Paulina Korobkiewicz – Udarny trud

Centrala presents ‘Udarny trud’ – a solo show of a London based Polish photographer Paulina Korobkiewicz.

The exhibition consists of archival material that Korobkiewicz found in an abandoned textile factory in Alytus (Lithuania) with contemporary photos she took of the building and its interiors.

Born and raised in a borderland town in Eastern Poland near Lithuania, Korobkiewicz came across the factory when researching a project on aesthetics of post-socialist spaces in the summer of 2018. Upon entering the building, she discovered a wealth of neglected artefacts, textile samples, and personal photographs of the factory staff.

Today, a dilapidated building and its monumental structure, cracked windows, and torn curtains represent the material
remnants of the past. Concrete crumbling from the walls, abandoned rooms and broken furniture covered with layers of dust tell a powerful story of the rise and fall of a political system where labour was perceived as a right and a sacred duty.