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in the labyrinth of forms

To those who warn. . .

Exhibition of Anna van Matre

On the 5th of May 2018 at the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oświęcim took place the official opening of Anna VanMatre's exhibition "To those who warn. . ." The monumental composition, based on the motive of flames and smoke, dedicated to Jan Karski, has filled the space of the House of Silence.

Among the numerous guests of the ceremony, next to the family of A. VanMatre, including her parents, there were one of the most outstanding Polish poets, Adam Zagajewski. The participants of the event listened to a letter addressed to the International Youth Meeting Centre by a long-time friend of Jan Karski, author of the book "Jan Karski - the man to whom I told the truth", Kaya Mirecka-Ploss, in which she expressed her appreciation for the many years of the Centre's work for commemoration. The guests also listened with emotion to the thanks to the organizers, given by the Knight of the Order of Virtuti Militari, Capt. in the retired state of Tadeusz Socha, privately the artist's father. He stressed that especially in places as symbolic as Oświęcim, marked with history, it is important to recall the memory of great authorities.

The 22-meter long installation "To those who warn" is dedicated to Jan Karski, whom the artist has been friends with in the last years of his life. As a member of the Polish underground, Karski was a courier who passed on secret information from occupied Poland to the government in exile. He was smuggled into and out of the Warsaw Ghetto to convey the horror of the Holocaust and to warn the British Foreign Minister and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1982 Yad Vashem recognized Jan Karski as a Righteous Among the Nations and in 1994 he received honorary citizenship of Israel.

More: www.annavanmatre.com

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