Marta Michalowska - 'Gdansk - Polish Lives Found In Translation'

A new series of films from Marta Michalowska explores the lives on Polish people living in the UK.

Marta Michalowska left her native Gdansk in 2000 to live in the UK, where she decided to pursue photography and later graduated from The London College of Communication in 2007. Now 29 years old, her series of 4 simple and direct films can be seen as her re-tracing these years since her departure. Very little is known about contemporary Polish life despite the huge immigration to the UK by Polish nationals since the expansion of the EU in May 2004.

Michalowska reveals a unique and often humorous narrative through the local landscape and her remaining family and friends. Stories are recounted that strike a cord between modern and communist Gdansk, a town renowned for its shipyards and for pioneering the Solidarity Movement.

Each film will be presented in a separate shipping container positioned in the Boiler House, and set against a small portfolio of snow crusted images of the Gdansk Shipyard (2007), where the fall of communism under the leadership of Lech Walesa began; the films are scored by Ilona Sekacz, one of the UK's most eminent film and television composers and herself the daughter of a Polish émigré.

The films will be show at the Wapping Project from Wednesday March 12th to Sunday April 13th daily from 12pm to 10.30pm and till 5.30pm on Sundays.

Find out more about events at the Wapping Project.

How to get there

The closest tube station is located at Wapping.

If travelling by bus the 100 and D3 serve Wapping.