ALLEY OF THE HONORED
Alley of the Honored
Cemeteries hold a unique place in Catholic countries as repositories for more than just physical remains. The gravestone becomes something of an avatar for the departed, a chalice for the soul, and as such is tended to with care. In the Junikowo Cemetery in Poznan, The Alley of the Honored (Aleja Zasluzonych) is a long strait pathway that is lined with tombs of some of Poland's great leaders, thinkers, artists and scholars. They are for the most part overgrown.
Small shrubbery once planted to create a verdant frame have reverted to the wild and now fight with weeds for sunlight. And what of these headstones, these chalices. If the graves are no longer cleared and candles no longer lit, does memory still hold these souls in place? Who inherits memory? The series Alley of the Honored is a metaphor for memory loss, for the cultural drift that finds us parted from tradition and separated from our connections to family, country, personal and patriotic history.
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