The Germans Did Not Come
–
Exhibition, Archive
Vernissage: 19.12.14 (Friday), 6:00 PM, Level III - IV, free admission
Due to its complex past, Wrocław is a palimpsest of overlapping narratives and concealed facts.
The title of the exhibition at Wrocław Contemporary Museum makes a perverse reference to a widespread fear that accompanied the inhabitants of Wrocław (even many years after the war) that the Germans would return, which would lead to a loss of property, living space and consequently – another resettlement. It also draws directly on a work titled The Germans Have Come, from the Disassembly series, created by Jerzy Kosałka, a well-known artist from Wrocław. This ironic work shows tiny German soldiers dismantling the Spire – a gigantic 106-metre-tall propaganda monument that was supposed to illustrate the success of the socialist authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland in re-Polonising the ‘ancient Polish territories’ in western Poland.
The exhibition will focus on issues such as emptiness, erasing, memory, presence/absence; it will invite the viewer to look at the city from a different perspective. Apart from suggesting new tropes, it will prompt the visitors to look for and interpret traces of the past, most of which we pass by without noticing them.
Curator Michał Bieniek
Published on:5.12.14
Share: Facebook, Twitter