Selected Exhibitions 2020-present

Sachs Museum Performance Series: Monika Weiss - Orgē

Missouri Botanical Garden, Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum

September 14, 2024

Curated by Nezka Pfeifer and Dana Turkovic

Music composed by and movement choreography by Monika Weiss

Duration: 20 minutes

Vocalists: Kelly Beckman, Katie Beyers, Ingrid Piazza, Rachel Jones, Heather Kays, Dean Moran, Alex Weckiewicz, Bei Qi, Brea Youngblood

Movement performers: Eva Aguero, Jungsoo Kim, Lourdes del Mar Santiago Lebrón, Tess Losada-Tindall, Erin McLaughlin, Susan Pasek

Orgē (2022) belongs to an ongoing series of vocal and choreographed projects by New York-based Polish intermedia artist Monika Weiss. Originally inspired by the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Orgē is dedicated to all victims of wars, invasions, and colonial occupations. Conceived as a site-specific choral environment, the piece resembles a forest of voices. “The power of Weiss’s artistic message channels ancient performative vocal tradition of lament—as well as her live-long relationship to and practice of music (the artist was first educated as a pianist and classical musician)—transforms the viewers experience of time and space into a new sonic and visual landscape, and with the participating vocalists or movement performers contribution to the act, like in Orgé, 2022, the piece becomes a collective body.” (Izabela Gola). The premiere of Orgé took place in 2022 at Furlong Gallery, University of Wisconsin at Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin, curated by Izabela Gola and Robert Atwell, in collaboration with Jerry (Chiwei) Hui as part of To Freedom program.. For more information click here.

Monika Weiss - Metamorphosis (Sound Sculpture)

Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis

August 24 - December 15, 2024

Curated by Dana Turkovic

Metamorphosis (Sound Sculpture) is composed of two steel columns, evoking tree trunks, which emit sound during specific times of the day, beginning at sunrise and ending at sunset. I composed the sound inspired by the myth of Daphne, imagining what it would sound like if my skin slowly hardened into the bark of a tree, and my voice became the sound of whispering leaves.

The 35-minute piece, “released” several times times a day, is composed in six parts. The first four are based on my improvisations on an acoustic piano, later transformed into digitally manipulated layers of sound. The fifth part is composed for eight voices, which were also digitally processed to create microtonal relationships. In the sixth part, we hear two female voices conducting a musical dialogue with each other, juxtaposed with the sounds of drums, the basis of which is my drumming against the surface of the sculpture as if it was an instrument.

Following the opening at Laumeier Sculpture Park the 35-minute musical composition will be heard daily at the following times: 7:30 a.m.; 10 a.m.; 12:30 p.m.; 3 p.m.; and 5:30 p.m. On July 27, 2024, a sister project Metamorphosis-Przemiana (2021-) curated by Mariusz Andrzejczyk, opened at Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, National Heritage Institution of Poland, as part of the permanent collection of the Sculpture Park. For more information click here.

Monika Weiss: Metamorphosis-Przemiana

Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, Sculpture Park

Opened to public as part of Permanent Collection on July 27, 2024

Curated by Mariusz Andrzejczyk

The iron sculpture Metamorphosis – Przemiana created by Monika Weiss resembles a tall column or a slender suit of armor. Standing among the trees in the Orońsko Sculpture Park, at certain times of day, it emits a subtle sound, prompting the viewer to stop and reflect. As the artist says: “this work captures and prolongs the moment in which Daphne, the mythological nymph, escapes rape by becoming a tree. I composed the sound, imagining what it would sound like and what I would feel if my skin hardened and slowly changed into the bark of a tree, and my voice became the whispering leaves. The column is skin that has hardened and turned into armor. In the myth, escaping violence is marked by the death of a woman, but also by reincarnation into a new form of life”. The 35-minute piece, “released” two times a day (12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.), was composed in six parts. The first four are based on the artist’s improvisations on an acoustic piano, later transformed into digitally manipulated layers of sound. The fifth part is composed for eight voices, which were also digitally processed to create microtonal relationships. In the sixth part, we hear two female voices conducting a musical dialogue with each other, juxtaposed with the sounds of drums, the basis of which is the artist hitting the sculpture with her bare hands. For more information click here.

above: Monika Weiss - Koiman II (Years without Summers), 2017-2020 [excerpt]; music, sound, movement choreography, performance, camera and montage by the artist.

