Bożena Szroeder gave a speech about the ‘’Sejny Chronicles” project and conducted the workshop on memory, called ‘’Working on Memory”.
“The Chronicles of Sejny” is a theatre performance in which young actors – teenage Poles, Lithuanians and Old Believers from Sejny – tell the stories and legends which they heard from their grandparents and great-grandparents and thus rediscovers the roots of their own identity. For a moment the actors become their own ancestors who recall the images of Gypsy carriages Slavonic rituals pagan legends, Lithuanian weddings or Jewish citizens of Sejny. The youngest heirs of the richness of multicultural heritage bring it back to life. The mystery of the performance is linked with the old interpretation of the reenactment of the myth according to which the story is happening here and now without any mediation.
The first performance of “the Chronicles” took place in 1999 and since than it has been shown all over the world
As for the workshop on memory, the participants were introduced to the practices that have been developed as a result of the ‘’Chronicles” project. In order to make the project work, it was necessary to collect family stories, childhood memories, the stories about the nearest neighbours, and to recall those who are absent and gone and those who are present now. The workshop showed how the narratives and stories are used in artistic work and how they become separate items: books,exhibitions, theatre performances, documentaries or animated films.