New Homeland

The video "New Homeland" ("Nowa Ojczyzna") explores the practice of eliminating memory of people from public space in the context of post-war border movements.

The decisions of the Potsdam Conference transferred to the control of the Polish State not only the significant material and cultural heritage of the population of the former German Empire, but a lot of graves with dead people who lived here before.

This applies not only to the German-speaking population, but also to people speaking Polish, French, Swedish and other foreign languages who once lived in these areas.

In the mid-20th century, the communist authorities did a lot to prevent the memory of this people from being present at all. Stone fragments of destroyed monuments constitute a significant part of the street decorations of modern Szczecin.

Robert Prutz, a famous German poet who lived in the second half of the 19th century, also experienced the consequences of this practice. The poet, who glorified the virtues of his small homeland and the liberal, who came into conflict with the authorities of the German Empire, lost his monument and grave after his death in new state and new circumstances.

This video is the result of research with the help of which the poet’s grave was found. It performatively includes poems and the poet himself into the Polish cultural environment and through this seeks to expand the field of existence of Polish culture.