Video from the Event
June 28th - July 3rd, 2022

Esther’s Willow

Artistic intervention in Chrzanów and exhibition in Krakow

events Program

Esther's Willow is a public project of the artists: sisters Marta and Katarzyna Sala from Chrzanów and Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman from Philadelphia, whose ancestors lived in Jarosław and Warsaw.

The project focuses on working with memory around the former Esther’s Square, the location of the Great Synagogue of Chrzanów demolished in the 1970s. The artists' years-long process of research, collaboration, and making brought regional and local institutions, contemporary inhabitants, descendants, survivors, and their dead together to mark, contemplate, mourn, enliven, and honor the square and the generations that surround/ed and fill/ed it.

The main goal of the project is to replant the tree in the place of the former synagogue and name it Estera's Willow, referring to the currently nameless Estera Square in front of MOKSiR in Chrzanów. The artists invite the audience to plant the Willow of Esther together using the symbolic "silent water" and to participate in the events accompanying the project from June 28 to July 3, 2022.

The gesture of replanting the tree reveals an old, intimate space of ancestral transcultural experiences where Jewish and Slavic communities jointly trusted willows. In their world, the willow appeared as a tree of power, an antidote to cure viruses, disease, infertility, and bodily pain. The willow as a link between the living and the dead can once again create a bridge and a basis for mutual relations.

The project is being created in cooperation with FestivALT in Krakow, the Museum in Chrzanów. Irena and Mieczysław Mazaraki, MOKSiR in Chrzanów, dr Marek Tuszewicki and Śomi (Dominika Śmigocka). The project was supported by Allianz and the European Union.

  • EVENTS IN KRAKOW

    28.06-3.07.2022
    • 21.00

      drawing silent water from the Vistula (June 28)

      centrALT, ul. Józefińska 9, 30-529 Kraków
      • Silent water
      • Care
    • 17.00

      opening of the "Esther's Willow" exhibition (29.06)

      • Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman
      • Marta Sala
      • Katarzyna Sala
      centrALT, ul. Józefińska 9, 30-529 Kraków
    • 10.00

      bus departure to Chrzanów (03.07)

      centrALT, ul. Józefińska 9, 30-529 Kraków
  • EVENTS IN CHRZANÓW

    2-3.07.2022
    • 20.45

      Silent Water Procession (2.07.2022)

      former Esther's Square in Chrzanów
      • Silent Water
      • Walk
    • 11.00

      Silent Procession to the Esther's Square (03.07)

      • Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman
      • Marta Sala
      • Katarzyna Sala
      Chrzanów Główny train station, ul. Fabryczna
    • 13.00

      Communal planting of the Esther's Willow (03.07)

      former Esther's Square
    • 16.00

      Mojše Band Concert (03.07)

      former Esther's square

Sponsors

drawing silent water from the Vistula (June 28)
opening of the "Esther's Willow" exhibition (29.06)
bus departure to Chrzanów (03.07)
Silent Water Procession (2.07.2022)
Silent Procession to the Esther's Square (03.07)
Communal planting of the Esther's Willow (03.07)
Mojše Band Concert (03.07)

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