Natalia Romik, PhD

Project

The Architecture of Hiding

In my new project – devoted to the architecture of survival – I would like to continue and expand my previous research devoted to the architecture of Jewish hideouts from the times of the Second World War. I will not only research new cases of Jewish hideouts, but will also add a new, comparative layer to my studies by researching the cases of new hideouts, currently built and used by migrants in their attempts to enter the territory of the European Union, especially the ones built and used at the Polish-Byelorussian border. For over a year, the Białowieża Forest has been a place of flight for thousands of refugees from Africa and the Middle East; for some it became their final, tragic destination. They are forced into hiding by the regime of Lukashenka and the harsh antimigrant policies adopted by the Polish government, which pushes and deports them back. In July 2022, together with the informal research collective Researchers at the Border, I conducted preliminary studies of a hideout made by Syrian refugees in the Białowieża Forest. It is a tree hut, “furnished” with sleeping bags, shoes, and blankets. We documented this place using a 3D scanner. In my new research phase, I would like to explore this phenomenon further and carefully compare it with the case of Jewish hideouts from the Second World War, but not to generate false historical parallels and while respecting the gravity of a current situation.
In the following phase of my research, I plan to widen my field of study by applying this interdisciplinary methodology to the examples of makeshift hideouts and other architectures of hiding created in the context of the ongoing migration crisis. An important part of the new phase of my research process will be experimentation with new artistic forms to mediate the materiality of the contemporary architecture of hiding.

Recommended Reading

Koszarska-Szulc, Justyna, Natalia Romik, and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, eds. (post)JEWISH… Shtetl Opatów Through the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt. Warsaw: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, 2024.
Wenzel, Mirjam, Kuba Szreder, Natalia Romik, Aleksandra Janus, and Katja Janitschek, eds. Hideouts: Architecture of Survival; Reflections on the Exhibition by Natalia Romik. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2024.
Romik, Natalia. Post-Jewish Architecture of Memory within Former Eastern European Shtetls. London: UCL Press, forthcoming.