Convinced that one of the most constitutive properties of photography is making manifest what is absent and not directly visible, the author reflects on the relations between photographic images and memory. He is, however, interested not so much in individual memory as in its collective or cultural dimension. He tries to explain what such forms of memory are, asking who wants to remember what or who wants us to remember what. At the same time, the author wants to establish how historical representations of the past are shaped on the level of image and what types of making the past manifest are the most significant when it comes to forming the memory. He takes the example of Wrocław and its residents to illustrate his argument.
This article seeks to answer the question on how the prohibitions, orders, isolation, quarantines and interventions implemented by the state and local authorities have transformed life in the city. To what extent have they changed urban landscape? How permanent are these changes? The authors discuss the transformation of private and community relationships, the importance of social differences and inequalities, the effects of increased citizen control, risks related to democracy, the supremacy of new technologies, the role of the alert infrastructure, the reconstruction and changed function of facilities, and the future of public space. The article puts forward a thesis that in many ways and forms the pandemic space-time will remain with us forever. In other words, the changes that have taken place are fundamental and it is no longer possible to return to the past. We live in new time intervals, in which we temporarily enjoy more freedom of movement and participation in events and public gatherings, and unlimited forms of spending free time. The carnival is on; however, it is accompanied by the afterimages of the urban pandemic landscape and fears associated with the return of the pathogen, the global economic, energy and armed crisis, and the harbingers of the upcoming climate catastrophe.
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