The exhibition was produced in cooperation with Metropolis Artists Agency and the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America.

The event "Common Histories", within which Izabela Łapińska’s project will be exhibited, commemorates the anniversary of the first mass deportation of Polish citizens to the East and will be an opportunity to meet witnesses of history and deepen the knowledge of the times in which people were condemned to suffering and oblivion by regimes and propaganda. The programme of the meeting includes a discussion with the Sybirak Ms. Helena Knapczyk and the presentation of state decorations.

The meeting will be accompanied by an exhibition of works by Izabela Łapińska, professor of the Faculty of Film Art Organization, from the series "Memory Trace", "Siberia". The project "Memory Trace" which presents people who experienced persecution and repression by totalitarian regimes is an artistic extraction from the history of Poland forgotten faces of people destroyed by totalitarian systems.

The project consists of three parts - these are exiles to Siberia, Poles deported to the Third Reich for forced labour and political prisoners of the Stalinist period in People's Poland - young people from the Union of the White Shield and the Huragan organization who in the 1950s, were tortured in the Voivodeship Security Office at Anstadta 7 in Łódź. Izabela Łapińska spent many hours with each of the characters, talking and recording their memories, and then photographing their faces in the convention of police photographs, as criminals holding their own handwritten name and surname. These are black and white studio portraits made in prison style, full face and in profile. Professor Łapińska transcribed the recorded memories/testimonies, and then invited children to collaborate to read the stories which she recorded again.

Mobile photographic structures with portable sound system and lighting were shown, among others, at night in the forest on the 83rd anniversary of the first deportation of Poles to Siberia on the route of the night Run of Memory of Siberia in Białystok (Turczyński forest) and in Wrocław (Osobowicki forest) in cooperation with the Museum of Memory of Siberia. The next place of presentation was Łódź - public spaces - among others, at night in the birch forest in the Park of the Olechówka river source. The next presentation of the project took place on the premises of the former Kielce prison on the Castle Hill on the European Night of Museums. The next exhibitions of the project took place in a Kdth cattle wagon in the Open-Air Museum of Locomotives and Technical Devices in Karsznice – a branch of the History Museum of the City of Zduńska Wola and in the Museum of Cursed Soldiers and Political Prisoners of the Polish People's Republic in the former prison on Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw. The gallery photographs were presented, among others, in the Kresy Museum in Lubaczów, in the FF Forum of Photography gallery in Łódź, in the Wieluń Region Museum.

Exhibitions in an open space and accessible with the help of modern photography and multimedia attracted over three thousand viewers in just one year, which is evidence of the broad impact and emotional message of the project. Photography in an era of the free expression of negative opinions, in Professor Łapińska's project teaches responsibility for the image of another person, builds empathy, respect and dignity. The exhibitions of the project are the protection of the memory of the history of Poland, but above all the promotion of values such as courage, fortitude, perseverance and humanity.

We invite you to the exhibition on 10, February at 7 p.m. (local time) at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York.