January 18, 2023 / at 18:00 / Old ZPAF Gallery / Plac Zamkowy 8, Warsaw
A few years ago I found an old family album in my mother's closet. It moved me a lot. The album had once belonged to my grandmother. She died young, leaving behind a daughter less than a year old. I wondered what she felt knowing that she was slowly passing away, that she had to say goodbye. I know so little about her. No one in the family ever mentioned this woman. I don't know why. I didn't ask any questions either, although I knew her brother - he was a wonderful, very sensitive man. And then suddenly her face appears in the album. She looked at me as if she wanted to say something. She looked at me smiling gently and I pondered. I wondered what her last months, days were like... She was a mother. She knew she was going to orphan her daughter.
What thoughts accompanied it? And what effect did it have on my mother? Pelagia, who was ill, was certainly not able to lavish her child with the kind of attention, tenderness, closeness that this tiny being needed. It must have been hard for them - both the mother and her little Gretel. I felt I had to try to talk about it. To take the floor. This old album was admonishing me.
I realized one thing then, I must somehow bring back my grandmother's memory. And so a series was created For Peli and then others such as Herbarium, Adoption or Blue chlorophyll. They all touch on a theme related to home, family.
Today we already know that post-memory and transmission of trauma has a huge impact on the transmission of patterns and building of relationships in subsequent generations. It is clear that in addition to genes, we also inherit in the non-genetic area. Stress, anxiety, aggression, trauma, all these experiences leave their mark on us. They are like a family jewel passed on to the next members of the community. This is such a title Brooch, which can adorn, but can also weigh down. And only the antidote of love and sincere conversation can ease this burden. Photography speaks its own language. This language is close to me. Therefore, telling the story of my daughter's depression and her struggle for herself in the series Pink does not exist, I used the language of images. Victoria is an artist, working as a graphic designer, but she also studied painting. By using Victoria's self-portraits in painting and combining them with photographic portraits of Wiki taken by me over many years, the story of my relationship with my daughter was created. But it is also the story of a mother who simply worries about her child and feels helpless. It's as if time has come full circle....
Iwona Germanek
A visual artist, she works in creative photography, portraiture and photographic experimentation in the broadest sense.
On a daily basis associated with the Municipal House of Culture in Łaziska Górne, where she heads the Studio of Alternative Photography. Student of the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava. Member of the Union of Polish Artists Photographers in the Silesian District.
Her works are in the collection of the Silesian Museum.