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15 Journeys from Warsaw to London

Jasia Reichardt's memoirs

 

15 Journeys from Warsaw to London
By Jasia Reichard
Published by Dalkey Archive Press
Publishing date: June 2012

These fifteen journeys—fourteen of them within Poland—take six years, 1940–1946. The distances vary. Sometimes they are minimal, as short as a two-stop bus ride in a city, or a twenty-minute walk, and sometimes they are longer—much longer. The traveler is a young girl, who we meet at age seven. Along the way, she loses her home, her family, her name, her hair, and finally, her fear.

Two things help her on her journeys during these difficult years: some lessons from her parents and a large share of luck, which never deserts her.

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Jasia Reichardt (born in Warsaw, Poland in 1933) is a British art critic, editor, curator, and gallery director with an interest in art and its intersection with other fields, especially technology. She was Assistant Director of the ICA in London, 1963-71, and Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1974-76. She has taught at the Architectural Association for 10 years, and other colleges, has written for most of the international art magazines and has contributed to many international exhibitions and conferences throughout the world. She has written several books and served on various boards and committees. She is interested in art that encroaches on other fields, be it science, or literature, and has spent many years following up the connections between art and technology. Her best known exhibition is Cybernetic Serendipity (1968) about the computer and the arts. More recently, she organized an exhibition called Electronically Yours, that dealt with electronic portraiture, in Tokyo. She has also spent many years on the Themerson Archive of which the 8-volume catalogue is now complete.

 

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