ABOUT the series
Each year in Poland a small town dissapears
The series revolves around the topic of disappearances. Every year in Poland, approximately 20,000 people go missing. It’s as if a small city were completely wiped off the map. I collaborated with the Itaka Foundation, the largest non-governmental organization in Poland that works in the field of missing persons.
Aiming to raise awareness of specific cases and the broader issue, the project focused not only on the disappearances of certain individuals but also on the trauma and difficult emotions experienced by the loved ones of missing persons. Through paintings, I explored the concept of liminal space, an ambiguous state that occurs during the transition from one condition to another. The experience of disappearance creates a unique space where the boundaries between absence and presence, life and death, loss and mourning become blurred and undefined.
- then
Aleksandra gładysiak
Ola Gładysiak went missing on March 11, 2019. As the search began, tracking dogs led authorities to the last pillar of the Rydz Śmigły Bridge in Włocławek, Poland. Ola was 17 years old at the time of her disappearance.
Tomasz desecki
Tomek Desecki was last seen on the morning of January 15, 2002, at a bus stop in Żydowo, located in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. His family believes he may have entered a convent. Tomek was 18 years old at the time of these events.
Anna Jałowiczor
Ania Jałowiczor went missing on January 24, 1995, while returning from a school party in Simoradz, Silesia Voivodeship, Poland. She was only 10 years old at the time.
Seweryn adamczyk
Seweryn Adamczyk boarded a bus to Krakow, Poland, on March 17, 2013. The last signal from his phone was detected near the Dębnicki Bridge. Seweryn was 16 years old at the time.
In this section, I created four portraits using age progression. However, they remain invisible until the light behind the canvas is turned on. Without the light, the surface appears as a blank, white canvas. This technique allowed me to capture the strange, liminal space that missing people occupy: they still exist within the structure of their families, yet they are no longer physically present. They are here, yet they are not.
If you know anything about the whereabouts of these people or have a tip regading their cases, please contact Itaka Foundation or the nearest police station.