European Dream is the title of the forthcoming exhibition by Nigel Rolfe at Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, opening to the public on September 2nd.

The Chamber.

In between waking and sleeping, the nightmare of what happened in that place. The concrete and plaster stained with Prussian Blue like the pools of accumulated tears of those who died there. Etched from without the congregated and condensed bodies into the very fabric of the container that took them. At the very moment of the passing of human souls these stains were made to still today bear witness. A by product of the terrible process at work, for the blue of hydrogen cyanide is Prussian Blue.

We took good time and waited an over long time in that space, reflecting and bringing into focus our solemn respect. This on purpose over time we took weighs heavy there, for all those who passed had none. A haunting but somehow necessary commitment to not pass by too easily or quickily these chambers.

To remark on that timeframe now resting in the dark grey mists and rain of a Polish winter, still preserved but somehow side-stepped and too easily forgotten. At the edge of Europe, but central in Europa, at the Russian front, a rural entropy carefully chosen and tailored for its purpose as it lies just beyond.

Now for a year or two this remote corner is brought within the extended European Dream, a union whose corner stone here is a dark and bloody ground. A foundation of infamy that is still today hard to fathom and even comprehend.

Nigel Rolfe.