Sister Flats II

In a private flat in Steele’s City-Carrée building, the artist Alicja Rogalska has created an eclectic installation. An architectural model visualising the city’s large-scale rehabilitation in the 1970s and archival photographs documenting the process of building the Carrée along with a new video work are situated in rooms with furnishings reminiscent of this period of new construction. With her installation Sister Flats II, Alicja Rogalska invites visitors to explore the development of the Steele district, along with related questions about the validity of past utopias and interaction between rhythm of life and the built environment. Questions arise such as: How is the separation of the public and private spheres organised? Which needs have yet to be fulfilled, especially from a gender-sensitive perspective? What are ways to foster a protective space in the city?

In her interdisciplinary practice, Alicja Rogalska deals with the social structures and political subtexts of our everyday lives. Taking a research-oriented approach, which integrates theoretical and archival study, but also interviews and discussions, the artist usually develops her artwork for specific environments. This at times involves working together to cultivate emancipatory visions of the future. In Essen, too, she is inviting visitors to articulate their thoughts and desires, and to join in visualising a new and different future.

The first version of the project Sister Flats was realized as a co-production with Manifesta 14 in Pristina and investigated the economic situation of women in Kosovo.