Before the Day Dawns
Exhibition by Joanna Chrząszcz
On 23 January 2026, just before the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, an exhibition of photographs by Joanna Chrząszcz entitled ‘Before the Day Dawns’ will open at the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oświęcim. The exhibition presents a selection of the author's work from the last ten years. Most of the photographs on display were taken during her daily commute from the Death Gate in Birkenau to the barracks where conservation work was being carried out at the time — an activity that Joanna Chrząszcz is professionally involved in.
Captured in the cyclically changing seasons, the frames are, as the author herself emphasises, ‘a form of documenting reality. It is also one of the ways of coping with being in this place, but above all, an attempt to record and capture what it lives for today.’
The photographs on display are remarkable. Not every viewer will agree with the presentation of the Memorial Site through the prism of the natural world, which is governed by its own laws — a world that, “by bearing witness to its uniqueness, strength, determination and boundlessness”, gives us a glimmer of hope. These black-and-white frames, inscribed in the sequence of the circle of life, create space for reflection. They are not unambiguous, and the message they convey remains individual to each viewer.
The exhibition will be on display at the House of Silence until 28 February 2026.
Joanna Chrząszcz's work to date has been presented at exhibitions in Oświęcim, Chełmek, Przeciszów, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, Jaworzno, Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Czechowice-Dziedzice, Lanckorona, Rzeszów and Goczałkowice-Zdrój.
