Pracownia Wschodnia is an independent artist collective. We run an artist-run space unique on Warsaw's art map, built on the grassroots initiative of artists working across the visual arts.
Our foundation is two strands of activity. The first is cultural animation: organising events for a wide audience, running a gallery and art courses, publishing. The second is building a workshop base that lets local artists develop their own creative practice.
Pracownia Wschodnia is a non-profit organisation. It would not exist without the commitment and ground-up work of the people who make up the collective. Each of us has our own practice, some of us teach at various universities or work for a range of institutions, but we believe that by joining forces we can achieve more together, both for local culture and in the field of art.
Federico Caponi
Biography
Federico Caponi – born in Tuscany in 1968; he studied philosophy at the University of Florence. A photographer and lecturer in analogue techniques. He runs the Pracownia Wschodnia darkroom in Warsaw's Praga district. Since 2018 he has lectured in darkroom techniques and documentary photography at the Academy of Photography in Warsaw.
In June 2017 his series "Marsz na Warszawę" [March on Warsaw], portraying far-right members of the ONR, was shown at a group exhibition at the Rotacyjny Dom Kultury in Jazdów, Warsaw, and then published in the online gallery of Krytyka Polityczna. In November 2017 his photograph "Tiger Car" was included in the RoadTrip exhibition during Warsaw Photo Days. Since 2015 he has run workshops in analogue photography, darkroom techniques and visual storytelling, "Photobooklet, un’esperienza narrativa", at VisiVa in Florence.