It Happened. Make of It What You Will - Paperback

by Joanna Potepa (Author)

It Happened. Make of It What You Will begins with a woman, a silver Mazda and a journey around the Iberian Peninsula. But it quickly stops being a simple road story.

In these pages, a white peacock crosses a country road, passengers refuse to cooperate at a toll gate, a flamenco dancer seems to set the floor on fire, a dinner arrives under a glass cloud of smoke, a raft built from logs claims the Pacific, a castle wakes the desire to draw again, a night in the Basque hills turns every breath into a negotiation, and a man stops breathing exactly at four in the morning.

Joanna Potepa, a Polish visual artist, writes in still frames: short, precise, open scenes where ordinary life changes angle without asking permission. Her gaze does not chase morals or neat explanations. It observes roads, rooms, animals, objects, losses, accidents and absurdities with the attention of someone who knows a life can transform in silence.

Moving between Spain, the United Kingdom and Poland, this book draws an intimate map of motion, memory and attention.

It is not a conventional novel. It is not a travel diary. It is not a tidy memoir.

It is what happened. Make of it what you will.