Displaced

Displaced is a site-specific project that weaves stories of relocation, migration, and resettlement, thus appearing as a crossroads of two narratives.

The first narrative refers to the history of Nowa Ruda city where this project was created. Until 1945, Nowa Ruda was a part of Germany, and after the end of the Second World War, it became a part of Poland. After the city was transferred to another state, its local residents were evicted to Germany, and instead, the city was inhabited by persons from central and eastern Poland. Some of the territories from which Polish people moved to Nowa Ruda are now a part of modern Belarus.

The second narrative reveals my personal history. As a basis, I have chosen the image of an old apple orchard in western Belarus, which my great- grandfather bought from people leaving their homes under the program of resettlement of Polish people from the USSR to former German cities in the 50s of the 20th century.

The form of the project is a spatial installation of three sculptures, which are built as an overture between mistakes and imperfections, functioning within the radius of the gap between the intentional and the spontaneous, the produced and the acquired. The main elements of the sculptures are concrete castings of apple tree roots, which are present in the works like a kind of History Brush tool while appealing to a thing that does not exist.

Shaping some unfinished resonance, the unfinished sameness of forms, I turn to the concept of Displaced as a description of the state of something that has been transferred, moved, or pushed out of its usual position.