The world’s oldest landscape was created by the sea. This view, timeless yet ever-changing, has become part of my personal story — especially here, in the waters of the bay between Gdańsk and Hel.

My mother was Ukrainian, as was her mother. Both were forced to leave their homeland. During the Second World War, they lived in Gdańsk. They avoided speaking their native language, fearful of drawing attention to themselves or revealing their origins. My mother, then twelve, was evacuated with her classmates and teacher to the Hel Peninsula during the first air raids. My grandmother remained in Gdańsk with her two younger children. Between mother and daughter lay the sea.

Loss. Displacement. Flight. Separation. Only years later were they reunited – in a new and unfamiliar place.

As I delve deeper into my family’s history, I rediscover my own inner landscape of emotions. What do we remember? What is inscribed in our bodies and our souls? As a child, I was mute. For a long time, I could not speak. If I lacked words of my own, then who speaks the language I cannot?

I set out from Sopot, following the path towards Hel. The camera becomes the translator of my inner world. Do I remember my grandmother’s face? How does the past shape my interior self? For me, memories exist as images. Through photography, I explore materiality and chart emotional maps of terrain. I search for recurring patterns, the taste of landscapes, and their coordinates.

Family photographs, archival material, contemporary images and video recordings intertwine. At their centre, as the starting point and motivation, lies a question of unresolved inheritance. What have the women before me passed down, and how much of it lives within me?

The direction of the journey reveals itself only through walking. Each step leads to the next, and the journey through inner worlds becomes one of transformation.

Exhibition open:
Tuesday–Sunday: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM