Varsovian. Simple stories (2012)

In 2012 I met with 49 different people having in common one thing: all these people lived in Warsaw, some of them for many generations, others for just a past few years. I asked each of them to select one item which is precious to them, not for its material value but rather an emotional one. I photographed each item and recorded its history. I summarized these stories in a few succinct lines of texts, taking particular care of reflecting the true tone of the original story as told by the interlocutors and asking them to authorize the final version.
The idea of the project stemmed from the reflections about our personal attitude to some items, thoughts that have haunted me for some time now, and from the question about the identity of the city which has been my hometown for already 20 years. Warsaw is a particular place, not only because of its status as the capital city, but also because of its complex and painful history. It is not an easy task to talk about a place like this. My attempt to do it consists in presenting a humble segment of a larger picture made up of small private stories of the city inhabitants, hidden in the objects close to their hearts. I believe that this colorful patchwork of individual events and experiences creates the story of our collectivity.

Project co-financed by the capital city of Warsaw

Conversation about the backstage of the project (in Polish)