I took this picture back in summer of 2018 in Jelenia Góra in Poland. From the very beginning the pattern of breaks and scratches on the wall reminded me of an old map. I mean some simplified version of it, maybe from the times before modern cartography was invented. The question was: a map of what? Soft and warm lighting of the wall brings some suggestions. It evokes the feeling of the south European landscape. So I like to think of it as a kind of medieval map. Not ideal, not perfect, rather a conception or a visualization of space. I would even take a step further. Could it be some ancient visualization of Europe? All these scratches and breaks on the wall seems to confirm this trace… Playing the game of speculation and imagination again in the year 2023, I can not be as naive as back then in 2018 when the picture was taken. Looking again at the picture and again seeing the map, I can not restrain my aroused mind from hearing the sound of gunfire and bombshelling. It comes from the East. The sound is low and softened through the distance. But it’s certainly there. Too real and too concrete to be ignored. And this is enough to feel the fear again.
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Mateusz Skóra studied photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, as well history of art at Adam Mickiewicz University.
He exhibited his works in Berlin, Brussels, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan and Wigry. Participated in photography projects incubator Migawki in Warsaw, completed a residency program in Dom Pracy Twórczej in Wigry. His project Autobahn der Freiheit was exhibited during TIFF Festival 2016 // Rivers & Roads. He is a stipendist of Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.