Elżbieta Janicka: An Odd Place

Odd place Elżbieta Janicka is a unique exhibition. Minimalistic, austere, ascetic in form. Only six black and white, large-format aerial photographs in... or maybe over? Auschwitz II Birkenau, Kulmhof am Ner, Majdanek, Bełżec, Sobibor and Treblinka and the looped sound of thirteen recordings made in these places. However, as Rafał Jakubowicz notes in his poignant text about the exhibition, "So little and so much. The dominant experience is silence. The silence of white large-format photographs and the silence recorded in the spaces of death". In this silence, there is a crowd of questions about the memory, the past, the causes of the destruction of the civilizations of European Jews, our reaction to the Holocaust, identity, as well as the ambiguity of innocent products, commonly used.

However, it is difficult to get a clear and unambiguous answer to each of these questions.

The multifaceted nature of the artist's presentation is shocking. Eleonora Jedlińska in an interesting and insightful essay draws our attention to the fact that "Elżbieta Janicka moves in certain areas of memory, which activates the process of thinking, space, timeliness and absence in a complex, mutual relationship with their recipient". These words perfectly describe what communication with Janicka's photographs may consist of.

The artist herself in an interview with Krzysztof Cichon says: "Art consists of thinking: about what, what and - above all - how" and explains that "an odd place is full. Full of air. Filled with presence. [...] It's hard not to hear these places. They are incredibly intense, "pressing" with sound. Janicka's actions remind us of the cataclysm of the Holocaust of European Jewish civilizations. They do not allow you to forget, prevent fatal amnesia and force you to reflect.

I highly recommend reading the texts on the exhibition of Elżbieta Janicka, written by two outstanding experts on the subject of the Holocaust, and the recording of the conversation with the artist. This is a well-written material that reads perfectly. I cordially invite you to visit the Atlas Sztuki.