Thinking History, Gender, and Violence

alpha nova & galerie futura, Berlin

With works by Monika Weiss and Vanessa Gravenor

Moderated by Zofia nierodzińska

May 15, 2024

Thinking History, Gender, and Violence brings together works by New York-based artist Monika Weiss and Berlin-based writer/artist Vanessa Gravenor. In a program of sound, film and video works by both artists—Weiss’s sound piece Thinking of History (2022) and sound/film Koiman II (Years Without Summers) (2017-2022) and Gravenor’s short film Paper Swallows Rock (2021) —the works will serve as a platform to discuss embodied and mediated perspectives on trans-historical and trans-national violence through individual, political and affective practices. Together with moderator Zofia nierodzińska, the event will situate trans-generational, feminist collaborations that give visibility to voices from contemporary and historical struggles. For more information click here.

Another Postcard Here and There

WhiteBox, New York

Curated by Johanna Roa

February 28 - March 27, 2024

Work in the exhibition: diaspeirõ, 2024 (sound, music and film work, duration 6 minutes 56 seconds)

“Monika Weiss is a New York-based Polish artist who developed her work diaspeirõ, an acoustic vocal music and digital sound/image composition, by combining part of the audio from a video from the AMAME archive with her personal experience as an Immigrant. Although the artist does not compare the life circumstances of this Ecuadorian woman with her own, she manages to establish a connection with her narrative full of emotions and feelings, in which Weiss could recognize the longing and the tenderness with which she held the old photograph in her hands. Monika Weiss works with remnants, fragments, forgotten or omitted stories, and sites of trauma, which are impossible to convey yet must be spoken for and given a voice, even or especially beyond words.” - Yohanna Roa. For more information click here.

Sleepless in Warsaw, A.I.R. Gallery, New York (2022)

Curated by Agnieszka Ryzacher

Works in the exhibition: Metamorphosis, 2021 (sound installation, loop duration 28 min.), Nirbhaya III, 2020 (drawing, found book pages, graphite, dry pigment on wood, 10 x 10 x 2 in.), For Natalia L.L., 2022 (sound, 5 min.). Monika Weiss’ Metamorphosis and For Natalia L.L. were performed live on September 2, 2022 at A.I.R. Gallery, followed by a gallery tour with curator Agnieszka Ryzacher and artist Izabela Gustowska. Film documentation by Don Mount. For more information click here.

To Freedom: Christina Shmigel, Monika Weiss, Riivo Kruuk, Furlong Gallery at University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie (2022)

Monika Weiss work was curated jointly by Robert Atwell, director, Furlong Gallery and Izabela Gola, curator, Polish Cultural Institute New York.

Works in the exhibition: Koiman II-Years Without Summers, 2017-2020 (4K Film and Sound Composition, 20 min.), Thinking of History, 2022 (Sound Composition, 10 min.) mounted as a large-scale room size installation comprising ambisonic sound environment and 4K two-sided film projection. Both works were presented as a continuous 30 min. loop. Photographic documentation by Kameron Herndorn. For more information click here.

Traces of Sisterhood, Galeria Salon Akademii, Warsaw (2022)

Curated by Eulalia Domanowska and Eliza Proszczuk.

Work in the exhibition Two Laments (19 Cantos), 2015-2020. Work in the exhibition: Two Laments, 2015-2020, 4K film and sound composition, duration 48 min. looped. Photographic documentation by Bartosz Górka. For more information click here.

Personal Matters, Kentler International Drawing Space, New York (2022)

Curated by Joan Snyder & Molly Snyder-Fink.

Work in the exhibition: Two Laments, 2015 (drawing, charcoal, pencil and dry pigment on newsprint paper, 22 x 32 in.) For more information click here.

