Project “Farmaceutka” is developed in cooperation with the City Museum in Tychy. I was inspired to create the exhibition and art workshops when I met Ewa, who is the manager of the pharmacy. At the beginning of my acquaintance, her knowledge of substances, medicine, the human body, bacteria and viruses made a great impression on me. Besides, Ewa tries to develop her knowledge systematically. According to Ewa, working in a pharmacy involves a lot of responsibility, low-paid night shifts, struggling with a large number of people who come to the pharmacy every day, lack of development opportunities (becoming a pharmacy manager is the top career), exploitation of the employee by corporate management (insufficient number of employees). At the same time, responsibility and knowledge do not increase the prestige of this profession. This is a topic worth talking about, especially when we are dealing with a pandemic and its economic consequences, and we believe that pharmacy employees benefited from the crisis.

I was most interested in Ewa’s story from her studies about collecting herbariums, which will become our starting point to create an exhibition together. Each student at the beginning of his pharmaceutical studies had to “pass the herbarium”. Some students planted and harvested medicinal plants to sell them to other students. The question to consider is how the education system that requires the physical creation of a herbarium relates to the modern pharmaceutical industry and the widespread digitization of resources. On the other hand, finding the old pages from Ewa’s herbarium would mean the restoration of this space where nature combines with knowledge and allows us to reach the cosmotechnical roots of this profession.

The project will be complemented by inviting a group of pharmacists living in the Silesian Voivodeship to artistic workshops. During the meetings, we will develop an element (poster, drawing, object, other work of art) that will draw attention to the aspects to which the exhibition relates. More material is coming soon!