Filmoteka Muzeum

Study of Memory is a record of an artistic activity in which Franciszek Orłowski hired a professional cleaning service to tidy up a derelict open-air ethnographic museum. We witness the diligent process of cleaning the interior of a rural house and the artefacts stored therein. Orłowski seeks to depict the museification of the past, which consists in turning a historical site into a sterile space. To metaphorically grasp the manner in which exhibition strategies serving the needs of preserving cultural heritage construct a vision of history that is easy to absorb.

Study of Memory is also a commentary on the efforts towards restoring the memory of the peasant origins of the Polish society – an attempt to uncover and show to the middle class its historical identity.

(MP)