Overview

This commission was developed in partnership with the Brickworks Museum in Southampton - the only remaining Victorian steam-driven brickworks in the country. Bricks produced at this historic site were used to rebuild the city after the Second World War, a time when the focus for many people was on the future, rather than the physical and psychological scars of war.

Inspired by testimonies of those who remembered the Blitz over Southampton, Grzegorz Stefański’s film locusts explores the suppression of emotional trauma in his film.

‘It was the bombing… they would come wave after wave after wave… They were like a host of locusts.’

Featuring a real-life father and daughter on a journey to healing, the ten-minute film illustrates the effects of conflict on family dynamics and draws out universal themes, from fear and anxiety to recovery and reconciliation.

Audiences
On display at The Brickworks Museum,
25 July 2024 - 3 November 2024
Project Partners

The Brickworks Museum

Communities and Places

We were delighted to offer this commission opportunity to Stefański to expand his practice, and worked closely with Art School Plus to select him from a shortlist of emerging artists.  

Focus group workshops were held at the Brickworks Museum to record the post-war memories of a diverse range of people, including museum volunteers, customers of Southampton Living Well (Freemantle) Hub and individuals with family connections to historic local building firms. Stefański spent time listening to these recollections to develop his vision for locusts. In the final film, the two actors lip synch to recordings from these workshops.   

A zine was produced to accompany the exhibition, which provided further context for the commission    

Watch Film

© IWM

The artist and representatives from IWM and The Brickworks discuss this commission.