The Not black-and-white book was created in collaboration with artist Magdalena Fabianczyk.
It was part of a larger socially engaged art project commissioned by the Polish Ministry of Culture
and National Heritage. The project was focusing on working with the residents of the Wrońska
Street social estate and their neighbouring Chechen refugees in Lublin, Poland. The book became
a tool towards easing the tensions existing between the Polish and Chechen communities that were
living side by side on Wrońska Street. It was also aiming to support the already existing forms of
self-activity of the residents and connect them with the centre of Lublin, which is located nearby,
but due to the lack of self-confidence among many of the participants it remains inaccessible to them. 

 

The artist Magdalena Fabianczyk explains: “We were aiming to challenge the reputation that Wronska
had, as a place of violence and pathologial behaviour. It's not the behaviour that leads to poverty,
but often the poverty and lack of possibilities lead to this kind of behaviour. We were also challenging
the preconceptions related to the status of refugee. We worked with the tenants, but also tried to make
the cultural center in Lublin open the door to those people and accommodate them in their out-reach
program. It worked only partially, as the curator of the project was not interested in helping the kids
beyond the frame of an art-work.”

  

The bilingual polish and chechen book is aimed at both communities living on Wornska. It is conceived
as a flat box containing a poster and set of drawing cards. The content presented on the front of the
cards, on white background, was created for children. It includes drawing and texts tackling ideas of
equality, collaboration and local community support. It aims at educating the kids through drawing and
play. Some of the drawings were created by the very same children during a series of workshops that
the artists organized at various locations on Wrońska Street. 

 

The content on back of the cards is instead directed to adults and tackles issues related to immigration
and also highlights positive actions initiated by the residents. It includes information about Polish
procedures for seeking asylum in the country, the quality of life in refugee centres and council estates,
snippets of real events that took place in the Wrońska Street estate, as well as other stories such as
the building of a chicken house and drawings by some of the adult estate residents. This part of the
book was developed through meetings with Polish and Chechen residents.­

 

I art-directed and designed the book and commissioned four additional illustrations to complement
the contributions of children and adult residents. The additional illustrations were made by artist
Simon Jugovic Fink.