Letter to Helena 

(text for the wall) 

Brasília, 23.08.2023 

Dear Helena, 

I received your letter yesterday and was very happy to learn that your trip bore fruit, even in the  face of a situation that must have been uncomfortable and painful—your visit to the concentration  camp museum. However, I understood that in Budzyn, where your family comes from, the search  for connection with your ancestry was, as you said, "an entry into paradise." I imagine it must have  been a journey of discoveries, as I perceived in your beautiful book From the Ground to the  Ground. I found the idea of reworking the seen and felt through writing and the reinterpretation of  photographic images absolutely brilliant. 

I’ve read and reread the book, and I was enchanted by it! I find myself reflecting on what the  process of writing it must have been like. The images are intriguing and cryptic, and I found myself  getting closer to them as I kept revisiting the work. I noticed a transformation of the original  photographs with the addition of elements, cutouts, and the use of reflections that triggered a  transmutation of the images, bringing forth something new—like the case of the Character, whom  you named your travel companion: an animation of the inanimate. 

I was also happy to learn that all of this led you to find more pleasure in returning to the studio after  three years of absence. Looking at the collection of images, I noticed that the Helena engraver is  still very much present: the lines, a hallmark of your work, are ever-present, and in this series, they  appear as drawings forming small cartographies—traces of the ground you looked at and recorded  with your camera. 

I wonder how important it must have been to give new meaning to this experience! Through this  movement, you’ve connected with certain thinkers, like Didi-Huberman, who also undertook this  journey, transforming his lived experience into writing. In your case, you looked at the ground in  

search of some answer, while for Huberman, it was the birch tree bark that caught his attention. The  challenge of overcoming the void of non-belonging is strongly present in your words, and it’s  enchanting how you transcend this anguish through art.

I send you my warmest wishes, very happy for you, and hoping we continue this rich conversation. 

Kisses,  

Renata

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