Agnieszka Baaske [Poland]

Mum

location: yard of the former orphanage, 6 Sieroca Str. (entrance from the square side)

Mum is an intimate, site-specific audio work. Melody of a broken music box, rhythmical declamation of counting games, mistaken poems, quiet prayers, desperate calls for her – Mother – will make our inner children feel, even if just for a minute, paid attention to and important. The sounds will help connect with this magnificent and painful deficiency. Let them haunt us, clearing the path to ultimate tranquillity.

History of the Charity House
The City Council decided to build a shelter for the poor in 1698. The construction lasted several months and on December 7, 1699 first inhabitants were taken in.
For nearly 200 years, the Charity House on Sieroca Street 6 took in thousands of children. The orphans were dressed in green clothes. The House’s stamp read: Date nobis, dabitur vobis regnum coelorum (Give us and the Kingdom of Heaven shall be given to you).
Until 1906, the institution provided for the poorest. Later in 1908 the first tuberculosis clinic in Gdańsk, was opened in the shelter’s abandoned building.
To this day one can see the numbers “6” and “9” on the shelter’s façade, which commemorate the completion of the building, as well as a fragment of the original wall at the back of the property.