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events Programme
The exhibition “Landscape Archive” presented at Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen, Belgium from May 7 to June 30, 2025, was dedicated to the uncommemorated burial sites of Holocaust victims in Poland. The project was initiated by the Zapomniane Foundation and was the result of cooperation with the Polish Institute Brussels, the Urban Memory Foundation, CEJI – A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe and Kazerne Dossin. The project was part of the program of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council in 2025.
“Landscape Archive” tells the story of a lesser-known chapter of the history of the Holocaust – hundreds of graves of Jews murdered outside the extermination camps, often in forests, roadside ditches, on the outskirts of villages and towns. The Zapomniane Foundation has been working for over a decade to locate these sites, mark them and commemorate them in accordance with Jewish religious law. So far, around 300 such graves have been located, of which over 100 have been marked and a dozen permanently commemorated. The exhibition showed not only the results of these activities, but also the way in which the landscape becomes a witness to history – it bears its traces and allows, through research, to recover the memory of the victims.
The curator of the exhibition was Dr. Aleksandra Janus, and Aleksander Schwarz was responsible for the artistic research. The exhibition was also attended by the Foundation's regular collaborators: Dr. Szymon Lenarczyk (Wykop na Poziomie), Dr. Eng. Sebastian Różycki (Warsaw University of Technology) and Agnieszka Nieradko. Materials for the exhibition were prepared by Maria Banaś, and three films documenting the Foundation's research activities were directed by Krzysztof Gajewski.
An integral part of the program were three curatorial tours led by Hanna Jaumin, which took place on 1, 21 and 29 June. These meetings enjoyed great interest from the local community and visitors from other cities and countries. The guided tours created a space for reflection, asking questions and deepening knowledge about the uncommemorated victims of the Holocaust and the ways in which their dignity can be restored today through research, art and joint commemorative activities.
The exhibition "Landscape Archive" was not only a presentation of research results, but also a reminder of the presence of the absent, an attempt to rebuild the relationship between landscape and memory, between what has passed and what is still present in space and in collective consciousness.
📸 Antoine Rassart / Melting Prod
