Time Restored – In the Footsteps of Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski

Time Reversed: In the Footsteps of Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski

The project ‘Time Reversed: In the Footsteps of Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski’ was launched on the initiative of the Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski Foundation in collaboration with the artist and photographer Sylwia Makris. Its aim is to present Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski’s work in a new, contemporary form and to bring it closer to today’s audience. Sylwia Makris drew inspiration from both the painter’s works and the places particularly associated with his life – Munich and the Suwałki region. The artist does not attempt to literally recreate Wierusz-Kowalski’s works, but engages in a creative dialogue with them, translating their atmosphere, characters and themes into the present day. Bolesław Bernard Święcicki, a descendant of Alfred, played a special role in the project; he took on the role of his ancestor and brought the entire series of works together. Other descendants of the Wierusz-Kowalski family and residents of the Suwałki region also took part in the project. The photographs were taken in Munich, Suwałki and on location in the Suwałki region, creating a symbolic link between places significant to the painter’s life and work. The project demonstrates that Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski’s art can still be inspiring more than a century later and speak to audiences through the contemporary language of photography. *Czas powrócony* is, at the same time, a story of memory, family roots, longing for one’s homeland, and the meeting of the past with the present.