cry on an echo
Małgorzata Stankiewicz
The Photoforum Pasquart proposes for this edition of the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography, entitled Cracks, a carte blache to the artist Małgorzata Stankiewicz.
For centuries and against all odds, Polandʼs Białowieża Forest has withstood the barbarian human behaviour within its grounds. Yet back in 2016, under the pretence of protecting it, the new Polish Environment Minister Jan Szyszko approved large-scale logging in areas in which all human intervention had until then been barred.
When so much is being said in recent years about the environment, and our pressing and much-overdue need to protect it, Europe’s last primeval forest was being slain for two years, on the directive of those who should have been protecting it. cry of an echo is a protest, the artist’s personal voice of opposition; the images a metaphor for the impending doom of irreversible destruction.
The project was shot on film during a month-long residency as a volunteer at the Białowieża National Park in spring 2016. It comprises a total of 46 images that were intentionally mistreated by masking, chemical contamination, uneven development, bleaching and retouching. Originally conceived as a handmade artist book, cry of an echo won the Unseen Dummy Award in 2017 , and the book was published by the Dutch publisher Lecturis in September 2018.
Year of production: 2016
