Patrząc na to, co się tutaj działo (sztuka „ludowa” i dynamika polskiej pamięci o Zagładzie)
“Looking at What Was Happening Here”: “Folk Art” and the Dynamics of Polish Memory of the Holocaust

Summary/Abstract: Sendyka presents the results of her research on Holocaust-related postwar Polish “folk art” as presented in the exhibition Widok zza bliska: Inne obrazy Zagłady [View From Behind the Scenes: Other Images of the Shoah] in 2018-19. Sendyka treats this material as a source of testimonies that suggest how memory of war was (trans)formed beyond high culture. Works by Sławomir Kosiniak, Zygmunt Skrętowicz and Jan Kowalczyk use the documentary, metaphor and metonymy as strategies of referring to a difficult past. The application of metaphor and metonymy in particular involves the use of socially acceptable and widely available images rather than material more deeply rooted in personal experience. The practices identifiable in the works of “folk” artists shed light on ways of working with a difficult heritage and reactions to external norms in the visual discourse on the Shoah.

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