Aga Pokrywka

Aga Pokrywka

Photos: Iida-Liina Linnea

Aga Pokrywka is a multidisciplinary and fermentation wizardess. She joined Godzilla in Visby, and will be catching the boat again in Seili. Her background is in natural sciences, physics, film, and non-fiction storytelling. She uses video, sound, text, and collaborative practices to weave eclectic narratives and re-tell stories that communicate diverse viewpoints of our complex reality. She is fascinated by how we can comprehend the unnoticed and capture it with our senses, be it microbes, celestial bodies, or systemic structures. She is the host of Ferment Radio, a podcast series on bacterial and social fermentation, and co-founder at Super Eclectic, a creative studio on a mission to inspire action on the most critical issues of our time. She is also a member of The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes at the University of Helsinki.

Photo: Iida-Liina Linnea

During the Godzilla residency she is looking for cyanobacteria, a type known as blue-green algae. “If I don’t find them, I will be relieved not to witness the symptoms of sea eutrophication. If I spot them, I will film them and include these scenes in the project I’m currently working on. The Invisible Colonies is a speculative documentary film that tells a new history of humanity from an astronomical and microscopic perspective. Its premiere is planned for late 2025.

Pokrywka was born in Poland, and now lives in Finland. “In each location, I have had and continue to have a strong relationship with the Baltic Sea. I swim in its waters from summer to winter and I sail. I deeply worry about the future of this fragile body of water.

She is very fascinated by cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. “They are billions of years old and among the oldest species alive.”

Photo: Iida-Liina Linnea