Sharon Lockhart Milena, Milena

Published by Silvana Editoriale 2015
Edited by Jane Neidhardt with contributions by George Baker, Fanni Fetzer, Lars Bang Larsen, Camilla Larsson and Frances Stark.

Sharon Lockhart’s most recent body of work revolves around conditions of childhood. The project was inspired in part by the life and work of Polish-Jewish pedagogue Janus Korczak, whose radical philosophies were among the first to empower the often-disregarded voice of the child. At the heart of Lockhart’s work is her friendship with Milena, a young Polish woman whom she first befriended in 2009 during the production of her film Podwórka in Łódź, Poland. Lockhart’s longterm work with Milena has mapped the trajectory of a small girl’s maturation into an adolescent and now young adult, serving as a site of mutual discovery and revelation. This volume is a further iteration of this collaboration which was also the subject of a trilogy of exhibitions at the Center of Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Bonniers, Konsthall, Stockholm, and Kunstmuseum Luzern.