Anna Orłowska (Opole, Poland, 1986) studied photography at the National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź and the Institute of Creative Photography at the University of Silesia in Opava, and was awarded the Photo Global scholarship at the School of Visual Arts in New York (2013). The artist uses photography to reveal hidden layers of history and its ideological conditioning, often absent from official narratives. Blending conventions, like documentary and staging, she exposes hidden myths and legends, deconstructing fantasies about the past, and creating new constellations of meaning. Her photo-based objects test the boundaries of the medium. Orłowska treats photography as an instrument for exploring knowledge itself and as a tool for working with memory, which by its nature is fragmentary. Her practice engages with historical spaces and the memory of places, seeking ways to revitalize and reactivate them.
