Podlasie Mosaic

Ewa Zwierzyńska, Podlasie Mosaic. Reports from Paradise – a Land of Mud and Fog

Reading Ewa Zwierzyńska's book is like meeting at a village bench. The bench stands by a wooden fence. Everyone knows each other here. They know who goes to whom. Even the cows returning from the pasture have their names. And they always return at the same time.

So what interesting thing could possibly happen here? The big world is somewhere else, after all. The big world full of fast cars, big and important matters.

That's when Ewa comes along. And with her comes a story about an old woman and kissing a stone woman, about an old man who collected cane in the rain, about a peasant kidnapped by a UFO while milking cows, about a water monkey, about a hunter who shot at a cross, about wine boiled with parsley.

These stories are very pleasant to listen to. Ewa has a way of telling stories that you can see the whole world from that bench by the fence. And you don't miss that great and important thing at all.

This book was written over a decade of wandering around Podlasie. I visited must-see places for every traveler arriving in Podlasie, such as Święta Góra Grabarka and Wierszalin, but I also often deviated onto less obvious paths, barely visible paths, leading to people and places that are not mentioned in any guidebooks.

The seemingly ordinary "sea of ​​reeds" or "old linden tree" grew in my eyes into mythical, distant oceans and exotic lands, where I searched for the soul of Podlasie, hidden beneath the surface visible to everyone.

What kind of soul is this? Multicultural or xenophobic, traditional or cutting itself off from its roots, boasting of pristine nature or transformed by civilizational processes that alter its cultural landscape and mentality?

Along with the multitude and diversity of the trails, I chose an equally diverse form of describing them. Subsequent reports, essays, overheard stories, and tales are like snapshots from a world already in existence, shimmering with different colors.

There is room for both light and dark tones, for the past and the present, which sets the direction for what Podlasie will become tomorrow.

Every time I set off, Zygmunt Gloger's words echoed in my mind: "Instead of seeking the wonders of the world, we only wade along well-trodden paths, through sands, swamps, and byways avoided by everyone else, gazing at the bottom of blue rivers, at meadows and groves, at people who still belong to the surrounding nature, at their cottages and old cemeteries."

I invite you on a journey to the edges of the world, to a land of mud and fog…

Ewa Zwierzyńska (born 1973 in Bielsk Podlaski) is a doctor by profession and a passionate enthusiast of Podlasie culture and nature. She has been photographing and writing about Podlasie for many years.

All her ancestors, without exception, came from Podlasie, or rather Pudlasz – its Ruthenian-East Slavic part. She loves to wander off the beaten track and seek out unusual things in seemingly ordinary surroundings.

She studied photography at, among other institutions, the Warsaw School of Photography. She has received awards for her reportage from publications including Press Club Polska (Belarus in Focus 2013), "National Geographic Traveler," and the quarterly "Kultura wsi." In 2015, she received a diploma of recognition from the Minister of Culture for her publications about Podlasie on the mapakulury.pl website.

She currently collaborates with the monthly "Czasopis," where she publishes columns and reports. She lives in Białystok.

By purchasing this product, you support the KOSTROMA Association, and the proceeds will be used to support the development and operation of the Tourist Information Center in Suwałki.

Number of Pages: 308 Publication Year: 2022, 1st Edition ISBN: 978-83-963496-1-3 Illustrated: YES (color and black-and-white photographs by Ewa Zwierzyńska) Condition: new Format: 148 x 208 mm, softcover with flaps