ASP WAW'44 - Students and lecturers of the Academy of Fine Arts in the Warsaw Uprising

Über die Veranstaltung

We invite you to the exhibition ASP WAW'44 - Students and lecturers of the Academy of Fine Arts in the Warsaw Uprising. 📅 Exhibition open: August 1 - October 2, 2024 (during courtyard opening hours). 📍 Location: courtyard of the Academy of Fine Arts building, Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie 39, Warsaw Creating an exhibition dedicated to students and lecturers who participated in the Warsaw Uprising was a process of uncovering layers of memory. The discovered micro-worlds surprised with their richness of threads. They could not be compared in any way, as the traumatic experiences of war and the uprising affected the fate and actions of each creator differently. Touching their lives through documents, photographs, and artistic works, one can easily sense the deep rupture separating materials from their carefree student days and outdoor activities from descriptions of combat actions of the units they joined during the uprising, as well as their later creative work. The time of extreme experiences, which they faced exposed as humans but also as artists, forced them to completely redefine their creative actions. Not only in the wartime reality but also in the post-war period, which posed another challenge. For those who survived, the Warsaw Uprising became not only a motif directly or indirectly drawn upon in their work. It also created a new spectrum of their artistic sensitivity. For many, it became a stigma, as in the post-war years they had to hide their past, erase their underground struggle from their biographies. Only time restored the memory and glory they deserved. Only through the selection of figures presented in the exhibition could the diversity of artists' actions during this pivotal moment in the city's history be shown. The heroes of this exhibition not only fought with weapons in hand but also documented the struggle on photographic film, saved monuments, created propaganda artworks, and worked at various levels of underground structures. Each of the presented figures is a story – extraordinary, colorful like the photos of the destroyed Old Town by Ewa Faryaszewska. These are the only preserved color frames from the Warsaw Uprising. A film about the young artist who perished is nearing completion. The fates of others, such as Wincenty Gawron, are also almost ready material for film production. The artist insurgents remain with us in the monuments they saved, the testimonies of their experiences, the monuments, buildings, and works created during the reconstruction. Fighting, dying, raising Warsaw from ruins, and creating in the post-war period, they became part of the city's fabric, a continuously living and changing matter, forever remaining its part. They stayed, they did not leave. They are still present here. 👩‍🎨 Curator: Katarzyna Błesznowska-Korniłowicz 🤝 Collaboration: team from the Archives of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw – Tomasz Weresa and Mateusz Senczyno 🎗️ Patronage: Social Committee "Proud of the Insurgents" for the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising @BohaterON 🎨 Project: OKIOKI Studio Materials for the exhibition provided by: - Warsaw Uprising Museum - Museum of Warsaw - Mazovian Provincial Monument Conservator - Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum - Museum of the City of Gdynia - Maciej Potrawiak - Family of Jan Chrzan