Polish Preserves is a research project focused on domestic violence against women in Poland, a topic that has not yet entered mainstream discourse (unlike, for example, abortion).
We have a general understanding of the statistics on physical violence that is reported to law enforcement. However, we lack information on the scale of violence that does not make its way into police records. In our system, it is striking that there is still no unified reporting framework (for cases of violence reported by hospital personnel, social workers, probation officers, and the police). As a result, we still do not have a complete picture of the problem. This project aims to create a (visual) archive on violence against women.
Sources
01. Recovered blood
Photo: Teresa Margolles, Sangre recuperada (Recovered Blood), 2009. Installation of mud impregnated fabrics that were used to clean places where bodies of murdered persons were found in Mexico. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich;
02. Sonidos muerte
Photo: Teresa Margolles, Sonidos de la muerte (Sounds of Death), 2008, Sound installation, loudspeakers. Each audio is a recording of the area where the body of a murdered woman was found, as stated in the preliminary investigations carried out by the Mexican police. Over 600 women have fallen victim to the feminicide in Ciudad Juárez since 1993. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich;
03. Still from Saute ma ville (1968),
directed by Chantal Akerman (1950–2015)
04. Women licking jam off a car
Sol Goldberg's photograph of participants in Allan Kaprow's Women licking jam off a car, from his happening 'household' (1964), courtesy Getty Research Institute,
© Estate of Sol Goldberg;
05/06. Lilana's Invisible Summer (fragment of the book):
author: Cristina Rivera Garza, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024;
