In her more than 16-meter-long textile piece, Monika Drożyńska weaves together language, memory, and migration. Hand-embroidered and painted letters, along with fragments of interviews with people who have experienced displacement, form a dense, multilingual narrative. At the centre are three letters – German “Ö”, Ukrainian “Ґ”, and Polish “Ć” – each the fifth in its respective alphabet. They symbolize different systems of power and resistance, assimilation and exclusion. Texts in six languages (English, German, Ukrainian, Polish, Hebrew, and Yiddish) give voice to those often unheard – personal, emotional, unofficial.
The texts are the result of many conversations held in foreign languages, across cultures, and notably – under COVID conditions. Hand embroidery becomes a carrier of intimate memory, in contrast to printed letters that bear the weight of institutional messaging. The work creates a space of tension between what is written and remembered, and what is silenced and unconscious.
