Grzebanie ubytku/ Digging into The Void
book, 2025
In my artistic practice addressing loss and mourning, alongside collective forms, I have also sought a way to create more individual encounters – through interviews or open conversations with people experiencing grief. This format enables a deeper understanding of different kinds of loss, emotions, and coping strategies, while providing space for participants to share their own stories – something still rare within the context of Central European culture, where grief often remains a taboo subject.
The interview format allowed me to tailor questions to each person’s experience, exploring both the first moments after the death of a loved one and the significance of traditional funeral rituals. These conversations also included reflections on one’s own mortality, making it possible to view the experience of loss from multiple perspectives.
Over the course of more than three years of research, I conducted sixteen interviews, seven of which were selected for publication in Digging into The Void. The interviews are honest, emotional, and direct – combining cognitive and analytical value with a therapeutic dimension, both for the participants and for myself. They help bring the experience of mourning closer to others, encouraging people to tell their own stories and to recognize shared elements within them.
The conversations reveal, among other things, the lack of social support for grieving individuals, the isolation they often face, and the difficulty of asking for help. They also highlight the profound and lasting impact of sudden loss, as well as the need to rethink mourning rituals – allowing for more authentic, personal expressions of grief. By sharing their stories, participants regained a sense of agency over their experience, while the exchange of reflections fostered empathy, connection, and mutual understanding.
In here, the interviews serve an archival function – collecting authentic, emotional testimonies and creating space for voices that are usually unheard. They reveal the complexity of mourning as a lived experience, underscore the importance of creating safe spaces for dialogue, and inspire the search for new, creative forms of farewell rituals suited to contemporary realities and individual needs.
Design: Marta Sieczkowska
book, 2025
In my artistic practice addressing loss and mourning, alongside collective forms, I have also sought a way to create more individual encounters – through interviews or open conversations with people experiencing grief. This format enables a deeper understanding of different kinds of loss, emotions, and coping strategies, while providing space for participants to share their own stories – something still rare within the context of Central European culture, where grief often remains a taboo subject.
The interview format allowed me to tailor questions to each person’s experience, exploring both the first moments after the death of a loved one and the significance of traditional funeral rituals. These conversations also included reflections on one’s own mortality, making it possible to view the experience of loss from multiple perspectives.
Over the course of more than three years of research, I conducted sixteen interviews, seven of which were selected for publication in Digging into The Void. The interviews are honest, emotional, and direct – combining cognitive and analytical value with a therapeutic dimension, both for the participants and for myself. They help bring the experience of mourning closer to others, encouraging people to tell their own stories and to recognize shared elements within them.
The conversations reveal, among other things, the lack of social support for grieving individuals, the isolation they often face, and the difficulty of asking for help. They also highlight the profound and lasting impact of sudden loss, as well as the need to rethink mourning rituals – allowing for more authentic, personal expressions of grief. By sharing their stories, participants regained a sense of agency over their experience, while the exchange of reflections fostered empathy, connection, and mutual understanding.
In here, the interviews serve an archival function – collecting authentic, emotional testimonies and creating space for voices that are usually unheard. They reveal the complexity of mourning as a lived experience, underscore the importance of creating safe spaces for dialogue, and inspire the search for new, creative forms of farewell rituals suited to contemporary realities and individual needs.
Design: Marta Sieczkowska