Take My Eyes, lokal_30 Gallery, Warsaw (2022)

Curated by Agnieszka Rayzacher

Work in the exhibition: Metamorphosis, 2021 (sound installation, 30 min. duration, looped). Documentation by Adam Gut. For more information click here.

Streamfest 3, Scholes Street Studio/Infrequent Seams, New York (2022)

Curated by James Ilgenfritz

Work in the exhibition: Metamorphosis, 2021 (4K film projection and sound composition, 30 min.) For more information click here.

Monika Weiss: Metamorphosis, Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, Orońsko (2021)

Curated by Weronika Elertowska

World premiere of the site-specific sound and space performance took place on August 7, 2021 at the Sculpture Park in Orońsko. Film documentation by Piotr Czyż. For more information click here.

Monika Weiss: Monument | Anti-Monument, CEL Center for Architecture & Design | Creative Exchange Lab at Kranzberg Arts Foundation, St. Louis (2021)

Curated by Jasmin Aber

Works in the exhibition: Nirbhaya, 2021 (Limited Edition Film Still Full Scale #1, 25.125 x 108 in.); Nirbhaya Monument Model, 2020 (Polypropylene, 3D Rendering); Two Laments (19 Cantos), 2015-2020 (Limited edition 4K Digital Film + Sound Composition, 42 min.); selected drawings (2019-2020). Photographic documentation by Collin Elliott. For more information click here.

Monika Weiss: Nirbhaya, Centre for Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, Orońsko (2021)

Curated by Weronika Elertowska

Works in the exhibition: Two Laments (19 Cantos), 2015-2020 (Limited edition 4K Digital Film + Sound Composition, 42 min.); Dafne (for Nirbhaya), 2020 (Drawing Series: Resin, Graphite, Water, Dry Pigment on Rice Paper, 78 x 39 in. each), Sustenazo (Nosze), 2010 (Drawing Triptych: Graphite on Rice Paper, 78 x 29 in. each. Collection CSW Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland), Nirbhaya Monument Model, 2020 (Polypropylene, 3D Rendering). For more information click here.

Monika Weiss & Zaid Jabri: Lament for Rachel Corrie | Beati Pacifici, Streaming Museum, New York (2021)

Curated by Nina Colosi

World premiere online took place on June 1, 2021. Silent Film by artist Monika Weiss Lament for Rachel Corrie, 2021 and Music by composer Zaid Jabri Beati Pacifici | In Memoriam Rachel Corrie, 2010) recorded in 2021 by soprano Dima Bawab and pianist Ghadeer Abaido (6 min. 15 sec.) For more information click here.

Monika WeisS: Metamorphosis | Nirbhaya, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis (2021-2022)

Curated by Bruno David

Works in the exhibition: Metamorphosis | Nirbhaya, 2021 (4K Film and Sound Composition, 30 min. duration, looped, presented in a dark room on a flat panel monitor), Nirbhaya (Limited Edition Film Still Close Up #1), 25 × 36 in. C-print, Nirbhaya (Limited Edition Film Still Close Up #2), 25 × 36 in. C-print. For more information click here.

Bliss, YCG Gallery, New York (2022)

Curated by Yassana Croizat-Glazer

Works in the exhibition: Nirbhaya (Limited Edition Film Still Close Up #3), 2021, Nirbhaya XII, 2020 (Dry pigments, water, resin on paper, 30 x 22 inches) Online exhibition in collaboration with Streaming Museum. For more information click here.

Double Infinity: A Celebration of Phill Niblock's 88th Birthday in 88 Quarter-hours, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, New York (2021)

Curated by Katherine Liberovskaya, Daniel Neumann and Bob Bellerue

Work in the exhibition: Foni, 2021 (Limited Edition Sound Composition and 4K Film Projection, duration 5 min.)

To view the screening click here.

emerging.poetic: Joe Hedges, Reza Safavi, Monika Weiss, Brick City Gallery, University of Missouri, Springfield (2021)

Curated by Colby Jennings

Works in the exhibition: Foni, 2021 (4K Film and Sound Composition, 5 min. duration), Kataigis, 2021 (4K Film and Sound Composition, 3 min. duration) presented as a large-scale projection diptych. For more information click here.