24.06 Monday

Two of FestivALT’s co-directors, Adam Schorin and Jason Francisco, lead tours of the site of the Nazi concentration camp Płaszów. Once an Austrian military encampment, the site has been used as a Jewish cemetery, a concentration camp, and, today, a public park. Learn about the history of Płaszów, engage in a debate about how it should be remembered, and see what of its past remains visible in the ground today.

Ten pages of a Holocaust witness testimony taken in Kraków in 1945 were all that appeared to exist of Paulina Hirsch. The notetaker’s introduction stated Paulina began the war with a husband and daughter, but now she was alone. Kraków was Paulina’s home, to which she returned during the war and after. Artists Michelle Levy and Patrycja Dołowy have been playing careful detectives in this evolving story. They have many gems to share, and many more yet to uncover. Join them for an exploratory walk investigating sites connected to Paulina’s story—an exercise in pushing the boundaries of what we may learn from the no-longer-living.

The Long Table is a situational dinner party, and conversation is what’s on the menu. A question is posed and all are invited to sit and discuss. For this inaugural FestivALT Long Table, we hold space for questions of Zion and Zionism. What is it to witness Zionism in Kraków today? Are you comfortable? Confused? Frustrated? Angry? Proud? Isolated? Come explore and discuss what it means to live with complicated affiliations and alliances in the diversity of contemporary Kraków.

The Long Table is a situational dinner party, and conversation is what’s on the menu. A question is posed and all are invited to sit and discuss. For this inaugural FestivALT Long Table, we hold space for questions of Zion and Zionism. What is it to witness Zionism in Kraków today? Are you comfortable? Confused? Frustrated? Angry? Proud? Isolated? Come explore and discuss what it means to live with complicated affiliations and alliances in the diversity of contemporary Kraków.

Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau are the two most famous and most visited genocidal sites in the world, but they do not encompass the whole of the Auschwitz complex. Jason Francisco's photo-text-installation work examines a part of the Auschwitz story all but erased from public memory, through a deliberate misuse of the historical practice of stereoscopy.

An installation of sculptural works by Stephania Freda Leigh, Oh, Their Breasts, Oh, My Breasts explores the sexual trauma inflicted upon women during the Holocaust. Leigh’s work—usually brightly colored, participatory, and bouncing—here takes form in a silent, lamenting, and weeping disposition. The exhibition problematizes the lack of recorded and shared knowledge of testimonies of sexual violence from the Holocaust and wartime in general, and continues Leigh’s investigation into what it means to be a Jewish Australian Polish Female Artist, and how her Jewish female body mourns the experiences of her ancestors.

A woman of many photographs and one great gesture. When she and her brother Natan inherited Ignacy Krieger’s photography studio, they decided to keep signing photographs with their famous father’s name. He is still famous today thanks to Amalia’s decision—after she had become the only official owner of the atelier—to donate the family’s collection of photographic plates to Kraków. She preserved the memory of the city, its monuments and its people. But who was this incredible Jewish woman, one of the first Polish photographers? Did she consider herself a pioneer, an artist? We know about what she did, we know about the way she worked. As for her thoughts and ideas—we will try to access them through her photography. Curated by Aśka Warchał-Beneschi.