Jadwiga Sawicka’s project was created as part of the Warning! Border exhibition organized in 2017 by Arsenał Gallery in Białystok and Labirynt Gallery in Lublin. In the same year, the installation was presented on the façades of various contemporary art galleries in Poland, from Szczecin to Bytom. In materials accompanying the work, it is stated that “The flag bearing the inscription HEART OF THE COUNTRY marks the emotional centre of Poland. As the centre shifts, so do the borders; the arbitrary choice of the centre and the related need to frequently shift the borders underlines their discretional nature.”

In Orunia, the work is displayed at the entrance to the newly opened seat of the Gdańsk Foundation for Social Innovation, which supports the local community through working with children, young and senior citizens, people in a difficult social and economic situation, people with various psycho-motoric needs as well as refugees and migrants. It is in a place like this that the empathetic, civic and community-driven heart of Poland beats.

JADWIGA SAWICKA (she/her) is a visual artist and curator. She works with paintings, photographs and installations, also in the public space. Her works are sometimes described as “textual painting.” She is interested in how language formats our thinking, in the relationships between text and image, and the links between art and literature. In 2015, Sawicka received the Katarzyna Kobro Award. She collaborates with the BWA Gallery in Warsaw. She lives in Przemyśl and works at the Institute of Fine Arts of the Rzeszów University.

Photo by R. Kubiszyn