Monika Orpik

Monika Orpik is a multimedia artist born in Poland. Monika holds a BA in Photography from London College of Communication and is currently pursuing an MA in Photography at Hamburg’s Hochschule für bildende Künste. Monika is interested in stories often omitted from mainstream historical records and the misuse of classification processes that impacts the narrative gaps. Her practice explores the medium of photography, writing, film and sound, and has been exhibited across Europe and the UK. She lives and works in Hamburg.

Her work ‘Stepping Out Into This Almost Empty Road‘ (published by Ośrodek Postaw Twórczych (OPT) in 2022) looks at the moment of change when the most idyllic scenario becomes a horror of a political regime. From picking apples in the orchard to tear gas on the street. The book combines photographic material and texts that revolve around the permanent in-between state that is inseparable from the notion of migration. What happens when you’re forced to leave something behind and start anew elsewhere? What tools do you use to visualise the loss and the absence? How do you build your identity when the dialect you speak is rejected as a language? Despite being focused on stories of a specific community, the book makes visible what is universal in the context of transition.