Shortlisted · Unveil’d Photobook Award 2018

Futerał — brings into focus the convoluted histories of several Polish castles and palaces: their transformations, architecture, intended purpose and actual uses.

As a result of the forced nationalization campaign carried out in Poland following World War II, all castles and palaces were taken away from their rightful owners. The practice of adapting them to new uses intensified, marking the start of a new chapter for many buildings. Their functions changed over time, leaving visual traces in the appearances of these once-exquisite homes. The user replaced the owner, but the fascination with the vie de château never disappeared completely. The post-war authorities appropriated what they failed to destroy or exploit, making the palace a symbol of their prestige. Some properties were turned into museum-residences; in other instances, their form and contents were borrowed in part and transfered to newly constructed public buildings. Futerał is a perverse reconstruction of the contemporary status of these strategies, one that brings to light the transformative capabilities of architecture.

Anna Orłowska received an MFA from the Photography Department at the National Film School in Łódz, Poland (2011) and an undergraduate degree from the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava,Czech Republic (2013). She has participated in numerous group shows including reGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today presented at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne and the Aperture Foundation in New York. She held several solo exhibitions including Futerał at Wschód Gallery, Sunday Night Drama at Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, Leakage at the Panopticon in Stockholm and at the Discovery Award show at the Rencontres d’Arles 2015. In 2013 she was awarded a scholarship for the PhotoGlobal program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2017 she received the Overseas Photographer Higashikawa Award.