WASOWSKA Marianne & Katarzyna

Waiting for the snow

France / Poland

2021

In this project Marianne and Katarzyna WASOWSKA tell about the phenomenon of polish migration to the South American countries from the end of 19th century. Their researches focuses on Brazil and Argentina, main destinations at this time.

The intention of this work is to highlight this barely known aspect of European colonisation of America: pursued by Central European countries, it took the form of advertising campaigns run by private investors. Promoting colonialism as a way to get up in the social scale, the aim was to hire workers able to build to modern societies of this early capitalism. Those had to be european, white; opposite de facto to locale inhabitants, mixed and indigenous. The economical system which was merging was already relaying on a racial hierarchy.

Using their own photos, archival documents and family albums, the both artists also build pictures out of the stories they collect in the villages, creating this way a poetic narration based on the fragile material of memory.

With the support of the Polish Institute in Paris