Lśnienie. Przeglądając się w Kryjówkach. Architekturze przetrwania Natalii Romik
Shining. Looking at Our Reflections in Kryjówki. Architektura przetrwania by Natalia Romik

Summary/Abstract: Nine irregularly shaped and silver-plated casts. Nine three-dimensional maps copying territories of survival – Hiding Places created and inhabited by Jews at the time of the Holocaust, i.a. inside an oak tree trunk, underneath a floor, inside sewers, in a grave. “Sculptures are homage to the architects and engineers who created them” – said Natalia Romik about metal objects on display at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, accompanying an exhibition presenting the results of interdisciplinary studies on the Holocaust “architecture of survival”. Its non-visual character (a hideout protects against a stalking gaze, an “evil eye”) found in the exhibition a controversial reverse, with the ostentatious, idolatrous glistening of the surfaces of these antimonuments commemorating those hiding themselves and those who hide them. Silver “resembles mercury, a mirror. It reflects but also deforms” (Romik). Quite possibly similarly to the way our gratitude is deformed, more interested in its own image than in that which is concealed beneath the glistening surface. What do Kryjówki conceal from us and what do they disclose?.

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