9 bilion of us

The project “9 Billion of Us”, carried out since 2021, was born out of a personal experience of lockdown and the absence of people. At that time, I was living in a new city that completely shut down. The streets became empty, relationships were suspended, and the everyday presence of another human being suddenly stopped being obvious. I missed people — so I began to paint them. First single figures, then dozens, then hundreds. In this way, a cycle was created in which I painted nearly 1,000 people — one per mille of the residents of Amsterdam, later residents of Dublin, as well as numerous local communities.

“9 Billion of Us” is a long-term artistic reflection on the contemporary human being — seen not as an isolated individual, but as part of a larger, shared whole. The project consists of thousands of small watercolor figures, each 10–15 cm tall. Every figure represents a real person. Painted by hand, with attentiveness and tenderness, together they form a collective portrait of society — diverse, fragile, and interdependent. Up close, the viewer sees an individual; from a distance, a structure resembling a social fabric emerges.

The project is an attempt to consciously use the potential of art to build meaningful social relationships and a culture of mutual respect — both locally and globally. In times of anonymous online hate and media narratives focused on bad people and their harmful actions, we forget about the millions of decent, kind individuals. We begin to believe that the behaviors amplified by the media represent everyday reality. They do not — they are only a small percentage. Through this project, I seek to remind us of kindness and human tenderness, to strengthen understanding and appreciation of one another, and to move from fear and alienation toward trust and openness. Caring for human connection becomes our responsibility — one that arises from caring for the world we live in.

Another essential value at the core of “9 Billion of Us” is honoring ordinary people who perform extremely important, yet often unnoticed work. Today, everyday work carried out for the benefit of us all is frequently undervalued in the social hierarchy, even though it forms the necessary foundation of our shared community — a foundation for which we should feel gratitude.

“9 Billion of Us” is not a project about ego. It is not a story of individual success. It is an invitation to look from a meta-perspective — from the perspective of the planet and the whole community — and to recognize and appreciate actions taken for the common good, both by others and in our own conscious choices.

If you would like your community to become part of this project — please get in touch by email: zuzannadembiec2@gmail.com

Duration: 30.12.2024 – 08.03.2025.
The residency is open to visitors during the gallery’s opening hours.

The words “Hasior” and “Hasiok” at first glance appear to be the same word. What separates them is a minor error in a graphic sign – in the final letter, in its upper fragment. An unfinished “R” or an overwritten “K” results in either Hasior or Hasiok. This marginal mistake in writing, however, has significant consequences in reality, as the two notions begin to exist in parallel. Each carries a distinct meaning – very narrow and elitist, requiring specialized knowledge to decipher what lies behind a particular configuration of signs. What does Hasior mean, and what does Hasiok mean? Is it possible for Hasior to exist without Hasiok, and vice versa? Does similarity in sound imply similarity in meaning? During the six-week residency at the Władysław Hasior Gallery, a branch of the Tatra Museum, we will attempt to address these (and other) questions by contemplating and reconstructing the meanings of a small error / slip of the tongue / inaccuracy within reality – here symbolized by a tiny fragment of a graphic sign, an objective message functioning in contemporary civilization. The British-American philosopher Catherine Wilson suggested in her discourse that different realities (worlds) are not isolated from one another; an example is the real world and the world of fiction. In everyday life these two realms seamlessly interpenetrate and influence each other, even creating logical dependencies necessary for civilization to exist. One such example is the famous logical rule Modus Tollens, which states that if X implies Y, then if Y is false, X must also be false. When writing these words, was Wilson thinking of Hasior and Hasiok? This free inspiration drawn from Catherine Wilson’s reflections stems from a quiet hope that Hasior and Hasiok also interpenetrate one another, and that a subtle error of writing / reading creates relations between them akin to Modus Tollens, Modus Tollendo, or any other Modus known and unknown in this or another reality.
Text: Przemysław Jeżmirski.

Hasior – a Polish artist
Hasiok – a rubbish bin in one of the regional varieties of the Polish language.

Gold Point is a board game with a rulebook, pawns, a die, marbles, and a finish line.

Above all, however, it is a space for a deep encounter with another human being. It is a tool for guiding conversation, building relationships, and truly getting to know one another. It was created for people seeking genuine connection — those who want not only to speak, but also to listen.

Gold Point helps you be yourself in the presence of another person. It teaches presence in society, the courage to share your thoughts and experiences, and attentiveness to the stories of others. It gives everyone time to speak and time to be heard. It can accompany difficult, relational, or professional conversations, but it can also become a space for memories, laughter, dreams, and tenderness.

During the game, a sense of community emerges — born from hearing real human stories and from cooperation. This experience is especially valuable in a world where most conversations tend to be brief and superficial. Gold Point is a pretext for a meeting that truly matters.

“Minds that search together can find realities that are fulfilling for everyone”
This idea guides the entire game — toward understanding, collaboration, and creating a world rooted in attentive dialogue.

goldpoint.com

“Your Potentials Looking at Your Life” is an exhibition spanning three floors of a staircase – from the ceiling down to the underground level. The photos show my works, along with several pieces by Raw Habits, whom I value, respect, and happily recommend 🙂

The exhibition was created as part of the Zakopane Association of Visual Artists exhibition, Zakopane 2025.

