2024
installation

Footpaths trodden by people and animals arise organically on regularly frequented routes, connecting various points in the area in the most efficient way. They may lead from a feeding ground to a watering hole, or from a bus stop to a pedestrian crossing. As an important element of the urbanised landscape, they inspire designers when creating or modifying traffic layouts in housing estates. In winter, such footpaths are particularly visible in the snow, which favours their documentation. These routes can serve as the basis for designing pedestrian areas, greenways, or wildlife crossings, reflecting the needs of all inhabitants of the area.

In the run-up to NARRACJE, Krystyna Jędrzejewska-Szmek and Kasper Jakubowski mapped the migration routes within the green refuge between Niedźwiednik and Góralska Streets. According to the original plans of Szczepan Baum and Danuta Dzierżanowska, this area was to serve as a community neighbourhood garden. However, this vision was never realised, and today, it is an intersection of human routes and footpaths trodden by deer, foxes, dogs, wild boars, and even ants. Relying on field observation and camera trap photographs, the artists created a map of local footpaths, which they then transferred onto an installation comprising photographs, videos, maps, and light.

KRYSTYNA JĘDRZEJEWSKA-SZMEK is an artist, biologist, and researcher. She graduated in photography from the University of Arts Poznań, media art from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and biology from the University of Warsaw. Her interests focus on interspecies tensions and connections. Her research-based practice is informed by science, while retaining a critical stance towards it. She primarily works in the visual sphere but is also active as a writer and organiser of workshops and social activities. Jędrzejewska-Szmek is a member of the ZAKOLE Group.

KASPER JAKUBOWSKI is a landscape architect, environmental educator, and nature restorer. He is the author of two guidebooks on the urban nature of Kraków and Warsaw. Known for his plant-based art installations, he works at the intersection of ecology, architecture, and art. Jakubowski promotes the concept of fourth nature, the aesthetics of imperfection in landscape architecture, and discovering the potential or “wild” and “rewilded” urban areas. He lectures at the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Kraków University of Technology.