Katarzyna Wasowska, Marianne Wasowska, Waiting for the Snow

Waiting for the Snow

Katarzyna Wasowska, Marianne Wasowska

Publisher
Yogurt Editions
Year
2025
ISBN
979-1298521148
Specifications
Hard Cover
16.5 x 23.5 cm
156 pages
Design by Francesca Todde / Départ Pour l'Image
Printed by ARGRAF, Warszawa
Financed by the Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Young Poland 2024
Maribor Photobook Award 2025, Shortlist
Premio Internacional FELIFA 2025, Finalist

Waiting for the Snow is a photographic project presenting the curious phenomenon of Polish migration to the South American countries during the partitions (19th century) and the interwar period. We focus on the Brazilian and Argentinean directions of migration, as these countries were the most popular destinations of migrants, and the number of people of Polish origin living there is currently the highest on that continent (Brazil 1.53 million, Argentina 120-450 thousand). Both these countries were also at that time perceived by migrants as unknown and exotic. We want to shed some light on this little-known (and rather untypical) aspect of European presence in that remote part of the world. The colonization pursued by Central European countries took the form of an advertising campaign. It aimed to occupy large areas of land to draw not state, but individual benefits, pretending that this land was not inhabited by native populations. The increased migration to Brazil was also related to the lack of workforce that the country experienced after the abolition of slavery and the implementation of the government project of making Brazil 'white'. In Argentina, the plan was mainly based on the idea that only European workers could build a modern dream society. This migration policy strongly influenced the way migrants defined themselves and created relationships with the new land, which is particularly important because most of them were farmers. The Polish descendants of those emigrants are now still actively cultivating the traditions and language of their ancestors. Using our own photos, archival documents, and family albums, we want to create a multi-layered visual story. On the one hand, we gather stories based on the collective memory of the Polish community about the country of origin and the beginnings of settlement in the new homeland. On the other hand, we focus on the creolization and mixing of cultures and observe how the Slavic background has interlaced with the South American context, creating a concept of identity based on reconstruction, fiction, and fantasy.

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