At the turn of April and May 2023, I stayed for 3 weeks in the Minus 1 gallery at the Gen. Zientka roundabout in Katowice with the exhibition “Superunit xX = Superwe”. The exhibition consisted of a board game of my design and two installations – Social Platform and Life Control Machine. The main goal of my activities, this exhibition, and each of my works is to create situations in which people can meet, deeply connect, and raise awareness of their own inner beliefs, and the possibility of making changes in them to become happier, liking themself more, and perhaps even better, person.

The game I created and played with several dozen different visitors during the exhibition is the result of several thousand conversations I have had with people from different cultures and social classes over the last 20 years. It is a way to address the plague of loneliness spreading across our current world. Increasing inability to establish deeper contacts. Going beyond casual, shallow conversations. It is a tool to connect people. Creating a community. Belonging.

The Community Platform is an installation for meetings. The head is placed in a cotton space where, by minimizing distracting stimuli, interpersonal contact becomes immediately intimate and intense.

The Feeling Control Machine consists of a panel with many knobs, sliders, and buttons that can be used to select and change the intensity of the internal settings that guide us in our lives.

The exhibition took place in the Minus 1 gallery in an underground passage where thousands of people pass every day. It was free and open to everyone. During this time, the game was experienced and played by Katowice residents, tourists, emigrants, single people, pairs, friends, children, teenagers, adults, and many elderly people – many very interesting meetings and deep conversations.

I really like to watch people. These thousands of unknown persons passed by every day. Those people with whom we create society together, but we do not remember them. We hardly have a sense of belonging to a larger community, e.g. to the community of the entire city. The feeling that we are one of the parts that make up this structure. And I like that feeling. And I like making gifts.

On January 1, 2021, I hung 140 watercolors on the trees along the main avenue of Vondelpark in Amsterdam, depicting the people I watched in the Vondelpark. People unknown to me. Cyclists, runners, walkers, people with prams, with dogs, lonely people, with friends … In their natural poses, everyday clothes, with phones, cafes, listening to music. Us. This is what we look like. This is what we look like in December 2020. This is us.

I wrote that if someone recognizes himself in the picture, he can take it. 🙂 and I left my website address.

Unexpectedly, I got a lot of e-mails and messages telling me how much people were delighted with this exhibition, but most of all with thanks 🙂 I am very pleased !!! I can’t imagine a better start to the year than this one. So it is a gift for the people of Vondelpark, but it is also a gift for me. After all, I am one of us!

Feeling-propelled machine

I really care about making us aware of our emotional choices.

I really care about making us aware of which emotions we want to sense.

I think most people don’t even think about it. Are not aware of everyday choices we make as far as our emotions are concerned.

We react.

We do not choose.

We let ourselves to be manipulated by our bosses, families, television … our addictions … We do not realise WHAT we really want to feel or that we have influence on our feelings.

I want the visitors’ consciousness to break into the space where we have the opportunity to make this basic choice. To make this choice consciously. Sometimes consciously for the first time. However, I hope it to be only the first time of many others.

To experience freedom.

To experience independence.

To experience responsibility.

To experience the possibility of working for the good of humanity.

The social platform

This is an outdoor installation to be set up in busy city centres but also in places of contemplation, such as art galleries or parks.

It turns out that in the middle of a busy walkway, in a place separated by thin cotton, meeting face to face, where faces cannot be hidden behind anything, not even a gesture, is an extremely intimate and strongly moving experience.

“You know, I know him all my life, but I feel as if I was talking to him for the first time” – the sentence I heard is the greatest victory of this piece of art for me.

Cornerstone

I wanted to introduce people to a state of meditation, thorough experiencing of their inner selves for 5 minutes. I didn’t want to waste any more time on introductory conversations. I wanted to get straight to the point.

The intention was to create a place where people can see themselves – their thoughts, beliefs, limitations, emotions, feelings, which are important to them.

I also wanted to create a place where people can meet. Meet truly. No masks, no stereotypes, no prisms which we view things through.

And I succeeded.

Length: 4.50 m

Width: 2.5 m

Height: 2.25 m

Lightproof

Noiseless ventilation system

Enter.

Colours of emotions

There is a picture in the first room where I ask guests to think about emotions they associate with the presented colours. They can stick cards with their emotions to the right colour and read what other feelings people experience here.

I wanted to achieve double effect here: raising awareness of emotions we experience and attaching them subconsciously to colours.

The next step is moving to a room with three paintings.

The purpose of these paintings is to influence synesthetically the arrangement of emotions in a man. None of them should dominate the others but each is able to find enough space for itself.

The first one is a saturated rainbow. Filled with colours which visitors worked on at the beginning. These are strong colours with great influence, the easiest to be noticed and described with emotions and words.

I tried to choose these colours harmoniously so that (theoretically) after spinning they turned into white. If any of the colours prevailed, the spinning colour would turn into bluish, greenish or even pink.

The second one is a pastel rainbow.

Approaching the second picture turns out to be surprising and easy to notice emotionally for the visitors. They often talk about distance to their own emotions, opening the possibility of controlling them and about peace and contentment which appear along the way.

The third picture  s e e m s  to  be white …

For me it is a deep enlightenment.

Several times I have experienced and felt this deep understanding, sometimes awakening, touch of obviousness. I have also had a chance to observe it in my reactions of my guests.

The rest leaves space for the game of illusion and imagination.