In line with the rules of street art, Arkadiusz Andrejkow paints his graffiti on walls, but these are often made of wood. Inspired by old photographs, they are also created on brick walls of tenement houses and at bus stops along roads in the middle of nowhere. There are more than 100 graffiti by Andrejkow in the entire Podkarpackie Region. Being a work in progress, this is a kind of ‘Silent Memorial’ - a story of those who were born here, lived here, set off from here or came here from other places. An itinerary leading to Andrejkow’s murals is an idea for a great trip.
They can be seen throughout the Podkarpackie, from Gorajec at the outskirts of the Roztocze highland and Rzeszów in the centre of the region, to the Bieszczady and Beskid Niski mountains in the south. Some graffiti present renowned artists, others honour the memory of people known only in their local communities.
Arkadiusz Andrejkow, a graduate of the Art Department of the University of Rzeszów, from the start has been passionate about painting and street art. He created the first graffiti of the Silent Memorial owing to a scholarship granted by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. It was the spring of 2017 when Andrejkow set off to start a project that he had kept in his mind for a long time. Over the course of six months, he created 21 paintings based on old family photographs - portraits of deceased inhabitants of villages in the Subcarpathian region. Finding the first wall was the most difficult part. Not knowing what to expect, people were afraid to invite the artist and let him paint graffiti on walls of old barns or sheds. The village head of Załuż near Sanok came to the rescue and suggested wooden doors in a municipal building. There were three gates and Andrejkow painted them all. With each old photograph transferred into the public space, the admiration for the project grew and in time the artist started receiving lots of invitations.
The Silent Memorial
Today, his works can be spotted all over Poland, but a majority, over 100 graffiti, are in the Podkarpackie region. The artist is constantly adding more and more murals to this series, as shown by the map on his official website. If you would like to see as many graffiti as possible in one day, you should go to Sanok and start the tour from the artist's home town, where he has painted several murals - some in colour and some following the style of the Silent Memorial series. One of the most interesting is on the wall of a tenement house on Daszyńskiego Street and depicts a woman photographed by Zdzisław Beksiński.
Later you can go towards Przemyśl or Lesko. Going from Sanok towards Przemyśl, through Załuż, Tyrawa Wołoska, Kuźmina and Bircza, amidst the picturesque scenery of the Przemyskie Foothills, you will find for instance the portrait of the wheelwright Nitka from Rozpucie – a craftsman once respected in the whole area, you will also ‘meet’ Mister Filik and his family on a cart full of hay in Kuźmin, a famous band from Stankowa, and in the old Przemyśl Fortress - a soldier of the Imperial-Royal Army with a townswoman staring at him.
The picturesque routes leading to Andrejkow's paintings also go north of Sanok. You should definitely go towards Lesko and further towards Solina, or eastwards to Ustjanowa, Ustrzyki Dolne and the border crossing in Krościenko. Graffiti depicting former residents of these areas, ancestors from family photographs, can be seen on the walls of barns in Orelec, Zwierzyń, and Myczkowce. Time seems to have stopped here: mother is taking her daughter to school, teacher is still standing next to her pupils although the school does not exist any more, Father Karol Wojtyla is hiking in the Bieszczady, and in Eleni’s house in Krościenko the whitewashed walls embrace her parents for ever.
A trip to the Low Beskids and the Krosno area is also a great idea. In the small village of Haczów, where you can also visit the beautiful 600-year-old wooden church, a World Heritage Site, there are six murals painted by Andrejkow. Some more can be seen on farm buildings in the nearby villages of Malinówka and Bzianka. The artist says that when you visit these places you can hear the story of the people in the paintings. The hosts are usually very open-minded which is reflected by the fact that they have decided to commemorate their ancestors in this way and they are happy to talk about them too. The Silent Memorial has provided a way to learn about the past and to meet with people. During the painting process, neighbours would come by. If there were more people in the photograph, and some were unknown to the family, the visitors would help to identify them, and explain how they were related, they would recall events of the past.
Andrejkow continues to paint on walls. He starts the graffiti season in March and ends it in November. Then he disappears in his studio, in front of his canvas – so that he can keep something for himself, too. After all, murals do not belong to him, their lifespan is limited. Some barns on which he painted his first graffiti have already been demolished. The oldest graffiti are located in remote places, some can be only seen by the owner of the building and the neighbours. The paintings created later are displayed in more and more interesting ways. The municipality of Bukowsko, where the artist had already created several works, commissioned a mural in Płonna on one of the most beautifully located bus stops in Poland, although it is no longer in use.
Andrejkow painted on it the famous Romani violinist Stefan Dymiter, a self-taught virtuoso born in the Beskid Niski region, who for many years played on Floriańska Street in Krakow, performed at Piwnica pod Baranami and was admired by Yehudi Menuhin himself. You should take a break at this stop. It is located along a cycle route, so it is a perfect place to relax. You can have a bite to eat, read about the violin master, take a commemorative photo and continue on towards another mural and another little big story.