Dorota Mościbrodzka – Recovering Silver | Exhibition
Can memory be seen?
Recovering Silver is an exhibition that holds time still, inviting viewers to see light, image, and memory from a new perspective.
Dorota Mościbrodzka combines traditional silver photography, glass negatives, collage, and poetry to create an intimate record — a dialogue with the past and a search for inner strength. Come and see light captured on photographic paper — and perhaps find a quiet moment for your own reflection.
About
The project began with Dorota Mościbrodzka’s close relationship with Professor Bogdan Konopka — a master photographer living in Paris, who guided her artistic path for many years. Working together in the darkroom, he introduced her to the world of silver halides and baryta paper, reminding her that “sheets of photographic paper age like people — each in its own way.”
A few months before his death in 2019, Konopka asked Mościbrodzka to prepare a series of 25 prints for an exhibition. His sudden passing became a turning point for the artist — grief and depression silenced her creativity for years, taking away her faith in the meaning of photography.
Mościbrodzka’s work also draws inspiration from Jerzy Lewczyński and his idea of negatives as “witnesses of that light.” She questions the endurance of image and memory. Her photographs are often taken in Jewish cemeteries — places marked by history and metaphysical presence, where gravestones sink into sand, grow into trees, or rest forgotten in piles of stone. She gives them voice again, saying:
“I am here and I see you. You matter to me.”
The title Recovering Silver holds a double meaning. It refers both to the alchemy of analog photography — where silver halides preserve light — and to the slow process of personal recovery: reclaiming balance, creative faith, and hope after loss.
Mościbrodzka’s exhibition invites us to meet image, word, and memory. It is an attempt to save traces that — like silver — continue to shine, even in the darkest places.
Why See This Exhibition?
Discover rare silver photographs and glass negatives, seldom shown publicly
Experience art that weaves image and word into an intimate reflection on light and memory
Find space for quiet contemplation and emotional connection
Step into the world of silver halides, forgotten cemeteries, and everyday relics that the artist brings back to life
Curator: Agata Sztorc-Gromaszek
About the Artist
Dorota Mościbrodzka – photographer, poet, and translator of Russian literature.
Recipient of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage scholarships in 2019 and 2023 (visual arts). She studied at the Lublin School of Photography, the Academy of Photography in Warsaw, and the Photography Studio at the Centre for Culture in Lublin.
She works with both original and archival silver photography and has exhibited widely in solo and group shows, including Atists* (Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, 2023) and Atists on Tour* (Galeria Epizod, Toruń, 2024).
The exhibition is presented within the Spectrum of Art series, part of the Art of Sensitivity project — co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.
Details
Opening: 20 October 2025, 6:00 PM
Viewing: 21 October – 7 November 2025, Monday–Friday, 10:00 AM–5:00 PM, and during accompanying events
Closing: 9 November 2025, 4:00–5:00 PM
Venue: Workshops of Culture in Lublin, Grodzka 7, Exhibition room – 2nd Floor
Admission: Free | No age restrictions
Accessibility
The opening will be interpreted into Polish Sign Language (PJM).
Venue not wheelchair accessible
Ask about accessibility Accessibility form
Read about the accessibility of Workshops of Culture and get in touch: warsztatykultury.pl/en/accessibility