KOMPOT
Z
MAKU
2025 (ongoing)
A short zine exploring migration through the lens of food, centering on the cultural significance of poppy seeds in Polish culture and cuisine. Weaving together themes of detachment, displacement, and the search for a better future, it reflects on the migrant experience of longing to reconnect with one’s roots. Through the ever-present symbolism of poppies—both literal and figurative—the zine anchors these journeys in the universal language of food.
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Concept development & Production by
Julia Brzozowska and Klara Bender
Graphic design by
Maciek Jakóbczyk
moodboards
RESEARCH & CONTEXT
Poppies hold a double significance in Polish culture, woven deeply into both Slavic tradition and the everyday kitchens of the land. On one hand, they’re an edible plant—found in everything from ceremonial dishes to bread—but on the other, they’re an intoxicant, famous for their narcotic, opiate qualities. The poppy’s journey through history is as layered as its symbolism. Once part of sacred rituals and folklore, it slowly trickled into the more common, everyday food—its seeds sprinkled into dough. The Catholic Church, too, couldn’t resist the pull of this flower, co-opting it into Christmas dishes. They’ve long been believed to hold spiritual power, warding off the ‘forces of evil,’ their presence a protective charm. In this way, poppies occupy both the sacred and the profane, a playful dance between opposites that gives them their mystical pull, embodying the binary of life and death.
title
“KOMPOT Z MAKU” is a play on words. In Polish, kompot refers to a traditional, non-alcoholic drink made by simmering fruits, often served as a sweet beverage at family gatherings. It’s an iconic part of Polish culinary tradition. However, in this context, kompot takes on a darker twist, referring to the practice of infusing poppy seeds (mak) in water to create a drink that contains opiates. This altered kompot is not the innocent, sweet drink associated with family meals.
The poppy, in this case, becomes a symbol of both comfort and escape. It’s the taste of home, of tradition, yet when mixed with the promise of an altered reality, it hints at the contradictions and complexities of migration. Many Poles, like others, dream of the journey—of escaping, of seeking something better, often through the intoxicating promise of what lies beyond. But in the midst of this search, there’s always a longing for what was left behind. Kompot z maku mirrors this paradox: the desire for escape, for transcendence, against the inevitable pull of the past.
Faworki 2021
Faworki (eng. Angel wings) are dry crispy cakes, and according to an Old Polish custom are made during the carnival season.
‘ART is FOOD.
You can EAT it BUT it FEEDS you.’
Shuman, 1984
Faworki are an exploration of the distinctions and contradictions of being a Pole living in the UK through challenging the value systems traditionally associated with art spaces, aiming to bridge the gap between a cultural production and its consumption.
The bread and butter of life 2021
I devised and led an experiential creative workshop for the Youth Panel at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre in Wales.
The aim of the workshop was to introduce the young people to the idea of using food as a medium in the context of conceptual, process and performative art. They were invited to focus on the process of creating rather than the final outcome, and to observe the emotions occuring in them while working on their sculptures made out of butter and bread.
Ozdóbki
2021Ozdóbki (Trinkets) is a personal project exploring the connotations associated with female anger in a form of a video production and a series of prints (posters and a broadsheet newspaper), some of which were later fly-posted across London.
Blanka
2020'Blanka' is a photographic collage subverting the theme of a religious icon.
Thank you to Blanka Żukowska for letting me use your image.
Woman has become an almost national symbol in Poland, illustrating Graff’s point about ’Polish nationalism [being] strongly gendered’ (2019: 472). Countless references to Matka Polka (the Polish Mother; translated), the Mother of God or allegorical representations of Poland as a 'suffering woman - tied, dying, and even crucified' (Graff, 2019: 473), result in focusing the national emotions on gender and sexuality. What Matka Polka speaks for, (‘heroic, sacred, and self-sacrificing motherhood’) (ibid.: 473), is further reinforcing the societal expectation towards women, resulting in a recurrent depreciation and marginalisation of Polish women.
Extolling motherhood, understood as a sacrifice, causes a contemptuous attitude towards women who are childless or want to control their fertility (Graff, 2013). All the suffering present in the symbolics involving women also further feed into the martyr ideology that Polish nationalism represents. This female imagery is also stating Poland as a rival to a Polish woman, with the country’s 'needs' being prioritised over women's.
Julia Brzozowska Polska jeszcze nie zginęła:
The use of art as commentary in Polish contemporary political debate. 2021
