice, she involves entire buildings – more than often directly applying a 1:1 scale. Using analyses of a building’s architectural plans, functions and animated acoustic models, she enhances its tacit characteristics, particularly those related to communicational failures, distortions and dysfunctions. 

This analytical research allows her to find out what is hidden or secret in the building’s construction – the composite code that organises the whole structure. The code becomes her own personal perspective, whereas the building itself provides the material and determines the actual scale of her sculptures, which in turn become integral elements of the architecture – they are continuous, real-time processes.. She 'sonifies' buildings and brings them to life, searching for the precise moment when they cease to be buildings and become sculptures.

Katarzyna will be giving a talk entitled 'Architecture Is Built of Sound' in The Barn in Kendrew Quad on Thursday, 1 February at 5pm. A wine reception will follow the talk.