...................................................................................................................................................................................................... (magyarul)

IMPEX RESIDENCY IV

Ludomir Franczak (Slupsk, Poland)

august - october 2008

Ludomir Franczak is an artist in residence at Impex, supported through Visegrad Fund residency program.
His research project in Budpaest is documented on the blog: www.erftproject.blogspot.com

Programs:

ERFT PROJECT - Video-performance
2008. 10. 21., 9.15 p.m.
location: KINO (1136 Budapest, Szent István krt. 16.)

Ludomir Franczak's video performance deals with an unsettled element in his family's history. The artist has been following the track of his grandmother in search of his real grandfather in Budapest, who most probably served as a medic at the Hungarian Defence Forces during World War II. He was stationed near Lwów (Lemberg) where he got acquainted with the grandmother, Wanda. Their secret love gave birth to Ludomir's father...

Józefa Wanda, Kazimierz Franczak's wife and Ludomir's grandmother lived in Dolina and Ka³ush near Lwów before the war. The Gestapo took her husband early during the war, so she remained alone with her daughter. She then moved back to Dolina from Ka³ush. During these times a medic of the Hungarian Defence Forces was lodged with the family. Two or three years passed and with the retreat of the German army the Hungarian troops stationed here were also relocated. A family member warned Wanda that the Ukrainian forces would attack the Poles, so she and her daughter had better join the Hungarian troops and flee the town. They were assisted in their flight by an acquaintance of the Hungarian medic lodger, also a medic of the Hungarian Defence Forces. The surname of this latter medic was Erbst or Erpft, the family members don't remember exactly. Wanda and her daughter Bożenka were transported to Hungary by an army ambulance car in 1944. The first stop was Sátoraljaújhely according to the grandmother's notes.

Wanda and the latter medic fell in love, but soon they had to part, because all women and children were moved from the hospital to Budapest, where the woman sought refuge in the Zugliget camp reserved for Polish refugees. Later she was transported to Dunaalmás, then Strasshof ( Austria), and finally she ended up in Dessau. This is where her son was born, whose father she was never to meet again.

Wanda kept the identity of her son's real father secret from him only to reveal it before her death. Nevertheless, the son didn't set out to find his true father, and let the information fade into oblivion. The grandson is now in quest of this story.

In his works Visual and media artist Ludomir Franczak connects recorded and live images and sounds. In his performance Franczak combines documentary elements with artistic rendering; the result is a mishmash of reality and fiction, for everyone to construct their own interpretation.

This project is about remembrance; the research engenders different imaginary versions of the past, while the possibility of learning the reality is constantly queried.

The development of the research and the real-time construction of the diverse possible stories can be kept track of at www.erftproject.blogspot.com.