Documenting the City: A Construction of Urban Memory

The text reflects on photographic methods of documenting the city. The paper is parted into four sections: the first presents the issues surrounding documenting, the second discusses historical examples of urban documentary, the third analyses the modern tendency of construction and, finally, the last fourth section introduces examples of contemporary art practice. Written with regard to the concepts of François Soulages I will discuss, among others, the following projects: The Inventory (Inwentaryzacja) by Ireneusz Zjeżdżałka, A Sky over Warsaw by Juliusz Sokołowski and The Other City (Inne miasto) by Wojciech Wilczyk and Elżbieta Janicka. All examples focus on different aspects of documentation: they allow preserving in a viewer’s mind the lost past, create a contra-image of a city or reveal the unseen and forgotten fragments of history.