Karolina Lebek: Watra

Polish artist Karolina Lebek explores her Lemko heritage through the medium of traditional song and singing as one of the factors that continue to unite this now dispersed community.

Lebek will investigate themes of migration, displacement and assimilation informed by experiences of the Lemko community. The Lemko community is an ethnic minority forcibly removed from their ancestral homeland in the Carpathian Mountains in a series of violent deportations, culminating in Operation Vistula in 1947.

Karolina Lebek has lived and worked in Luton for many years and graduated from the University of Bedfordshire, before studying at the Royal College of Art. The issues of migration and assimilation explored with this exhibition are particularly pertinent in Luton which is one of three “plural” towns and cities outside London (Luton, Leicester, Slough) where no single ethnic group makes up more than half the population.

Throughout the tragic history of the banished Lemkos, worship and singing have remained crucial and unifying factors in recognising and maintaining a shared sense of cultural identity. For the Lemko people, worship and singing, reveal unique mythologies, forgotten rituals and rites of passage. In this exhibition, Lebek will draw on the cultural, spiritual and personal accounts of violence, trauma and shame manifested through generations to create a musical, performative and visual experience in which the wounded voices of the past mould into a song in the present, striving for recognition and reparation.

This new work takes inspiration from the ‘watra’ (a large bonfire), built to evoke memories of things past, or to revive a sense of community. The name also belongs to the biggest Lemko festival in the world, held in the Carpathian Mountains. This annual event is a blend of old traditions and modern forms of recreation, where the stage is a meeting place and music the foundation.