Herstory in many voices, audio, 19'07''
Recordings of interviews, conversations and everyday situations collected for 4 years during my visits to my hometown – in a region that had a multicultural population before World War II. The sound collage is divided into several sound sources in a spatial installation presenting herstories of women close to me, and creating a sound background for the exhibition “Dowry” [Wiano], (Labirynt Gallery, Lublin). The fragments of authentic relationships intertwine, obscuring any specific subject in favour of a polyphonic narrative. It contains echoes of the past which also resonate with the contemporary context, such as the situation of women in wartime, patriarchy in rural communities, the question of the presence and visibility of Ukrainian culture in Poland.
Working through difficult history is possible though building understanding and awareness—a process in which memory, together with its personal dimension, plays a key role. The voices talk about the life of women in the countryside before and during World War II. They mention Operation Vistula—the forced deportations of the Ukrainian population conducted by the government of the Polish People’s Republic in 1947. They also mention the Central Labor Camp in Jaworzno, used to intern Ukrainians deported from the border areas (1947-49). The work also includes songs performed by Karolina Węgrzyn, a singer from the region, performed in the building of an abandoned Greek-Catholic church in Stare Oleszyce (2022).
