Emilia Martin is a Polish artist and photographer based in The Hague (NL) whose artistic practice is informed by growing up as the first generation of newly democratic nation, witnessing its process of formulating its narratives and iterations of its pasts.
Rooted in the belief in the power of storytelling passed down with her ancestral heritage, Martin weaves narratives that challenge binary definitions of truth and fiction with the intersectional use of photography, writing, sound and sculpture.
Through her artistic lens she navigates the landscapes of oral storytelling, myths, legends and rituals, reflecting on their roles in forming and upkeeping societal structures and ways of relating to one another as well as those more-than-human.
Having grown up in between two disparate realities: a remote farm of her grandmother in the rural East, and Silesia - a coal-mining urban region in the country’s industrial West, Martin’s formative years have been shaped by contradictions. Rural ecologies based on interdependencies set against the patriarchal oppression and extractivism, ancestral wisdoms, practices and crafts opposed to quick capitalist fixes, together formed a ground from which Martin approaches her research and making. Guided by the intersectional feminist discourse, she positions her practice as part of a bigger, living ecosystem.
Graduated from Photography & Society Master’s program at the Royal Academy of the Art (The Hague) in 2022, Martin works from her studio at the Stichting Daisy Chain in the Hague as well as internationally. She is one of the founders of Radio Echo - a feminist radio collective focused on reverberating diversity of voices. Her work “I saw a tree bearing stones in the place of apples and pears” was published as a book in 2024 by Yogurt Editions.
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The work is supported by Cultuurfonds, Mondriaan Fonds, Amarte Fonds, STROOM, Gemeente Den Haag and Instytut Adama Mickiewicza.
