„In the Millennium School pictures we see the artist’s old school in Wąbrzeźno. It was not Zieliński’s intention to stop off at the school, but once he finds himself there he picks up his camera, enchanted by its magical aura. It is the summer season, the school is empty, memories come flooding back, some objects seem familiar, but furniture and walls have been repainted in a most bizarre fashion. The artist wanders around deserted halls and classrooms. The school is a riot of colors, but the many layers of oil paint hide the past and nostalgia. Millennium School is neither a detailed map of the place nor a documentary piece, it is a fairytale land of memories, an attempt at a “search for lost time”. These photographs make us “remember”, they are “signs” of what has passed; they take us to the realm of delight and let us in on the mysteries of memory. Proust repeatedly discusses the obligation he feels – to follow the trail of memories where one sensation reminds him of another, over and over again, triggered by the taste of petite madeleine which reminds him of the madeleine that he had at Combray. Zieliński’s photographs are Proust’s “resurrections of memory”, through them we can relive our childhood and school days, holidays in the countryside, first loves …”

Part of text A Photograph is never just a print by Joanna Zielińska

This publication accompanies the exhibition Millennium School
Editing: Jolanty Pieńkos

Translation: Mitch Cohen, Monika Ujma, Marcin Wawrzyńczak
Design and typesetting: Janek Bersz, www.full-metal-jacket.pl

Published in association with Dewi Lewis Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-904567-77-4, 978-83-927311-5-3
978-1-904587-76-7, 978-83-927311-9-1

Tags: catalogues, publications