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Material errata: Warsaw neons and socialist modernity

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13602361003588218

1466-4410

Ella Chmielewska,

Polish Historical and Cultural Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project (Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1989), p. 359 (the emphasis is mine). Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, trs, Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin (Cambridge, Mass. and London, Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 462 (the emphasis is mine). All photographs in this essay were taken by the Author. I am indebted to Sebastian Schmidt-Tomczak for his insightful reflection on this photograph: Edinburgh-Düsseldorf, October, 2009. Andreas Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 2003). Designed by Sten Samuelson, the Swedish architect of the hotel Forum (now, Novotel), Warsaw's first multi-storey car park (9 storeys, 700 parking spaces) opened in 1974 as part of the modernisation of the city centre. Without fail, discussions of preservation and historical ‘worth’ erupt when the inevitability of destruction becomes apparent. They take the forms of eulogies, Warsaw's farewells, art projects and exhibitions. For the Supersam see: Marcin Krasny, ‘Nostalgia za Supersamem’, Obieg (20th January, 2007), http://www.obieg.pl/recenzje/682 (accessed 07.12.09); Paweł Giergoń, ‘Supersam w Warszawie’ (20th February, 2006), http://www.sztuka.net/palio/html.run?_Instance= www.sztuka.net.pl&_PageID=445&newsId=5080&_CheckSum=1916862984 (accessed 07.12.09). For The 10th Anniversary Stadium, see Anna Maćkowiak, ‘Stadion X. Miejsce, którego nie było’, Obieg (20th February, 2009), http://www.obieg.pl/książki/8210 (accessed 10.12.09); ‘Stadium X at the Building in Berlin, Live Art Projects in the Communist Ruin, A Reader in its Various Contexts’, Laura Palmer Foundation, http://www.laura-palmer.pl/en/projects/32/stadium-x-at-the-building-in-berlin/ (accessed 07.12.09). Also see Architektoniczne punkty odniesienia — Honorowa Nagroda SARP 1966 – 2006 / Architectural Points of Reference. SARP Honour Prize 1966–2006 (Warsaw, SARP, 2007), http://warszawa.sarp.org.pl/pokaz.php?id=2833 (accessed 07.12.09). Ilona Karwińska, Warszawa. Polski Neon/Polish Neon, with an introduction by David Crowley (Warsaw, Gazeta Wyborcza, 2007), p. 114. Fredric Jameson, ‘History Lessons’, in, Neil Leach, ed., Architecture and Revolution: Contemporary Perspectives on Central and Eastern Europe (London and New York, Routledge, 1995), p. 80. Disneyland at Anaheim, California, USA, was opened in July, 1955, just a few days before the opening of the Palace of Culture: most of the rebuilding of Warsaw's Old Town was completed by 1953. Ibid., p. 72. Ibid., p. 73. Ibid., p. 80. Janet Ward, Weimar Surfaces: Urban Visual Culture in 1920s Germany (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2001), p. 10. Ibid.; also see Scott McQuire, ‘Immaterial Architecture: Urban Space and Electric Light’, Space and Culture, vol.8, no.2 (May, 2005), pp.126–140; p. 130. Jacques Rancière, ‘The Surface of Design’, in, The Future of the Image, trsl., Gregory Elliott (London and New York, Verso, 2009), pp. 91–107; p. 91. Scott McQuire, ‘Immaterial Architecture’, op. cit., p.132. The entrance to the cinema Pan established in 1923 was located at 40, Nowy Świat. See Wiktor Ostrowski, ‘“Pan” na Nowym Świecie…’, Warszawa na starej fotografii, 109 (212), in Stolica (The Capitol), 48 (624) (10th December, 1959): back cover. J. Rancière, op. cit., p. 92. Jerzy Hryniewiecki, ‘Kształt przyszłości’ (‘The shape of the future’), Projekt, no.1 (1956), pp. 5–9. Stanisław Jankowski, ‘Urbanistyczne wnioski z Festiwalu’ (‘Post-festival urban reflections’), Miasto (The City), 61, no. 11 (1955), pp. 26–29. ‘Więcej światła!’ (‘More Light!’), Stolica, 42, 503 (19th October, 1958), p. 7; ‘Chcemy miasta europejskiego!’ (‘We want a European City!’), Stolica, 45, 506 (18th November, 1958), p. 15. ‘Chcemy miasta współczesnego!’ (‘We want a modern city!’), Stolica, 47, 508 (23rd November, 1958), p. 10. Also see Ella Chmielewska, ‘Fiat Lux! Cold War Neons, modernity and the metropolis’, in, Igor Dukhan, ed., Avant-Garde and Cultures: Art, Design and Cultural Environment (Minsk, Bielarus, UNESCO/Kulturmomente, The Centre for Visual Arts and Media, Belarusian State University, 2007), pp. 139–146. Henryk Sufryd, ‘Zagadnienia sztucznego oświetlenia architektury’ (‘Problems of artificial light in architecture’), Miasto, 55, no. 9 (1959), pp.12–15; p. 13. Ella Chmielewska, ‘Sites of Display: The iconosphere of Warsaw, 1955 to the present day’, in, Peter Martyn, ed., The City in Art (Warsaw, Institute of Art PAN, 2008), pp.127–143, figs 1–51; pp.135–136. Stanisław Soszyński, Chief Designer of the City of Warsaw, 1972–1991 (interviews, May, 2003). See also: Archives of the City of Warsaw, Neonizacja, 1969–1972, document AB.UA-647-71. Ella Chmielewska, ‘Nie tylko kolorowe zawijasy’ (‘Not only colourful flourishes’), Stolica, 12, 2189 (November-December, 2007), pp. 23–26. See Ella Chmielewska, ‘Sites of Display’, op. cit., pp. 131, 134–135. The unique Polish character of the neons was highlighted in the exhibitions of Karwińska's photographs: ‘Polish Neon’, at the Capital Culture Gallery in London, 23rd May–30th June, 2007, http://www.capitalculture.eu/artists/13.html (accessed 10.12.09), and in the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, 9th to 27th November, 2007. See Agnieszka Kowalska, ‘Polskie neony z Londynu’ (2nd November, 2007) http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,95158,4636433.html (accessed 10.12.09). Frequent references to the Polish character of the neons have been made in the media. See, for example, Agnieszka Rasmus-Zgorzelska, ‘Polska szkoła neonu błyszczy (‘Polish Neon School shines’) Dziennik.Pl (the daily, Dziennik Polski), http://dziennik.pl/kultura/article291281/Polska_szkola_neonu_blyszczy.html (accessed 10.22.09). Tom Wolfe, ‘Electro-Graphic Architecture’, Architecture Canada, 10 (1968), pp. 42–47; Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown, ‘ On Ducks and Decoration’, Architecture Canada, 10 (1968), p. 48; Jan Wojeński, Szyldy i reklamy sklepowe (‘Signboards and shop advertising’) (Warsaw, WARTA, Wydawnictwo Kultura Życia Codziennego, 1968). Jan Wojeński, Szyldy i reklamy sklepowe, op. cit., p. 115. A comparable English-language reference is Rudi Stern, Let There Be Neon (New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1979). See also, Rudi Stern, The New Let There be Neon (Cincinatti, Ohio, ST Media Group International Inc., 1996). Mieczysław Porębski, Ikonosfera (Warsaw, PIW, 1972). For a discussion of the concept, see Ella Chmielewska, ‘Sites of Display’, op. cit., pp. 127–128. Like many Warsaw architects practising in the post-war years, Zygmunt Stępiński worked in the modernist idiom in the inter-war period. See Michał Murawski, ‘(A) political buildings: ideology, memory and Warsaw's “Old Town”’, Mirror of Modernity: The Post-War Revolution in Urban Conservation, Joint Conference DOCOMOMO-International and The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1st–2nd May, 2009: docomomo e-proceedings2-dec09, http://www.docomomo.com/e-proceedings2dec09/mirrorofmodernitymurawski.htm (accessed 