Landscape Archive
Curator: Aleksandra Janus

Landscape Archive

Landscape is not only a scenery where history happens, but also a witness and participant of events, storing evidence that can be an important source of knowledge for researchers of the past. Researchers of past violence study landscapes with increasing attention, discovering that places that seem empty are in fact full of traces of events from years ago. They pay attention to what is material, and sometimes also alive (like plants), as valuable evidence of the past. 

Jewish religious law (the Halacha) forbids interfering with burial sites, as it disturbs the peace of the dead. However, new technical possibilities and new methods of research enabled studying topography of burial sites without disturbing them in ways typical for traditional archaeology.

The exhibition presents the results of research conducted by the Zapomniane Foundation, which searches for and locates uncommemorated burial places of Holocaust victims. So far, the Foundation has located about 300 previously unmarked burial places of Holocaust victims in Poland, marked 100 of them and permanently commemorated a dozen or so.

The material presented at the exhibition gives an insight into the way the Foundation conducts research and presents 13 specific cases examined - each consisting of a photograph and a precise map of the burial site. The way basic information about each located site is presented was inspired by ISOTYPE - a method created by Otto Neurath, a Jewish-Austrian sociologist associated with the Vienna Circle. 

By juxtaposing both the views from these places and the results from non-invasive research, the exhibition seeks to present the knowledge archived in the landscape of sites where seemingly "there is nothing".


25.08.2023 (pt.), 17:00
Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw
ul. Próżna 7/9
Warszawa
Until 11.09.2023
Wstęp wolny