Reading & conversation
Seven Deaths: Memory and Forgetting for the Future

The future will be wonderful, but at a price that will darken our joy, says author Eva Viežnaviec. She is a writer who leaves no kind of violence hidden.

In her book What are you going for, Wolf? she focuses on a local story: the crimes committed here in the 20th century were devastating, and only she, an unrecognizable drunkard, manages to change that. Seeking love, not greatness, is the motto of the author, who describes her lifestyle as "weed" and herself as a compiler rather than a writer: she only collects stories.
As a researcher, she looks every day into the faces of the officers murdered in Katyn, some of them from Belarus. She is now publishing her yellowed photos and letters, which remained hidden from the families for a long time, to prevent them from being forgotten.
Can memory influence the future?

Eva Viežnaviec discusses this questions with author and photographer Olga Bubich.

© Dirk Skiba

Eva Viežnaviec (real name Sviatlana Kurs) was born in a remote village on the border between three regions in Belarus, where all roads end. This shaped both her consciousness and her creativity. A graduate of the Faculty of Philology at the Belarusian State University, Vieżnaviec writes a book every ten years. She has lived in Warsaw. since 2006. 

© Андрэй Дубінін

Olga Bubich is a photographer and author. In her work, she questions the mechanisms of memory and forgetting. In her photo book The Art of (Not) Forgetting, she explores the most painful and the most hopeful memories of Belarusians and LGBT people, collected in 2021. Olga Bubich is a ICORN fellowship holder from 2023 to 2024.