05.12.09). For the discussion of the pre-war tradition of Warsaw architects working as graphic designers see Andrzej K. Olszewski, ‘Great Margins’, Rassegna, Year XXIII, 65 (1996), pp. 26–37. David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (Cambridge, Mass., Blackwell, 1990), pp. 58–59: cited in Janet Ward, Weimar Surfaces, op. cit., p. 246. Herbert Spencer, cited in Rick Poynor, ‘The Camera as a Pen’, in Typographica (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), p. 71. Ella Chmielewska, ‘Sites of Display’, op. cit., pp. 137–138. See also the 1991 documentation of neons by Małgorzata Gierzymska, ‘W Warszawie — lata 80.’, in, Klara Kopcińska and Józef Żuk-Piwkowski, Ikony Zwycięstwa/ Icons of Victory, special issue of Tytuł Roboczy (012-013), (Warsaw, Galeria 2b, 2006), p.65; Katarzyna Bojarska and Grzegorz Borkowski, ‘Historia w perspektywie refleksji artystycznej, sztuka w kontekście historii’, Obieg (4th July, 2006), http://www.obieg.pl/wydarzenie/4464 (accessed 12.01.10). Skarpa was the fourth of Warsaw's major film theatres demolished since 1989, after Moskwa, Sawa and Praha. At the time of writing, many other cinemas in the city, such as Kino Iluzjon and Luna, had uncertain futures. See Robert Gliński, ‘Wspomnienia: kino premier i uroczystej atmosfery’, in, Ewa Cieniak and Bartosz Nowakowski, Tu było kino. Album o końcu świata małych kin (Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Chrum, 2008), p.56–57. See also: http://www.kinoportal.pl/ (accessed 12.01.10). Andreas Huyssen, ‘Berlin as Palimpsest’, Harvard Design Magazine (Winter-Spring, 2000), p.5. Jerzy S. Majewski, ‘Dawne kino Skarpa już bez neonu’ (‘The old cinema Skarpa without the neon’), Gazeta Stołeczna (23rd January, 2008); http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,34888,4864652.html (accessed 10.12.09). The Society of Polish Architects (SARP) placed the Skarpa cinema on its list of modernist buildings requiring protection; however, this 2003 recommendation has never translated into any legal or regulatory measures ensuring preservation. See ‘http://www.sarp.org.pl/php/obrazki/lista.pdf (accessed 10.12.09). See Jerzy S. Majewski, ‘Ocaleją neony z burzonego kina Skarpa’ (‘Neons from the cinema Skarpa will be saved’), Gazeta Stołeczna (6th December, 2007), http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,34888,4740235.html (accessed 10.22.09). The demolition company, Kruszer, advertises with pride that its equipment and expertise was used on this ‘most modernist cinema of the previous epoch’: http://www.kruszer.pl/galeria/kino_skarpa_w_warszawie (accessed 10.12.09). Scott McQuire, ‘Immaterial Architecture’, op. cit., p.140. Cited on the Muzeum's website, www.artmuseum.pl/index.php?id=108&L=1 (accessed 12.10.09); ‘Neony–świetlne symbole Warszawy’ (‘Neons, Illuminated Symbols of Warsaw’), TVN Warszawa (5th August, 2009); http://www.tvnwarszawa.pl/1613361,neony_swietlne_symbole_warszawy,bawsie.html' (accessed 12.10.09). Cited on the Muzeum's website, www.artmuseum.pl/index.php?id=108&L=1 (accessed 12.10.09). See how central the ‘reconfiguration of public space’ and ‘a large neon sign from a demolished public cinema’ is for the identity of the Muzeum: Sam Thorne, Editor's blog, ‘Dysfunctional Museums’, Frieze: http://www.frieze.com/blog/entry/dysfunctional_museums/ (accessed 20.01.10). Agnieszka Kowalska, ‘Neonowy boom na pawilonie meblowym Emilia’ (‘Neon boom on the pavilion Emilia’), Gazeta Stołeczna (3rd October, 2009), http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,95419,7105884,Neonowy_boom_na_pawilonie_meblowym_Emilia.html (accessed 12.12.09). See Dorota Jarecka, ‘Dyskretny urok estetyki PRL’ (‘Discreet charm of the aesthetics of the PRL’), Gazeta Wyborcza (18th May, 2006), http://wyborcza.pl/1,75475,3355298.html (accessed 10.01.10); Kaja Pawełek, ‘Nokturny nowoczesnego miasta’ (‘Nocturns of the modern city’), Obieg (10th May, 2006), www.obieg.pl/recenzje/4047 (accessed 10.12.09). Piotr Bazylka, ‘Art Base’, Notes, 33 (July, 2007), (Warsaw, Fundacja Be¸c Zmiana-FBZ), pp.30–31. In the story of the ‘Polish neons’, Warsaw's art scene privileges the artefact and the art project. Focused on specific artistic interventions, art institutions and the mainstream media have neglected to notice projects investigating the neon within its broader context of the iconosphere of the socialist city, such as: Magdalena Bajbor, ‘Dawne neony Warszawy: Fotografie reporterów tygodnika Świat.’, National Museum of Warsaw, exhibition 16th -22nd June, 2005; Danuta Książkiewicz-Bartkowiak and Magdalena Mrugalska-Banaszak, Ortaliony, neony, syfony (Poznań, Wydawnictwo Miejskie, 2006); Błażej Brzostek, Za progiem. Codzienność w przestrzeni publicznej Warszawy lat 1955–1970 (Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Trio, 2007); Małgorzata Gierzymska, ‘W Warszawie – lata 80’, op. cit.; Ella Chmielewska, Cold War Neons & Socialist Metropolis, The Lighthouse Gallery, Glasgow (8th August to 18th October, 2009): see Sebastian Schmidt-Tomczak, ‘Neon Lights. Review of ”Cold war Neons”, the final show at Glasgow's Lighthouse’, Eye blog (27th September, 2009) http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=307 (accessed 10.12.09). Also, as elements of the existing ‘street interior’, neons seem to be of a lesser interest, even if they were celebrated earlier as art projects. See Tomasz Urzykowski, ‘Neon siatkarki z popsutymi piłkami’ (‘Broken balls on the Voleyball neon’), Gazeta Stołeczna (28thJanuary, 2009), http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,95080,6212658, Neon_siatkarki_z_popsutymi_pilkami.html (accessed 10.12.09). See Anna Brzezińska and Natalia Bet, ‘Stare neony przegrywają z nowoczesnością’ (‘Old neons are losing out to modernity’), Życie Warszawy.Pl. (29th November, 2009), http://www.zyciewarszawy.pl/artykul/1,424628_Stare_neony_przegrywaja_z_nowoczesnoscia.html (accessed 30.11.09). See Ella Chmielewska, ‘Sites of Display’, op. cit., p.138–139. The idea of the museum of neons has since been endorsed by Warsaw's Museum of Modern Art, first as a ‘neon street’ beside its temporary quarters in Pańska Street, and more recently as a collection in the new building in Plac Defilad. See ‘Neony–świetlne symbole Warszawy’ (‘Neons, Illuminated Symbols of Warsaw’), TVN Warszawa, op. cit. See Scott McQuire, ‘Immaterial Architecture’, op. cit., p. 134. Boris Groys, ‘Art in the Age of Biopolitics: From Artwork to Art Documentation’, in Art Power (Cambridge and London, The MIT Press, 2008), p. 64. See the review of the Muzeum's exhibition ‘Sztuka cenniejsza niż złoto' (‘Art Before Gold’), Adam Mazur, ‘Sztuka cenniejsza niż budynek’ (‘Art Before Building’), Obieg (13th January, 2009). Mazur notes the sign's position as a non-object, outside of the exhibition proper: http://www.obieg.pl/recenzje/6409 (accessed 12.10.10). Waldemar Baraniewski, lecture at the opening of the Muzeum's exhibition ‘Art before Gold’, 13th January, 2009, Author's translation; http://www.artmuseum.pl/video.php?id=wykladProf_Waldemara_Baraniewskiego (accessed 10.01.10). Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, in, Hanna Arendt, ed., Harvey Zorn, trsl., Illumination (London, Random House, 1999), pp. 211–235; 216. Steven Connor, ‘Wherever: The Ecstasies of Michel Serres’, http://www.stevenconnor.com/wherever.pdf p.13 (accessed 10.12.09).