16 December 2018 – 15 September 2019
The Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture in Królikarnia, division of the National Museum in Warsaw
Magazine accompanying the exhibition
The exhibition focuses on a subject which has been stirring up emotions since as far back as the beginnings of organised societies. Monuments have been present in the European culture ever since Greek and Roman antiquity – single and group figurative forms such as statues, busts, or equestrian sculptures on the one hand and, on the other, architectural commemorative objects in the form of arches, obelisks, or gates.
Ever since the Renaissance, monuments have filled the squares and the lavish main city streets. They faithfully served the 17th century absolute monarchs, the 19 century nationalist ideology or the 20th century totalitarian systems. Torn down by revolutions, erected by emperors and victorious armies, they still commemorate, symbolise and dominate in the public space. In contemporary times, they represent the ever changing views of democratic societies. As time goes by, they not only become the background of city life but also objects of different grassroot actions. They even get local nicknames at times (as the “Gallows” in Olsztyn – the monument to the Liberation of the Warmia-Mazury Land, or the Warsaw monument commemorating the Brotherhood in Arms known as “The Sleeping Four”). Monuments can even be objects of anarchist resistance of the local communities as we know from the attempted blowing up of the statue of Lenin in Nowa Huta in 1979 or from the incident of the monument of the Red Army in Sofia being shot at with colour-dye bullets and then repainted.
Due to the complicated political events in the recent century in Central and Eastern Europe, processes of erecting, remodelling, and removing monuments have been taking place at an ominously accelerated pace. Treated as tools for forming a collective identity of newly independent states, monuments were in growing demand at the end of World War I and at the beginning of the new political division of Europe. A similar process again took place after World War II, when the region fell under the control of the USSR. The fate of the monuments which are associated with the former Soviet domination is a subject of much controversy today: some are torn down, moved to commemoration parks, or recycled into objects of a different purpose or meaning. The exhibits at the presentation will include, for example, a piece of a statue of the Polish Mother moved here from the town of Sejny. The monument was taken down as a result of the “decommunization law” of 1 April 2016, amended on 14 December 2017. In the years 1970 – 1982, the statue was known as a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Polish People’s Republic. Public consultations in Sejny are planned to take place at the time of the monument’s presentation at the exhibition – the local community and the town’s authorities are to decide whether it is to come back to the public space, and if so – under what name.
The exhibition at Królikarnia tells the story of monuments which are important for artistic, historical or social reasons, and which were erected in Poland or other countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the years 1918-2018. The presentation will also include those which, despite their undoubtful artistic quality, are criticised for having been made to commemorate specific political developments and powers. This is what happened, for example, to the so called spomeniks (a term borrowed from Serbian and Croat) which for years had been left in oblivion and only recently recalled and again admired for their incredible modernist form. These include Vojan Bakic’s works in Croatia or the Władysław Hasior’s monument to the Victims of Internal Struggle after World War II (otherwise known as The Organs). There has also been a rather hot discussion taking place about the monument of the Insurgence by Xawery Dunikowski on the Mount of St Anne.
By juxtaposing the examples from the different countries we would like to investigate whether the perspective of the relative community of experiences of Poland and other post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe has resulted in similar forms, logic and histories shared by the monuments of this region – whether there is a specificity of local commemorative activities unique to the entire region.
Plan of the exhibition:
CONDITIONS ADAPTATION SHAPE UNVEILING USE DECAY
Curatorial team under the leadership of Agnieszka Tarasiuk:
Hubert Czerepok, Ania Miczko
Academic council:
prof. ASP dr hab. Waldemar Baraniewski
dr hab. Irena Grzesiuk- Olszewska
Piotr Nowicki
dr Krzysztof Pijarski
Participation in research:
Klara Czerniewska-Andryszczyk, Zuzanna Derlacz, dr Mischa Gabowitsch, Alicja Gzowska, dr Iryna Laurouskaya, prof. Paweł Machcewicz, Marek Matyjanka, prof. Hana Pichova, dr Piotr Przybyła, Michał Siarek, dr Magda Szcześniak, Joanna Torchała, Anna Wandzel, Sylwia Zaremba, Ewa Ziembińska
PUBLIC PROGRAMME
A series of guided walks: Following the Warsaw Monuments
September – November 2018
A series of walks presenting different aspects and histories of Warsaw monuments. The routes lead along the traces of historical and contemporary monuments, in the company of a professional tour guide and an expert in Warsaw, Hanna Dzielińska.
Dates: 1, 8, 12, 16 September; 6, 13, 20, 27 October; 10, 17 November
Information about the routes and the meeting sites is available on www.krolikarnia.mnw.art.pl
Website www.pomnik.art
The exhibition is supplemented by a website dedicated to monuments in Central and Eastern Europe, which includes descriptions and histories of the presented monuments, interviews with their authors, information about the organised discussions and news about monuments in Poland and in the region.
International conference
The research component of the project is a conferences planned for March 2019 with the participation of artists, researchers and historians about the subject of commemoration in Central and Eastern Europe.
TEAM
Exhibition design
Elżbieta Młynarczyk, Hubert Czerepok
Graphic design
Full Metal Jacket: Jerzy Gruchot, Wojciech Koss
Production
Ewa Kozik
Zofia Jakubowicz-Prokop
Promotion
Antoni Burzyński
Editors
Hermina Heintze, Aleksandra Kardaczyńska, Anna Wandzel, Charlie Smith
Translators
Ewa Kanigowska-Giedroyć
Anna Wandzel
Museum of Sculpture Team
Mariusz Grzelak
Monika Janicka
Barbara Kaliciuk
Małgorzata Kowalczuk
Anna Maciąga
Andrzej Urbaniak
PARTNERS
Presented objects and documents come from collections of following institutions:
Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Muzeum Architektury we Wrocławiu, Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiu, Muzeum Tatrzańskie w Zakopanem, Muzeum Warszawy, Muzeum Historii Polski, Muzeum Zamoyskich w Kozłówce, Muzeum Auschwitz, Miasto Sejny, Archiwum Akt Nowych w Warszawie, Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, Archiwum Dokumentacji Naukowej i Technicznej, Archiwum Państwowe w Gdańsku, Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach, Archiwum Państwowe w Opolu, Archiwum Państwowe w Suwałkach, Archiwum Państwowe w Warszawie, Białoruskie Archiwum Dokumentacji Naukowej i Technicznej, Instytut Sztuki PAN, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Biblioteka Główna Politechniki Warszawskiej, Stowarzyszenie Autorów ZAiKS, Bundesarchiv, Czeskie Archiwum Narodowe w Pradze, Czeska Agencja Prasowa CTK, oraz Muzeum Rzeźby im. Xawerego Dunikowskiego w Królikarni, Oddział Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie.
