“DICHOTOMY – Axis Mundi”
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SAXON AXIS
I am connected to the historic Saxon Axis that cuts across the center of Warsaw (Mirów – the Barracks, the Mirów Halls). The previous generation of my family lived at 40 Freta Street, in the New Town Market Square. My grandfather fought in the Battle of Warsaw in 1920, my mother was a Girl Scout in the 19th Praga Troop (named after Emilia Plater) and served as a medic and liaison in the “Grey Ranks” during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. After the fall of the Uprising, the Germans razed more than 85% of Warsaw to the ground (Hiroshima and Nagasaki were only 79% ruins). My childhood playground was the ruins of 19th-century Warsaw. In the 1950s, the Stalinist infrastructure of the Mirów housing estates – comprising residential buildings, nurseries, and clinics – was erected on its ruins. My parents moved into a small apartment at 24 Elektoralna Street, near St. Borromeo’s Church – marking the end of the Saxon Axis.
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“DICHOTOMY – Axis Mundi” – graphic 2019.
In 2019, the Museum of Printing (the branch of the Museum of Warsaw) invited me to participate in a poster competition titled “Transformations 1989 – Opening Up to the World”. I titled my artwork “Dichotomy – Axis Mundi”. The competition was originally organized by the Museum of Printing, but the Museum of Warsaw subsequently decided to modify its format and target audience -changes were made…
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DICHOTOMY (Gk. “dichotomos” – cut into two parts) – a twofold division; a division into two parts that are mutually exclusive and complementary to the whole (Wikipedia). My graphic work is a composition based on the “1989 Transformation” divide – Stalinist architecture continued by the Warsaw Manhattan. The Stalinist axis transforms into the Corporate axis. These are cultural imprints.
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THE STALINIST AXIS still incorporated elements of Polish architecture. I have arranged the following in sequence:
Palace of Culture and Science – the second-tallest building in Poland by total height. The Palace was a “gift from the Soviet people to the Polish people.” It was built between 1952 and 1955 based on the design of Soviet architect Lev Rudnev, who drew inspiration from Moscow’s skyscrapers (the Seven Sisters) – structures modeled on American Art Deco skyscrapers. The architect Lev Rudnev wanted the skyscraper to reflect a Polish style.
He visited several cities – including Kraków, Chełmno, and Zamość – to gather the necessary information and familiarize himself with Polish architecture. Subsequently, he and his team created five designs. Architecturally, it is a blend of Socialist Realism and historicism. Two obelisks placed at its front mark out an axis leading to the Vistula – to the 10th Anniversary Stadium. I have positioned the Palace of the Soviets (Moscow – Joseph Stalin’s unrealized dream…) here. In 2004, US Ambassador Victor H. Ashe proposed to the people of Warsaw that a miniature of the Statue of Liberty be placed here on the Vistula…
A Stalin-era building in the MDM style at 24 Elektoralna Street.
The Marszałkowska Residential District (MDM) – a large Socialist Realist housing complex in Warsaw’s city center, built between 1950 and 1952 based on a design by, and under the direction of, Józef Sigalin and Stanisław Jankowski. Socialist realism, the prevailing architectural style from 1949 onwards, demanded a monumental scale for buildings and lavish ornamentation. Wide arcades and retail units were designed for the ground floors of the buildings. Dozens of sculptures and bas-reliefs depicting members of the leading working class were installed (created by Karol Tchorek, Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz, T. Breyer, S. Momot, T. Łodziana, and J. Gazy). The walls were clad in sandstone and polished granite slabs. The buildings were topped with massive cornices and attics.
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WARSAW’S MANHATTAN
At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries – a period of “Transformations 1989’” – the Mirów district earned the nickname “Warsaw’s Manhattan”. In the graphic, I included the “Sailing ship” – the tower designed by Daniel Libeskind (born 1946 in Łódź; an American contemporary architect of Polish-Jewish descent, a representative of modernism, postmodernism, and neomodernism, as well as an architectural theorist and set designer). The Institute of National Remembrance building has been removed from the extension of the Saxon Axis. The construction of a row of corporate towers has begun: 40 + 24 + the Axis, which is still being filled in. The process of “opening up to the world” – stripping the city of its identity – is underway; even the names are no longer Polish.
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AXIS MUNDI
I made reference to Tadeusz Konwicki. (Tadeusz Konwicki [1926–2015] was one of the most distinguished Polish writers and film directors of the 20th century, born in Nowa Wilejka in the Vilnius region. A soldier in the independence underground, a screenwriter, and a literary director, throughout his creative life he grappled with his wartime experiences and the fate of a generation coming of age in the shadow of historical catastrophes. His novels “A Chronicle of Amorous Accidents” and “A Minor Apocalypse” have secured a permanent place in the canon of the most important works of contemporary Polish literature (University of Humanities and Economics in Łódź). He lived on Górskiego Street = PKIN axis. Together with Maria Konwicka I graduated from the State High School of Fine Arts located at The Chevau-léger School Royal Łazienki.
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MY APOCALYPSE
First, the rubble of a physically shattered Warsaw – my childhood playground. Then the stones – hewn Stalinist sandstone blocks that spoke to me day and night. Every day, the Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science greeted me from my window. At the turn of the millennium, the stones sent me to their cousins – welcoming me in Moscow, Chicago, and New York… They brought me face-to-face with the “Wailing Wall” (the Roman Wall). Today, the process of constructing a CORPORATE UNITY – devoid of individuality, mirror-like cubes – is being finalized. The glass facades of this touted civilization reflect images rather than truth. They propel our young generation into the dimension of the MULTIVERSE – while simultaneously utilizing the METAVERSE.
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Hanna Haska
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