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PART 1: Memoryscapes: Dissonant Heritage in Podgórze's Public Space (2022-23)

PART 2: Mapping Memoryscapes: The Space Between (2023)

// July 2023 report //

PART 1: Memoryscapes: Dissonant Heritage in Podgórze's Public Space (2022-23)

Using the case study of Pódgórze, this project explores the role of art and heritage in phyiscal landscape to visualize (or not) dissonance.

Joanna Pottle | HiA Mapping Inequities Fellowship // Artist, Researcher, Educator, Fulbright Alumnae

Online Workshop Intensive: June 1-16, 2022, with series growing into 2023 through support from The Kosciuszko Foundation

This Memoryscapes project seeks to provide a preliminary investigation of the tangible and intangible remnants of (dissonant) heritage through mapping physical art and heritage sites in Podgorze’s district and by creating new entry points for reflection and ways of seeing and navigating the intersection of the past and present through the artistic intervention of memoryscapes. 

How does seeing our physical landscape through a different lens facilitate new, alternative or forgotten stories and moments in time? And what implications does it provide for how we can shape the future?

Piece viewable and shareable via website link // SCROLL DOWN for piece viewable via Youtube link

As part of my initial mapping and artistic research, this project showcased below seeks to enter new territory, a different perspective, and reside in a liminal space where the past, present, and future intersect. The processes and outcomes of this preliminary investigations include taking a contemporary approach to the film above by recording my bicycle ride through the selected district, starting at the bottom of Kazimierz, going through Podgórze and ending at Kraków-Płaszów Concentration Camp and its surrounding areas. The film provides an abstracted timelapse of this route with selected images of specific portions of the journey from the film shown below.

With this portion of the project, my goal was to capture what is not and cannot be mapped -- the intersection of the physical landscape of natural and urban spaces with the intangibility of memory and heritage i.e. what is preserved, memorialized, and revitalized versus what is abandoned, buried, suppressed, or forgotten. And finally, how art and artistic invention provides an entry point for investigating this liminal space as a safe space for reflection, active listening, and questioning.

What can these abstract compositions and memoryscapes tell us?

How can we respond?

Mapping Memoryscapes: Podgórze | Landmarks include: Heroes Square / Jewish Memorial Square

Mapping Memoryscapes: Podgórze Rynek

Mapping Memoryscapes: Kraków-Płaszów Concentration Camp and surroundings

Mapping Memoryscapes: Kraków-Płaszów Concentration Camp and surroundings

Piece viewable and shareable via Youtube

Photography: 2023 MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, Concert/Screening of ‘Memoryscapes’ by Joanna Pottle and Jeremy Wexler | Kraków, Poland