The witnesses of domestic violence against women are not only the people directly involved in the drama. They are also the silent four walls and the everyday companions surrounding the situation – objects such as a toothbrush, kitchen cloth, shoes or a pillow.

Physical Evidence Museum is a very personal project of two Latvian artists Laura Stašāne and Jana Jacuka. The first Latvian part of the exhibition presented objects and stories entrusted to the artists by Latvian women who have experienced domestic violence. An important part of the project was a marathon of reading the testimonies of violence, in which besides the participants of the project also their friends, sisters, mothers and people offering them support took part. The reading and the exhibition was a symbolic act of breaking the silence around violence against women.

At the invitation of TR Warszawa, the artists are expanding the Physical Evidence Museum to include stories of women living in Poland. The Polish edition of the exhibition is supported by two organizations working against violence against women: Autonomia Foundation and Feminoteka Foundation. “You will never walk alone” – this is the slogan of the entire series of events focusing on women’s rights, which will be held at TR Warszawa in the 2020/2021 season. For us, as a public cultural institution, this slogan is a commitment: the mission of the theater is to provide space for dialogue and discussion on the most difficult issues. One of such topics is the problem of violence against women in families and relationships. We believe that the Physical Evidence Museum project will contribute to making the voice of women who have experienced violence heard.

The event is organized as part of the Baltic Transfer* Festival and accompanies the series You Will Never Walk Alone. Let’s talk about abortion at TR Warszawa.

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Photo by courtesy of the artists (Laura Stašāne, Jana Jacuka)

Welcome!

Our names are Laura Stašāne and Jana Jacuka. We live in the capital of Latvia, Riga, and we are the creators of the Physical Evidence Museum. It is an exhibition of things and everyday objects that have witnessed domestic violence against women and that we have collected with the help of many women from Latvia. In July, thanks to the invitation of TR Warsaw, we will be presenting the museum in Warsaw and we would be honored if we could enrich the museum’s collection with objects and stories from Poland.

If there is an item that you associate with domestic or relationship violence – emotional, physical, sexual or economic – please send it to us with your story and we will include it in the Museum collection. It may be something you want to get rid of or an item that was part of an act of violence but would never be considered as evidence by the police or a court of law, but it speaks for itself to you.

We believe that talking about your experiences is the first step to breaking free. Silence is not golden and has been for a very long time. Every person should feel that talking about the domestic violence they have experienced (regardless of when it happened) is acceptable. We should listen to ourselves more often.

Physical Evidence Museum will be operating in a private apartment in Warsaw between July 1 and 6, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. On July 3 from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. we invite you to take part in a public reading of the stories of violence entrusted to us. They will be read by individuals who have experienced violence themselves, their friends, sisters, mothers, and those offering support. Individual people will read stories submitted by other women.

Partners of the Polish version of the Museum are Autonomia Foundation in Krakow and Feminoteka Foundation in Warsaw. We are extremely excited and grateful to be able to work with these organisations and with TR Warszawa on this exhibition.

technical department: Mariusz Basiak, Tomasz Ciężarek, Piotr Domiński, Piotr Gromek, Łukasz Jara, Sebastian Kuźma,Tadeusz Tomaszewski, Tomasz Trojanowski, Łukasz Winkowski

multimedia team: Marcin Metelski, Bartłomiej Zajder

administration department: Paweł Śmigielski

audience development department: Wiktoria Grochowska, Justyna Matyjaśkiewicz, Damian Piwowarczyk, Monika Pizło, Agnieszka Prokopczuk, Bartek Wlazło, Monika Zielińska

Press and media relations coordinator: Kaja Stępkowska

international projects team: Agata Kołacz

literary assistant: Jacek Telenga

production manager: Magda Igielska

production cooperation: Urszula Musiał-Kozłowska

Special thanks to Piotr Oliwer Dulinski, Anna Rochowska, Anna Szałas and the Theatre Academy in Warsaw

Baltic Transfer* Festival project is a joint initiative of Jaunimo Teatras (Vilnius), The New Theatre Institute (Riga), Vaba Lava (Tallinn) in cooperation with TR Warszawa.
Supported and financed by Baltic Culture Fund.