This sound and photo exhibition presents selected aspects of the life of Piotr Ślązak, a person with physical disabilities who was born with cerebral palsy. Despite struggling with quadriplegia and speech disorder, he has managed to achieve a lot. The aim of the exhibition is to provide the perspective of a disabled person, endowed with extraordinary strength of character and an example of exceptional perseverance. The installation takes the form of an “archive” in which sound data is of utmost importance: viewers/listeners enter the darkened exhibition space and, using torches aimed at the photographs, trigger narrative elements and control “floating” music. They also can read scans of selected articles that complement Piotr’s story with tales of his childhood and the perspective of his mother, Zofia Ślązak. 

The project was created with the support of Dr Dorota Błaszczak and Igor Szymański, as well as with insights of lecturers from the Department of Acoustics and Multimedia, as part of a graduation thesis presented on 21 May 2023 at the Department of Sound Direction of the Chopin University of Music. 

Adam Czerski, Barbara Zach