Janina Turek

17. Jacek Smolicki and Alberto Frigo, a group show and discussion panel "The Art of Self-Tracking" in San Francisco. Janina Turek and her works presented among other artists and authors of multimedia diaries from all around the world, June 2015.

16. Krzysztof and Jan Kuc (Firma reklamowa KUC), an exhibition featuring 10 original notebooks in a shopping center BONARKA in Kraków, October 2014.

15. Daria Deflorian and Antonio Tagliarini, a theater play based on Janiny Turek presented at the conference "Nie wystarczy być kobietą" ("It is not enough to be a woman"). The play was later shown in Paris and Rome in 2012.

12. Ewa Tatar, The Diaryst, Janina Turek, as a collector of everyday life, in: The Modernity of Collection, ed. Tomasz de Rosset, Toruń 2011.

10. Original notebooks displayed at the Contemporary Art Center in Torun, Poland, June 2008.

11. Ewa Tatar, I were to stop writing, I'd have to return, God forbid, to Myself, in: Flowers of Our Lives, ed. Joanna Zielińska, Toruń 2008.

13. My diary is Me, it' s my whole life, a conversation with Ewa Janeczek, daughter of Janina Turek, Flowers of Our Lives, ed. Joanna Zielińska, Toruń 2008.

7. oryginal notebooks displayed for the first time on the show curated by Dominik Kuryłek, Roman Dziadkiewicz, Ewa Tatar an exhibition "Imhibition" at National Museum in Kraków, December - January, 2006–7.

8. Imhibition, ed. Roman Dziadkiewicz and Ewa Tatar, National Museum in Kraków, Korporacja Ha!art, Kraków 2006.

9. Joanna Dolna, "Zaksięgowane życie" ("An accounted life"), Gazeta Krakowska, June 2, 2006.

3. Joanna Zięba, Master's degree supervised by Prof. Andrzej Mancwel "Z archiwum życia Janiny Turek" ("From Janina Turek's Archive) Warsaw University, Polish Philology Department. In 2002 the work was featured in the magazine La Faute a Rousseau

1. Mariusz Szczygieł, a report "Reality" Gazeta Wyborcza, July 2001

Her only brother Ignacy died in 1945. The same year her husband Czesław came back from the concentration camp. In 1947 she gave birth to her second child, a son, Jerzy, and in 1951, a daughter Ewa. After her divorce in 1958, she was successively employed as a shop assistant in a local grocery store, as an office worker at a post office, and as a secretary. Her life is associated with the city of Kraków.

In February 1943, the Gestapo arrested Janina's husband. At the time, she was in her 5th month of pregnancy. After being taken to the local jail on Montelupich Street, Janina's husband was deported to the concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the same year, Janina's father was relocated to an apartment number 6 on Parkowa street in Podgórze, where Janina also lived until her death.

Due to the war, she had to share her apartment with other tenants. In 1943 she gave birth to her son, Lesław. Despite harsh conditions and poverty, Janina never gave up her commitment to reading and writing. In 1943 she began her “factography”. It is a highly meticulous and detailed account of the events in her everyday life, scrupulously penned down in accordance to several self-established rules. This work was continued over the next 57 years until her death in 2000.

Janina Turek lived with her family on Słoneczna Street (today's Bolesław Prus Street). She married Czesław Turek in November 1941 in Norbertanek's Monastery, Salwator, and they moved to an apartment on Moniuszki street.

The idea for keeping such a detailed account of everyday life developed gradually. Beginning in 1939, Janina Turek wrote an account of her life entitled "Notebook, rather Diary" (in Polish it is "pamiętnik, raczej dziennik". 'pamiętnik' means a notebook for one's memories whereas 'dziennik' refers to a daily log of events.).

In 1939, Turek wrote about her concerns regarding an inability to register on paper all she wanted to memorize and preserve. Four years later she began working on her magnum opus.

Janina Turek, (21 November 1921 - 12 November 2000) was the author of one of the longest life accounts, also known as factologies.