“Paulina” Dołowy / Levy – exploratory walk

Ten pages of a Holocaust witness testimony taken in Kraków in 1945 were all that appeared to exist of Paulina Hirsch. The notetaker’s introduction stated Paulina began the war with a husband and daughter, but now she was alone. Kraków was Paulina’s home, to which she returned during the war and after. Artists Michelle Levy and Patrycja Dołowy have been playing careful detectives in this evolving story. They have many gems to share, and many more yet to uncover. Join them for an exploratory walk investigating sites connected to Paulina’s story—an exercise in pushing the boundaries of what we may learn from the no-longer-living.

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Paulina is a research and performance project based on the discovery of a 1945 Holocaust testimony of a Jewish woman from Kraków, and on a growing exchange between artists Michelle Levy and Patrycja Dołowy. When Michelle asked Patrycja to translate the testimony of her ancestor, Paulina, little did they know the roles they would play in a web of events that had been unfolding over decades.
Paulina’s testimony—of a woman who lost her family and fended for herself throughout occupied Poland—is an official, impersonal record. It is impossible to really know the woman behind the text. Brought together by this compelling document which had, as it turns out, been given to Michelle in error, the artists have taken deep responsibility for this unearthed story of a woman who can no longer speak for herself. Guided by happenstance and the reminder that things are not always as they seem, they have been following Paulina’s traces through Poland and Ukraine, exploring what happens when one testimony, taken by chance out of thousands, is revisited, in-depth, in the places where it happened. They have some extraordinary tales to tell…
Paulina is FestivALTs first project-in-residence.
Artists
Partners

“Paulina” is sponsored by the US Embassy, Warsaw, Poland, and by Asylum Arts Small Grants Program. The project is made possible through cooperation with the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, with additional research support from the Emmanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute.”Paulina” has received individual donations through the project’s fiscal sponsor, Brooklyn Arts Council.