Opening of the exhibition “We Are Here”

Event program

On September 28, the opening of the exhibition “Rotating Gallery: We Are Here” co-financed and co-organized by us as part of the “MultiMemo” project was part of the official celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The exhibition was presented at the POLIN Museum from September 28 to November 4, 2024. The exhibition included 10 guided curatorial tours co-organized by the Zapomniane Foundation team.
The exhibition presented works by nine contemporary Jewish artists from Poland who are members of the “Kultur-Lige” network initiated last year by us and two other partners (POLIN Museum and FestivALT) as part of another EU-funded CERV project “NeDiPa” (2022-2023). The rotating gallery presented works by Zofia Janina Borysiewicz, Kamila Czosnyk, Majka Hercberg, Maria Ka, Dominika Laster, Alex Roth, Gabi von Seltmann, Hana Umeda, Julie Weitz, which were presented in the previous months at the POLIN Museum in the form of individual shows.

The artists presented in the exhibition addressed both contemporary and historical issues: identity issues, multiple types of exclusion, the history of the Holocaust and other legacies and experiences of violence, as well as other minority identities. In particular, the work of the artist Alex Roth, musician and composer, entitled "(Diss)possessed", supported by the Zapomniane Foundation, dealt in a multidirectional way with problematic Holocaust objects from the POLIN Museum collection (https://polin.pl/en/event/dispossessed). The artist referred to their role in the context of Jewish religion and tradition, as well as their significance for understanding and documenting the Holocaust. At the same time, he respectfully established contact with them to create a musical piece that was a response to the challenges posed by these objects and, at the same time, the challenges of the contemporary conflict in the Middle East.

Other works also referred in a multidirectional way to conflict, different types of violence (including sexual violence), and history. Artists also explored their own identities and positions, such as the Polish-Jewish-Japanese artist Hana Umeda. Two young artists, Zofia Janina Borysiewicz and Maria Ka – one using the medium of typography and design, the other music and audiovisual content – ​​explored the idea of ​​multilingualism and identity, delving into the realm of potential histories.