Polish multimedia artist and Marta Bogdanska received a  2023 CAF grant for “Vive La Résistance,” a project of art, films, and audio pieces on animal agency and subversion. This work was featured in a solo exhibition (her first) at the Fort Institute for Photography in Warsaw, Poland, December 5th, 2024—February 16th, 2025.

This video is Marta’s swooping, impressionistic take on her own exhibition. Pause at will. . .

Marta writes: “What if there exists a ‘resistance movement’ that we do not recognize or understand? A silent but persistent rebellion against human domination. What if non-human animals have been intentionally and purposefully fighting for their needs throughout the ages, and every manifestation of their struggle is in fact a manifestation of their own justice and ethics? Will valiant snails and bloodthirsty rabbits, like those painted in medieval marginalia, be responsible for changing the status quo, for changing the conditions under which we share space with each other—hitherto set by representatives of our species? And finally, how would the animal historian’s account of this rebellion differ from how it plays out in human imagination?”

To visit the exhibition and see more of the works highlighted in the video visit the Fort Institute of Photography website. To read more about Marta’s work, visit her website, or read her CAF grant here.

Photo: Marta Bogdańska, “Oliver,” “Vive la Résistance!”, collage, 2022.