Slawa Harasymowicz

In H.N.5 515 Slawa Harasymowicz uses personal biographies to explore one of the biggest World War II maritime disasters that still remains obscured in history and clouded in ambiguity. The project seeks to examine universally inherent tensions between images, words and historical records in reconstructing and invoking memory.

As a way of unpacking or exposing the personal and public significance of this event and interrogating the impulses of knowledge, destiny, timing and control, Harasymowicz juxtaposes drawing, print, found footage, archives and sound.

Additionally she creates a haunting multi-vocal audio and object installation, where voice, soundtracks and story compete for attention in our attempts to make sense of the richness and density of material.
Narratives reverberate and overlap, zooming in on the victims’ ordeal and perpetrators whilst interweaving the artist’s family history.

Recalling Walter Benjamin’s mnemonic excavations, the exhibition takes the form of a three-chapter artistic interrogation which continues Harasymowicz’s interest in exploring contradictions of history, archive and representation.