Garden of Memories

The artist marked a path that led across the meadows from Stare Buczyce towards the river. There are six stops, each consisting of a delicately ornamented wooden bench and a sign. On each of them there is one sentence referring to the aural history and memories of the people living in a nearby village. Bettina Bereś carried long conversations with the inhabitants of Stare Buczyce. She learned about their lives. The artist was told that in the old days hundreds of cows used to graze in the meadows along the river and in winter when the wetlands were frozen over you could skate there. The river often turned out to be treacherous and many daring swimmers lost their lives in its waters. The artist immortalized several of these stories, giving them a subtle and meditative form. Everyone can sit on these benches and evoke her or his own associations, thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams.

Marta Ryczkowska, text from the catalogue