From the East to the East

"From the East to the East" is the second part of a project conducted in collaboration with the Berlin-based gallery KVOST, exploring themes of economic migration from East to West and from South to North. In Poland, the largest migrant groups are from Ukraine and Belarus, while in Germany, they are from Turkey and Poland. The exhibition is dedicated to minorities and the specific relationships shaped by the experience of changing one's place of residence.

Migration is a universal phenomenon occurring across all geographies, typically from regions with weaker infrastructure to areas where resources are accumulated. Certain regions, such as Podlasie, Anatolia, or Western Ukraine, are shaped by long-standing social and familial histories of migration, through maintaining connections over distances or through collective imaginings of working in the West. These symbolic-material experiences create a unique migration culture, formed both by those living in diasporas and those who remain in their birthplace. This culture emerges through the transmission of migration-related knowledge: networks of contacts, addresses, behavioral patterns, and aspirations for life.

The feeling of alienation in a country to which one migrates, as well as upon returning to one's home, creates a specific migratory condition characterized by "being in between," existing in two or more places simultaneously. This can manifest in instances such as working by caring for someone abroad while worrying about the well-being of a family left behind, or building a house for someone else while dreaming of one's own. The experience of migration is often seen as temporary, a provisional phase that precedes stability associated with a "settled" way of life. Through the exhibition From the East to the East, we aim to elevate the migration experience by highlighting the knowledge it brings, reframing "being in between" as a state rather than an exception, and presenting the figure of the migrant (a person on the move) as a universal point of reference.

In doing so, we consider economic factors, the abrupt impacts of climate change, and the increasingly aggressive politics of empires that contribute to contemporary displacements and shape the identities of those on the move.

The invited artists—Aykan Safoğlu, Marta Romankiv, Monika Wińczyk, Özlem Sarıyıldız, and Zofia nierodzińska—share stories of people who have left their familiar contexts, as well as those who stayed. The works exhibited are united by narratives told from a third-person perspective, encompassing the experiences of loved ones, countrymates, people met "while out there," and those only seen returning. At the same time, these works also reflect the autobiographical experience of being a foreigner in one's (un)familiar country.

Zofia nierodzińska explores migration through family histories. Her large-format paintings focus on her father's migration to the U.S. in the 1980s for work. Instead of achieving the "American Dream," he faced marginalization and underemployment. The story told by nierodzińska focuses on the uncertainty of life in emigration, examining not only the figure of the migrant but also the situation of those who remained in Poland—that is, all the relationships that shape the culture and heritage of migration in regions like Podlasie, where the artist comes from. nierodzińska presents snapshots of everyday life that diverge from those supporting the mythology of individual success, while exploring migrant relationships which, like queer ones, redefine the notion of the family "norm."