In 2009, Joanna Rajkowska and curator Sebastian Cichocki met in Istanbul, where they were working on a project for the city of Konya. During one of their many walks they came to the Asian district of Üsküdar, which was formerly a city cemetery. Their attention was captured by the pack of dogs lounging around on the Muslim graves. As the authors write, they were like housing units for the animals. During these walks, Rajkowska took photos, while the text, written later by Cichocki, presents the curator’s unusual reactions to the artist’s work. This is not a text about the pictures or the project, but a multi-layered fictional narrative.

The Dogs of Üsküdar series is closely related to a true story that took place in 1911 in Istanbul. The capital of the Ottoman Empire at the time was full of stray dogs wandering around. The Istanbul authorities, fearing diseases and animal aggression, decided to “cleanse” the city by taking them to an uninhabited island. Shortly after this event, Istanbul was hit by an earthquake, which the residents, plagued by remorse, took as punishment for their treatment of the dogs. So they decided to bring the animals back to the city.
Üsküdar, one of the districts of Istanbul, played an important role as a city cemetery during the rule of the Ottoman Turks, located outside the city walls. Although today it is a vibrant residential and commercial district, there are still a disproportionate number of cemeteries there – Muslim, but also Christian and Jewish. Rajkowska's photographs showing dogs that have chosen the cemetery in Üsküdar as their shelter are a reminder of the history of the exclusion of animals from society, and are also a reflection on the power of both alienation and attachment between animals and people.

Published to coincide with the 2011 exhibition at ZPAF I S-ka Gallery, Krakow