The Borderland Foundation hosted Nina Parish, one of the team members of the DisTerrMem project. She holds the post of the Professor in French and Francophone Studies, Department of Literature and Languages, University of Stirling. Nina Parish is a visiting research fellow at the University of Bath. She works on representations of difficult history, the migrant experience and multilingualism in the museum space. Between 2016 and March 2019 she was part of the EU-funded Horizon 2020 UNREST team working on innovative memory practices in sites of trauma including war museums and mass graves (www.unrest.eu). She is also an expert on the interaction between text and image in the field of modern and contemporary French Studies. She has published widely on this subject, in particular, on the poet and visual artist, Henri Michaux.
Here are a few comments by Nina Parish about her stay in Sejny and Krasnogruda, which was from 16 June to 13 July: 'The month I have spent at the Borderland Foundation, staying at the site of the Milosz Manor in Krasnogruda, has been rich in discoveries.
I have had a crash course in learning about the history of this particular borderland, which is so relevant to the work we are doing for the DisTerrMem project, but also in understanding the ideas underpinning Borderland practice developed by Krzysztof Czyżewski and his friends and family.
I have seen The Sejny Chronicles and explored the rich multicultural, multilingual history of this small town before World War II. I have had the immense privilege of talking to different generations involved in creating and performing this play and been struck by what a lasting influence participating in this project has had on their lives. I have swayed to the intoxicating music created by the Klezmer Orchestra of the Sejny Theatre in the White Synagogue.
Above all, I have been reminded of the importance of the local, of community practice, of kindness and of the slow work of poetry.’